Keep on Screaming

The horror genre and its film-makers like to recycle plots and formulas, adjusting to make their own chilling rendition but ultimately finding influence from movies past. Some hit the bulls eye, others go sailing past. Scream 4, born from the Scream trilogy follows on from the previous three, it features the main characters from all the prior films, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers-Riley (Courtney Cox), and Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Now the 'teens' from the 1st scream-a-thon are responsible, hard working, adults. Do NOT mess with them.

Sidney, a published author, finds herself on the last leg of her book tour with the annoyingly happy PR representative, in, who would have guessed, Woodsboro. Let the fight till the death commence. Cue Ghostface and his legs of jelly, now fully out of retirement and ready for one last stab-a-thon. The teens of Woodsboro should be running scared as Craven pays homage to the first film. This time Sidney, her cousin (Emma Roberts) who plays a very unconvincing petrified teenager, along with friends including Hayden Panettiere the too cool for school film chick with an attitude, find themselves as targets. Expect to see scenes of tension waiting for that smiling face to appear as well as laughs a-plenty, intended or not as he or she begins to pick off the victims, easily some may say.

When remaking another Scream it’s a no no to stray from the techniques that made the film famous in the first place, including the iconic phrase “what’s your favourite scary movie?”. Sticking to the formula that worked so well, Wes Craven features the phone calls from the 80 a day smoker in the beginning scenes and throughout the film, the trio of characters that have stuck together through thick and thin, attractive young women running around wearing little to nothing, and handsome young men trying to save the day, not forgetting the infamous blood and gore from Ghostface's knife.

Horror fans, especially Scream fans will find little parts of previous films included in the fourth instalment, including the ‘Rules to Survive a Horror Film’, re-occurring ‘Stab’ film jokes, and gags about the slasher horror genre as a whole. The Scream series has never claimed to be serious, as every time a new sequel is released it tends to become sillier, outrageous, and hilarious yet great to watch.

Sometimes you just need to laugh at the ridiculousness that is film, sit back and enjoy!