There's many pros to this movie and there are cons, so maybe I should start with the pros first to make this more positive. Not many Scream fans favor the opening for this one and I can see where they are coming from, but I actually don't hate it. I feel like it is different than the other opening scenes and I like it for how out of the box it is for a Scream film. I love Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes in the first part, they're very believable as friends, I love their interactions with one another. My least favorite part was Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin, their part was pretty lacking in the creative aspect but it was fine. I love their cameos though because they are both amazing actresses. The actual opening with Jenny and Marnie I liked because I enjoyed their jokes on one another, with the fake outs. Can we address the fact that Marnie's last name is Cooper? If only that meant she was in relation to CiCi Cooper, but they never address that even though I kind of wish they had because I love connections. Roger Jackson comes into play when Jenny answers the phone and Marnie is already presumably dead. Roger is really sassy in this one, his lines cut as deep as the knife that goes into Jenny after she gets attacked by a garage door, which I feel was a playback to Tatum in the first Scream.
I love the band The Sounds, do not get me wrong but I just don't think the song "Something to die for" was the best choice for the song that plays after the opening title shows. It just felt too upbeat for the opening song, but maybe they wanted that for this film because I feel like they were really trying to bring in a younger audience for this fourth installment. Just my own observation.
So we are introduced to Kirby, Jill and Olivia after Kirby zips passed good ol' Deputy Dewey, nearly taking him out then herself with her reckless driving skills. A pro about this trio, is that of Kirby, she is the standout and at this point, I think everyone feels that way, I think it's safe to say. She picks up where Randy left off, being the eyes and ears of the audience. She is calm, cool and collected, not much cares in the world except for knowing every freaking remake known to man in the 2000's. I am impressed. She leaves her door open while there is a murder spree happening though. Plus, we all know that we cannot play hide and seek with her because she'll never know which closet we are in.
We have Sidney coming back for a book reading and signing, not knowing that she would not be leaving Woodsboro as quick as she had anticipated. She meets her devil spawn cousin, Jill Roberts, not knowing that she wants to be a lazy deadbeat who does nothing in her life but still wants to be famous for it. Sorry, had to throw that in there. Sidney wants to reach others who have been dealing with their own traumas through her book, but of course, Rebecca just wants to ride Sidney's coattails and get paid, not even reading her book. So I'd have to say another pro is Rebecca's death, that she has the lady balls to lie to ghostface, telling him/her that she's at the hospital with Sidney when she's actually in the parking garage where ghostface has the best line: ""You know Rebecca it doesn't sound to me like you're in the hospital, sounds like you're in a parking garage, a dark and deserted parking garage but if you want to be in the hospital I'd be happy to put you there in the morgue!" (Standing up and applauding ghostface even as I am writing this) Best line in the movie!!
So let's sit down, relax and have us a lemon square that I am pretty sure, it does not taste like ass??? What a great Gale line, she made me lose it when I heard her say that in the theater, still makes me giggle actually. It took me awhile to warm up to Judy, because I could not tell if she was trying to be a homewrecker between Gale and Dewey. The way she flirted with Dewey, or at least I think it was flirting? She just appeared too desperate for me with her lines with Dewey like: "You're not cheating on your wife if u eat one of my lemon squares".......ewwww.....cringe. I do though, like the scene she has with Sidney, when she just appears from the actual shadows and most likely scares the lemon squares out of us, to let her know that she went to high school with her back then. I always wondered where they wanted to go with that juicy little tidbit because I thought that she would end up revealing that she was obsessed with Sidney or with Billy or Stu or maybe all three of them. They only use that scene as a red herring to make us believe that she was one of the killers........so it went nowhere....
So the cons, how do I put all of this into one review because I really wanted this to work for me but something about the fourth one just does not sit right with me as well as the others. Let's start with Kate Roberts, the mother of Jill Roberts, Sidney's aunt, Maureen's sister. There's so much that they could have done with her character. She could have told us a story about Maureen that could have humanized her character a bit more, because remember, her murder is what started it all. I wanted more interaction with her and Sidney but instead we get a knife through the mailbox, killing Kate in an instant.
Then we have Tweedledee Charlie Walker, and Tweedledum, Robbie Mercer, the Woodsboro film club directors. Charlie is crushing on Kirby hard, it's very obvious, and Kirby enjoys torturing him as he lusts after her like a dog in heat. Robbie, the film geek that wears a headset backwards at times because he's too drunk to know it's backwards. Did he really ever watch a horror movie? Because he goes off on his own, drinking, stumbling like Mr, Magoo and then tries to save himself by proclaiming to ghostface that he is gay. Yeah, nice try Robbie....
Dewey again in this one, was underutilized and he was the sheriff, he should have been taken a little more seriously. You could see that the marriage between Gale and Dewey was rocky because they are focused on different things in their lives. Gale is trying to get back into writing and journalism, wanting so badly to be hands on again, teaming up with Dewey but Dewey can't because of him being the sheriff. It causes a rift between them but when Gale gets stabbed, Dewey is right by her side as always when she needs him the most. That's Dewey, protective of those he loves, so now I have to acknowledge the implication of the scene between Dewey and Sidney. When Dewey comes to visit Sidney, reciting words from her book, it was sweet but I feel like they were trying to romanticize it when it was just two old friends catching up. Dewey will always have a connection with Sidney because of her being best friends with his sister Tatum, who was killed in the first Scream. I feel like that's one of the reasons why Dewey is so protective of her, because he felt like he couldn't save Tatum, so he has to protect Sidney, even though she really needs no protection when she can fend for herself.
Before I talk about the two killers, there are two deaths worth mentioning for two different reasons. Olivia's death was brutal, it was so savage how he just threw her around like she was a feather then stabbed her so many times that her room was splattered with blood from ceiling to floor. Then we have Deputy Perkins, who talks horror movie tropes with his partner Hoss, only to make those tropes become reality....somewhat. We are left with a very cringe line "F**k you Bruce Willis" as he goes down.
I forgot to mention Trevor Sheldon, the lovesick, apologetic ex boyfriend of Jill's, who just cannot take a hint that all she wants to do is go "Hard Candy" on his ass. Trevor was only a red herring and also the one in the crossfire of being blamed for everything. I'm sure when he feels where that bullet goes, he will want to meet his end........OUCH.
I was debating to add this in because I feel like by now, it's what everyone talks about when it comes to Scream 4 but I'll touch on it briefly. Am I on the "Kirby is still alive" train? She was a great character compared to all of the other new characters in this one, that's a given, but I am neutral when it comes to Kirby being alive. If she's alive, that's great, if she's dead, then she should have pursued Charlie sooner or never untied him after reciting what seemed to be ALL of the 2000's remakes.
So let's end with the two killers, Charlie and Jill. Charlie was too much of a pansy who would have done ANYTHING for Jill so I guess he died happy, knowing that he gave Jill what she wanted? What a way to go. Then we have Jill, who betrayed Sidney from the very start, making her believe that she was the angel of death. Jill just wants to be famous for doing nothing but being whiny like she's Jan from the Brady Bunch. Instead of "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, it's Sidney this, Sidney that". The only scene I liked her in was when she ran into things, acting like she's a great white shark in a fish tank. I love when she goes berserk....ON HERSELF. I just can't get passed the surface of things (Scream 3 reference, couldn't help it).
Dewey gets hit with a bed pan, while Judy gets shot only to give us safety pointers: "Wear the vest, save your chest". Gale and Sidney save it all with their one liner that ends it all for poor little miss villain who the world believes is a hero, Jill Roberts........CLEAR!!!!
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