Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Review Rating: 6 Screams

Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro on the ten year anniversary of the murders, to find new Rules for a new generation and a whole new series of murders!

There’s something wrong with this whole setup. I adore Wes Craven and his style of movie making, but this Nightmare on Elm Street vibe he has going inside the latest Scream opus is rapidly sliding from funny to stupid. Take the opening scene, wherein we the audience find out that the two pretty girls set to watch a scary movie when the bad guy calls is actually the opening for another Stab movie inside the movie already going, not once but twice. This is three actual turns of “Gotcha!” at the very beginning of the movie. I don’t like where this is going. Dear Mister Craven made a career out of smart, stylish horror movies, and this that isn’t. Moving on.

So Sidney is considerably older, although she still dresses like she did in the first Scream, well whatever. She’s come back to Woodsboro, let me get this straight – on the ten year anniversary of that whole mess, to promote her new survivors book and check on her little cousin, Jill, who looks a lot like her and isn’t thrilled about being attached to such an infamous family. Gail and Dewey married, Gail writes regular stuff now or tries and fails to, and Dewey is the Sheriff, complete with a Deputy who obviously wants him. Annnnd round the midst of the traditional Stab-athon, Ghostface of a new generation starts making an appearance. We can all assume Sidney is the target, what with new Rules for a new generation and all, but Ghostface apparently wants Sid to watch and suffer while others die around her, again, before offing her.

Now, what I see are a lot of kids underage, drinking without their parents or any other kind of supervisor around, and then getting set to watch horror flicks or you know, drive home. Is this actually better than other bad stuff they could be doing? Throughout most of the movie I had a hard time believing that really was Courtney Cox as Gail Weathers, she looks somehow different. We have Hayden Panettiere of Heroes as Kirby, friend of Jill’s and a victim in ways you might not actually expect.

I won’t spoil it and give out who Ghostface is this time, but I will say, even if you’re only barely paying attention, you can guess who it is and even be right in the first 30 minutes of the movie. Seriously. I expected better and frankly, Scream deserved better. It’s not terrible, but it is terribly obvious that this is the fourth movie installment in what is now a franchise, le sigh. Scream 4 gets a rating of 6 screams, although they should probably be groans.