Scream 4!!!!! - Part 4

[The Joker]

I also generally like the attitude that some of the characters are in after 11 years away. Especially Sidney and Gale. Sidney's healed, she spends no time being super emotional. Her first line to Ghostface's are VERY aggressive. ''Why don't you come after me? You got the balls for that?"

That was always our Sid though, mate. She's always been very gutsy on the phone to Ghostface. Remember her first convo to Ghostface in Scream 2; "Why don't you show your face you f**king coward".

Great rankings and analysis of the movies overall.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Yes, but amongst the guts? She cried, she was upset, she was very much a normal final girl, she just had balls during her encounters.

Here? No tears? No upsetness? She hops right into the game. No fear. Just straight up kick-ass Sidney from first seeing Ghostface to the finale.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

That was always our Sid though, mate. She's always been very gutsy on the phone to Ghostface. Remember her first convo to Ghostface in Scream 2; "Why don't you show your face you f**king coward".

I think she seemed a bit more matured in Scream 4. I think it's because of her past that she felt matured. She's been through this, she knows what it's like.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

She's shaken only briefly when she sees Olivia's guts, but when the phone ring, she knows who it is, and what they want. That ''WHAT?" says ALOT about Sidney's mental state in this one.

 

[The Joker]

Yes, but amongst the guts? She cried, she was upset, she was very much a normal final girl, she just had balls during her encounters.

Here? No tears? No upsetness? She hops right into the game. No fear. Just straight up kick-ass Sidney from first seeing Ghostface to the finale.

Mmmm that's a fair statement. Though she does get upset when Ghostface says he's coming after her family. But then who wouldn't?

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

She's shaken only briefly when she sees Olivia's guts, but when the phone ring, she knows who it is, and what they want. That ''WHAT?" says ALOT about Sidney's mental state in this one.

Exactly. Is it me, or did she seem reserved in this one? I actually really like that about Sidney in this one. It's obvious Sidney has grown over time and she's still battling those memories inside herself.

Spoiler

I loved how she tackled Ghostface in their first encounter in this movie. No fear.

 

[The Joker]

That high kick to the face she gives him in Olivia's house was brilliant lol.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

^^ yeah, lol. She kicked his ass.

 

[Tex]

Has anyone mentioned how Dewey didn't have his limp or holding his arm weird? Or did I forget something were he was fine now?

 

[DACrowe]

I don't know if Gale dying really would've done that much for the movie. Sure it would've indicated that Sidney and Dewey were fair game, but then it might have also unintentionally told us that "we already did something risky killed one of the three, so Sidney and Dewey are going to fine."

I don't really mind that none of the three died. It goes along with the theme of the movie that you can't keep the originals down.

Indeed. In Scream 2 they had the balls to kill the fan favorite character, Randy. I'm still irked about that. I heard that Craven and Williamson even got death threats over it (talk about delusional fans taking things too far) hence the scene in Scream 3 where characters think the killer might be a disgruntled fanboy upset that Randy died in Stab 2.

In Scream 3 they killed Cotton off. He wasn't one of the biggest characters, but he was in the first movie and saved the day in the second one.

So in theory, to keep that kind of ballsiness, they should have killed off one of the major three. But the trick about the ending is that all the new characters set to take over a "reboot" or a "passing of the torch" are corpse-ified while all three of the originals live. It does tie into that whole "Don't **** with the original" motif.

Plus, I admit when I saw it in theaters the entire audience gasped when Sidney died. After Jill said, "You knew this day was coming" and we spent minutes on her self-maiming while Sidney lay there, I did kind of believe she was dead and Dewy would bring Jill down. If Gale had been killed off I don't know if I would have fallen for that trick....then again, if they killed off one, it would be easy to believe they killed off another. But if they kept with the "kill off a character from the first movie" trick of the other two sequels, by the time Scream 6 would have rolled around there would only be one left.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I do agree.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Has anyone mentioned how Dewey didn't have his limp or holding his arm weird? Or did I forget something were he was fine now?

I think it may have healed over time.

 

[DACrowe]

Scream 4: 8.5/10 - There are just some things about this one I like so much better than Scream 2. Jill's a better killer than Mickey definitely, Mickey felt like psycho Randy and that just still feels sort of lazy even to this day, even though I loved Ms. Loomis. I'd say Ms. Loomis and Jill rank right up there side by side for me. It makes me think of Randy's line about their being a such of thing as ''terrific female serial killers." I also generally like the attitude that some of the characters are in after 11 years away. Especially Sidney and Gale. Sidney's healed, she spends no time being super emotional. Her first line to Ghostface's are VERY aggressive. ''Why don't you come after me? You got the balls for that?"

While I wouldn't give Scream 4 such a high rating--it didn't have really any scary/suspenseful sequences (police car scene, Randy's death, SMG's phone call) or disturbing moments (Jada Pinkett's agonizing death to a cheering crowd), plus the novelty factor hadn't worn off in Scream 2, yet--but I did like it for most of the reasons you named.

Most especially Sidney's progression. In Scream 4 she is starting to get near Ellen Ripley territory of the first Alien and the first half of Aliens (before she becomes Rambo in the third act). She runs into the house, threatens him on the phone and kicks hiss ass on their first encounter. She then beats Jill at the end with two knife wounds in her stomach and never once in the movie screams or runs in terror. It was nice, because the one thing I liked about Scream 3 was her growth at the end. She comes down from the mountain and out of isolation to face her past. She is no longer a victim. At the end of the movie she isn't scared of Roman, she insults him (I love their "**** you!" screams before they start beating the crap out of each other), beats him and ultimately kills him without any help. His getting back up was just a final nod to the franchise and letting Dewy put him down.

Scream 4 continued that with Sidney no longer being a victim and I liked that.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

To me I like the story of 4 more than 2. Maybe it's cause I'm tired of the remakes and just generally like the remake slamming of 4, more than the sequel slamming of Scream 2. Though I will agree. I wasn't scared once in Scream 4, wheres as I did have a few scares in Scream 2.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

^^ There being no HUGE scares in Scream 4 didn't bug me at all. I don't think that was the point of Scream 4, anyway.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

I do think it's just a general rule of horror that the more a horror icon goes on the less scary they become. You just get use to Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, Jason, Ghostface, etc after a while. Because you know how they work or how they operate in their scares I assume. So you know something is coming.

 

[bullets]

Has anyone mentioned how Dewey didn't have his limp or holding his arm weird? Or did I forget something were he was fine now?

He presumably had surgery or some type of physical therapy.

Also the way Sidney handled ghostface with that kick it's evident she's taken a self defense course, IMO.

 

[BH/HHH]

I loved this movie second best of the series in my opinion (just behind the original)

 

[bullets]

. Its not a bad thing that scream 4 has performed the way it has, the genre itself is just in a funk right now where not alot is going on that is interesting, right now scifi is running wild. It all goes through cycles.

Horror is in a weak state right now. All I can think of out there is remakes and PG-13 ghost stories. Sure there is the dtv market but that's hardly something to fuss about. Hopefully something will turn the tide.

 

[SuperSoldier985]

This movie basically waited too long.

A lot of the hype and popularity of this series has dwindled away from all of the Scary Movie and related parodies and the R rating probably did a lot to hurt its BO chances...

 

[Doctor Jones]

As for hints about Jill. It's the same once you watch the movie again. You see the little things she does that makes her reveal make sense.

Not to single you for being critical, I just wanted to say that none of the Scream films ever gave you clues for a motive of who would be the killer. The only one that had clues at all was Billy in the first, but that was because he was written to appear as an obvious red herring (as in the audience thinks it's too obvious to be him) and there was no evidence for Stu at all. None of the sequels ever provided mysteries which is kind of what prevents the Scream films from being genuine mystery stories, because audiences have to judge characters and whereabouts without ever knowing for sure the truth about most of them.

Also, Scream 4 was roughly 10-15 minutes longer than the other 3 Scream movies and I personally would hate to see a Scream movie that ran under 90 minutes. This was the right length and it's fun pace is why it is better than so many of the Saws and other torture porns that barely crack 80 minutes and are full of gratuitous violence. Scream may be long in the tooth, but it is still the best horror franchise film to be released in years, in my opinion.

I loved the ending to the fourth. So refreshing. From the time Jill started framing the dead Trevor and hurting herself it was great to actually see the killer by themself going through with their plan that they never were able to accomplish in the past films. And the hospital was just a great bonus. I liked Emma's performance even more here.

And watching it the second time, you can catch the hints. Now I don't know what they do when they film. I know they don't reveal the ending in the script, so I don't know if they're told down the line, but I always assumed they were told later so it wouldn't affect their performances.

But the hints of Jill are apparant. When Sydney says she reminds Jill of her watch the look of Jill's face. She looks flattered by the look on her face. But she just downplays it. You can tell she ****ing loved being told that. Then when Sydney says she doesn't wish the same thing to happen to Jill look at her face.

Plus the Trevor scene in the hallway at school plays a different way. And Kirby's house about texting Trevor. And the IM she sent to Kirby. It seems so set up in a way.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

She even sets up Kirby to die by telling her that Charlie likes her, etc.

She was a pretty epic mastermind.

 

[Marx]

She's shaken only briefly when she sees Olivia's guts, but when the phone ring, she knows who it is, and what they want. That ''WHAT?" says ALOT about Sidney's mental state in this one.

Exactly. Is it me, or did she seem reserved in this one? I actually really like that about Sidney in this one. It's obvious Sidney has grown over time and she's still battling those memories inside herself.

Spoiler

I loved how she tackled Ghostface in their first encounter in this movie. No fear.

That high kick to the face she gives him in Olivia's house was brilliant lol.

I really liked Sidney in this one. She was a lot like Laurie in Halloween: H20.

 

[DACrowe]

Not a surprise, as Kevin Williamson wrote both Scream 4 and H20. However, Sid's arc from survivor girl (Scream) to damaged victim (Scream 2) to broken/psychologically disturbed hero (Scream 3) to finally heroic badass (end of Scream 3, Scream 4) has felt very natural.

H20 was very forced as there was literally 20 years between Halloween II and that film. Plus Laurie was just so *****y to her son and everyone around her, I'm glad Sidney didn't go that route.

 

[The Joker]

I loved the psychological wreck Laurie was in H20. It made total sense because she was basically living in fear for the last 20 years that Michael could still be alive and looking for her.

She was a sweet, innocent, and meek person in H1 and HII. It was a refreshing and natural change to see her at the other extreme, especially considering what she'd been through. The moment in H20 when she stops running, and grabs an axe and goes looking for Michael, screaming "MICHAEL!!!!" was one of the best moments of the Halloween series.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I do think it's just a general rule of horror that the more a horror icon goes on the less scary they become. You just get use to Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, Jason, Ghostface, etc after a while. Because you know how they work or how they operate in their scares I assume. So you know something is coming.

Very true, but i get the same joy out of seeing the way they do things in every single film. It never gets old, IMO.