ok so I’ve just got in from the cinematic pictographer exhibition house and as you may of guessed went to see the latest instalment of Wes Craven’s Scream franchise and let me tell you right now…….what a return to form this movie is.
Let me make it clear right now I am neither a fan of the horror genre as a whole or am I an expert when it comes to Craven. I know who he is and what he’s done for cinema and for horror as a genre but as a rule I’m just not a massive fan, but I’d like to make it clear I don’t dislike Craven I actually think he is very clever when it comes to the genre he helped to shape and respect him as a producer and director but Scream 4 was a guilty pleasure to say the least.
The film is set as far as I can tell several years after the events of the previous trilogy and Woodboro is still living with all the previous events from the films gone by and has spawned several “Stab” films based on the events of the Scream films with the latest being “Stab 7”.
Sidney (Neve Campbell) is now a book author having overcome her ordeal by writing about her story, whilst Gail (Courtney Cox) is now in a rut living in a small town with her (now promoted) Sheriff husband Dewey struggling to think of anything to write about after the success of her previous book which the Stab films originate.
The rest of the characters comprise of Sidney’s cousin her two BFF’s her ex-boyfriend and a couple of film geeks who after Sidney’s return to the small town all find themselves right back in the thick of the creepy phone calls and stabbing spree’s. Queue the horror, kills, comedy and red herrings.
I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot as I’d much rather people just see the film than me try and explain things without ruining any of the film so I’ll steer away from plot info but talk about why I liked Scre4m.
What I find so fun about Scream 4 is that Craven isn’t just using “Stab” as a plot narrative but its a way to remind us, the audiences were watching a horror film. It’s a little fourth wall breaking at first especially in the opening scene I felt I was going to get very tired very quickly of all the film within a film within a film stick but I actually think its what Scr4m carries off the best and is the reason I enjoyed it.
Craven uses everything he and we know about horror and uses it to trick us, double bluff us, make us laugh and triple bluff us as the film unfolds. The fact that Stab has reached seven movies and in the clip of Stab we see the characters even point out the absurdity of sequel after sequel being old and dull helps you get on board with Scre4m because right off the bat you know not to take anything too serious. I also feel Craven is happy to acknowledge that maybe horror as a whole is a bit stale and is open to the formula of grinding out film after film but so long as you take it all with a pinch of salt it’s ok so long as you enjoy it. He also likes to cliché the clichés with lines like “I’ll be right back” to lead to that character actually coming back. There is even a scene where two cops are making fun of each other and talking about how bad it is to be a cop in a movie and not to say things like “be safe” and “I’m a week away from retirement” are such sure fire indicators of imminent death it truly is comical, but it doesn’t matter because we’re all in on the joke thanks to Craven not taking himself so seriously, he even has no qualms poking fun at reboots (see earlier blog post) as in many ways that’s what Scre4m is to the point that the film reusing several of the original’s set pieces to great effect.
Ultimately Scre4m feels like Craven is not only happy to admit the absurdity of the genre he has been a massive part of for decades but also content with encouraging the absurd so long as we know just how absurd it is and that’s just fine with me; lets just hope Craven starts rubbing off on some of the other big boys in the horror genre.
Also he gets a Shaun of the Dead cameo in there so its a winner in my book.
Until next time
See You SpaceCowboys………….
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