Deconstructing the deconstruction of horror: Scream 4

By the time Hollywood had reached the mid 90s the slasher/serial killer genre was already dying a slow and painful death due to being dominated by direct to video releases. After nearly 15 years Michael Myers was now lethargically slicing and dicing American teenagers in Halloween, while Jason Voores was already on his 13th or 14th Friday the 13th sequel. Even Wes Craven's very own Freddy Kruger after 5 sequels was no longer a frightening demonic child killer; he had now become a comedic anti-hero who the audience cheered instead of feared. So with the genre on its last legs Craven decided to put a different spin on it by breaking its fourth wall with the movie A New Nightmare, where the character of Freddy Kruger left the world of the movies and stepped into ‘our real world of the senses’, slicing and dicing his way through the production crew of what could be a 'Nightmare on Elm Street 7'. The film was only a moderate success; however it provided the metaphysical template for the more realistic and successful Scream franchise. 

Scream 1 to 3 were a postmodern take on the horror slasher genre, breaking the fourth wall for comedic effect by paying homage to the original Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Friday the 13th movies. 10 years after the end of the trilogy, Scream 4 was released, where it pretty much uses the same formula of the first three movies, in which characters have to rely on their knowledge of the horror genre to survive. The series has been successful as it deconstructed the common narrative of a typical horror movie by being blatantly self-aware of the fact that it itself is a horror movie. This was emphasized further with the inclusion of the Stab movies within the Scream movies themselves – were they retell the Scream story in the style of a movie within a movie. In a very clever opening sequence, Scream 4 begins with two characters watching Stab 7 before they get killed, while moments before, those characters of Stab 7 themselves are watching Stab 6 while critically reviewing the events of Stab 1 to 5.

Scream, Stab or Scary Movie?... This may get complicated. 

By the time the original Scream Trilogy ended, another film franchise was launched based on it called Scary Movie. While the Scream movies are comedy thrillers with a main purpose of satirizing the horror genre, the Scary Movie series (or at least part one) were a parody of the Scream movies themselves, so in essence a satire of a satire. So by the time we get to the opening of Scream 4, it is established that the Stab series is also a satire of the horror genre, but within the narrative of Scream. Furthermore Scream 4 (or should we say Stab 7) actually copies direct visual cues from Scary Movie 3, with its choice of opening kills being Pamela Anderson/Jenny McCarthy lookalikes.

It should be noted that the name ‘Scary Movie’ was the original title for the Scream films before the Wayans Brothers took it for their own. A reference to this is made within Scream 4, where upon when Stab 2 is being played in the background; Robert Rodriquez’s name is shown as its director. It is a little known fact that during its pre-production phase when it was still called 'Scary Movie', Rodriquez was originally approached to direct Scream 1... 

Now while in the 80s, 90s and early 00s the horror genre suffered heavily from sequel mania, the latter half of  the 00s has seen the cinema going public endure an army of remakes and reboots. Of course Hollywood's obsession with reboots becomes the central topic of motivation in Scream 4. It criticizes Hollywood’s lack of originality and the audience’s willingness to accept recycled and rebooted entertainment instead of sticking with the originals. Its critical look at remakes (no doubt inspired by the reboot of Wes Craven's original Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the superior remake of his The Last House on the Left), is interesting as prior to its release, Scream 4 itself had been marketed as a partial reboot of the original trilogy and the launch pad for at least three more movies. This metaphysical self-referencing is largely played for laughs as everything from Hitchcock's Rear Window (remade into Disturbia) to A Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and even a roundabout reference to Star Trek 11 and timetravel) are all mentioned indirectly, subtly and openly. 

Finally, when watching Scream 4 its interesting to see how fashion, style and music have not changed much since Scream 1 debuted in 1996, so the movie automatically has a very old school feel to it. However there have been huge advances in technology and media in the past decade, a subject which the Scream films have always relied heavily upon to tell its story. In fact the only significant differences between the late 90s and today are our advancements in communication tech. While 15 years ago life revolved around mobile phones and videos, 2011 is about iPhones, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube thus Wes Craven goes out of his way to show how these technologies do not only aid in our communication and entertainment, but also help in turning nobodies into celebrities.

As sequels go Scream 4 is perhaps one of the best you will see. While some people may feel uncomfortable with the heavy amounts of in-your-face comedy this chapter has, its humour works far better than what we were given in Scream 3. The violence is strong, brutal and bloody and although the story may not be as dark and as adult as Scream 1 and Scream 2, for the fourth part in a series the quality of writing is still witty, strong, intelligent and better than anything you will see in similar genre franchises - like what we were given in the awful Final Destination and Saw sequels, both directly made fun of in this film.

Bad Language: Strong.
Sex and Nudity: None.

Violence: Very Strong.

7.5/10