Scream 4 review round-up
A genuine cinema fire incident stopped us seeing Scream 4. But here’s what the US reviewers have been saying about it…
You actually couldn’t make this up. On Tuesday night, off we trotted to catch the UK press screening of Scream 4, as part of our cunning masterplan to bring you the review yesterday. But our cunning masterplan had one mighty flaw in it: at no point did we legislate for the projection room at the cinema catching fire, and thus the screening was cancelled.
Well, blimey.
It was genuine, as well. Some of our Twitter chums have asked if it was just some marvellous publicity stunt, but that’s not the case. Lots of reviewers turned up. Lots of reviewers had to go home.
Never fear, though, friends. In lieu of our own words on Scream 4, we’ve gathered up a collection of views that have popped up over the channel, where there’s been no unfortunate incident with movie projectors and Swan Vestas.
So, here’s what people are saying about Scream 4…
“Updated for 2011 with ad nauseam cellphone app and webcam references – none of which are integrated into the narrative with any savvy – the unengaged and overlong fourth Scream plops its self-awareness on a new generation, who must endure a late-’90s flashback that has aged as well as the Nu metal songbook
“Sure, it’s got its problems, but for the most part it’s a successful sequel (heck, remove “Scream 3″ from the original trilogy and insert this in its place).”
“A scattering of amusing bits and clever twists can’t forestall the terminal self-deconstruction that dominates Scre4m. After an 11-year slumber, Ghostface returns to action, along with the principal creative team and key lead actors, and unsurprisingly goes into overdrive to make up for lost time. But the film very quickly, and tediously, becomes more of the same old and Craven thing-self-referential film buff gags accompanied by a clockwork killing spree that seriously reduces the population of a small town”
“Even though a few moments fell into Scary Movie territory, Scream 4 is a near-brilliant slasher sequel that stabs new life into the Ghostface mythology.”
“The films are so self-aware, so carefully deconstructionist, that there’s no hint of peril or suspense. The place where the film really falls down is when it lays out its big ending, which it doesn’t really earn”
“Scream 4, from the pen of Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, offers up a (small) handful of decent jump scares as well as the occasional gross-out moment.”
The general consensus we’re getting? That Scream 4 is good, solid entertainment, that it’s a logical follow-on to the first Scream movie, and that, while it doesn’t capture the strengths of the first movie, it’s better than the third.
We’ll be heading off to our local fleapit in the morning to watch it ourselves, and will endeavour to bring you a review after that…
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Editor, author, writer, broadcaster, Costner fanatic. Now runs Film Stories Magazine.