Scre4m (2011) ***🎃🔪

 

Working off my May 2011 user comments, I will add extensions in italics to them from how I feel now.

I think as escapist entertainment you could do worse, but credibility (like how can Ghostface, the murderer underneath the disguise, can take several shots to the face, such as when Sidney lands Judo kicks and palm punches sending him/her down flights of steps, can show no signs of bruising or bodily damage when out in the open, not to mention, the ridiculous conclusion when someone can take two stabs to the stomach and survive or another is shocked in the head with a defibrillator machine, somehow getting back up!) is stretched pretty thin. The young cast is rather surprisingly fun, particularly Panettiere who has a lot of spunk and personality(she is provided with a lot of the best lines and is just flat-out sexy). Roberts doesn't really come alive until the end, but I completely disagree with the criticisms directed towards the returning three stars as "going through the motions". I thought Campbell brought her A-game and kicks a lot of ass which had my wife applauding uncontrollably, especially at the end.

I must have read some critiques before posting my own user comments because I took issue with how the returning Campbell, Arquette, and Courtney Cox were considered "going through the motions". I had mentioned in a previous blog post about Campbell in Scream 3 (2000) that I thought she was really good, or at least I thought her treatment as a Crisis Hotline helper was a strong development on the character. Here, she is on a book tour. Gale, trying to write her own book, is struggling. But these two characters never are at odds unlike previous films. They've been through too much together, I think. But when the horror nerds want Sidney in their school club, Gale doesn't take kindly to being treated as an afterthought, considering how big a deal she once was -- watching Scream 2 (1997) again reminded me of how successful she was after surviving the first Scream (1996) -- and how it seems Sidney continues to be "the draw." Even Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) later during her non-stop yapping reveals how Sidney's name drove her to the point of taking up the Ghostface mantle due to how the family couldn't escape the renowned Woodsboro survivor.

I had read lots of feedback about the knife-stabbings, regarding how tame the movie is. Man, I also think this is inaccurate. Ghostface releases the savage when he/she stabs victims; there's even one instance where a victim's entrails are spilling out. There's a cool scene where Kirby and Jill watch as a friend, from another bedroom, is viciously gutted, and they are helpless to stop him/her. That scene has extra potency when Sidney courageously goes into that house, knowing the killer is in there somewhere, to combat him/her.

I do agree that Ghostface (or whoever is under the mask and costume, with the knife, at any given time) keeps a comin' despite the kicks to the face, falls down the stairs, and doors to the face (or slammed into arms reaching in to cut and stab someone). There is a scene where Sidney goes down the stairs with Ghostface. I noticed this go-around that Trevor, an ex to Jill who can't seem to get the point that he is a nuisance who did her wrong, is presented as a possible suspect. Too bad cheating on Jill, a real psycho, isn't the kind of girl who appreciates being dumped. He gets a text to show up at Kirby's...maybe he should have taken a hint.  I enjoyed how Kirby goes out of her way to tell him to hit the bricks, but like a damned wart, Trevor seems to keep resurfacing. I already mentioned some of the violence in my very first Scre4m post from the night of October 15th.

I think the opening is the weakest part of the movie, multiple "gotcha" scenes relating to STAB, featuring Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes, Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell( I liked this one, I must admit because it's a *stab* at critics of the horror genre as a whole), & Aimee Teegarden and Brittany Robertson as girls/ladies either commenting on the horror genre/pop culture or receiving visits (and phone calls) from Ghostface. The ending, where the revealed killer goes to extremes to convince the media and police department of his/her treatment at the hands of an innocent framed for the Ghostface murders, is hilarious(it reminded me of LIAR, LIAR when Jim Carrey kicks his own ass in the court house restroom). Cox's Gail, who doesn't take kindly to being considered a relic and has-been, can still hold her own when others stir her hornet's nest. Alison Brie steals her scenes as Sidney's publicist who sees dollar signs when the Ghostface killings start back up during the first stage of the book tour; her scene in the parking garage is quite entertaining, the killer somewhere close, her car alarm acting up.

Okay, so I have reiterated Gail's part of the film enough. I don't think the opening to kick off the fourth film is as weak as I felt the first time, but I just think it felt played out. The scene at the end where Jill puts herself through a lot of bodily damage to convince those that find her that she's been attacked and left for dead was still hilarious. That was going the extra mile to make herself look like one hell of a victim. The conclusion in the hospital was perhaps the weakest now to me because it makes Jill look like a complete idiot who isn't as much outsmarted as it proves she loves to fucking flap her gums too long.