A whole lot of Screams

I went to see Scream 4 (2011) couple of days ago and wrote the review of it, but when I was thinking about the other parts I actually didn't remember what happened in which part. And as I remembered at least two of them being somewhat good, I though it's time to check them out again as well.



Scream (1996)

I must say I quite liked this movie when it came out, it was a well needed breath of fresh air to the slasher genre. But right from the first time I saw it I knew it's not going to hold multiple viewings. The whole concept of making fun of other slasher movies while working around the cliches of them and the end twist felt like a trick that works only once. I mean you can only trick the slasher fans once into thinking you have a superior movie than any other slasher out there. Sure enough the second time I saw it, it didn't work nearly as well as the first time but I still remember enjoying it. So now I gave it a third try after more than 10 years. Well I really didn't enjoy it that much this time around, there were quite a few very bad moments that actually made me think why the hell did I ever liked this movie. First the things I liked about it. I like the way it doesn't try to hide who the killer is, but still offers quite a few other suspects as well and gives alibis to the ones you think are the killer. I remember when I first saw this that I guessed the killer right from the first scene we see him, the romantic version of Don't Fear the Reaper gave it away for me, but then he gets put into jail so that didn't work. I also liked the suspension building in some of the scenes. Even though the movie resorted into cheap scares quite often it still did take some time to get proper suspension also. Also I quite liked the mood of the movie, it's very easy going and even fun at times, but still it manages to be scary when needed. What I didn't like was the fact that it tries to convince you that it knows every trick in the slasher movie handbook and yet it falls into quite a many cliches itself. I mean sure it worked the first time, you give the audience a few scenes they didn't expect and they will let some nonsense pass as well, but on the second time it just doesn't work. When you build tension with a character that's being stalked, the character's actions are the key into the suspension, if the character does something stupid that you wouldn't do it spoils the whole suspension for you. After that you turn to the killer's side, kind of like "oh fuck this shit, kill that stupid bitch already and get this over with." And to be honest there weren't many wise characters in this movie. Speaking of characters I absolutely hated Deputy Dewey this time, thought he was funny but yet somehow heroic character first time I saw this, now I noticed he's stupid as a boot and way too goofy. Actually his quest to get into Gale Weather's undies ends up getting a guy killed, another thing I didn't notice first time around. And to be honest the whole ending after that was quite idiotic. I got the feeling that the writer had a great idea on the motives of the killer and the whole plot, but didn't know how to break it down to the viewer. So he decided to put this cliched ridiculous ending where the killer explains the motives and stupidly enough demonstrates what's coming after it's all done even though it's not yet done. How fucking retarted can someone be that when he/she has the situation under control and the last victim ready to die, he/she decides to stab him/herself first to get the alibi part out of the way and thus giving the victim a chance to escape. So the ending sucked big time. But despite it being quite a bad movie on the third watch I'd still recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet as it does have it's moments on the first viewing. And I do have to give it some credit as it really had it's impact on the whole horror genre, maybe not the best impact, but still way better than for example what the Saw series had.
61%



Scream 2 (1997)

So of course as the movie was so popular the one trick gimmick got a sequel and thus kind of watered down the first part by doing so. This time it's the horror movie sequels that are being made fun of while the movie itself of course uses many of those cliches. All the survivors of the first part return and of course there's a copycat who wants to finish what the first part couldn't do. The recipe is the same, make the audience think the movie is on the "next level" of slashers by making fun of the cliches and then use the other cliches to ride past the unaware viewer. And sure it works once but as at this point it has been done before the viewer isn't tricked as easily. Too bad it doesn't try to fix the problems of the first part, only use the same idea with another story in it. What I liked about this movie was the soundtrack, some of the comedy and again some of the suspension building. What I didn't like was again the stupid over explaining killer. Once more he/she had the thing all wrapped up but of course he/she needs to tell his/her life story before finishing it. Idiotic. Though I did like the first motive of the killer quite a bit and actually that would have been an interesting dilemma to go into a bit deeper. It's a shame it's only covered breafly in the end and then just forgot. Another thing I found quite idiotic was the whole car sequence, I mean how stupid can the women be and really how stupid do the film makers think the audience is. As that wouldn't have been enough it's followed by a scene where the movie takes exactly the same routes it made fun of in the first part, stupid beyond belief. At this point I had to struggle to keep watching as that many idiotic scenes in a movie that wants you to believe it's a smart slasher is just ridiculous. So the first half was quite ok, despite some bad acting and horribly corny dialog, but the second half is just colossal in stupidity. So in the end the movie falls to the same problem it makes fun of, failing to fix the problems of the first part and just focusing in giving the viewer more of what the first one had without even trying to bring anything new to the table.
33%



Scream 3 (2000)

I remember the first time I saw this I didn't have my hopes up and it still ended up dissapointing me. So wasn't surely expecting much this time around either. Surely enough it was still a bad movie. The only thing I liked about this was to try and guess who the killer is and how nicely false leads are given to the viewer. Other than that this was just garbage. Survivors of the second part of course return and the rest of the cast is filled with stock actors doing performances from bad to absolutely horrible. Sure again there are cameos of some familiar faces but they didn't really help. And yet again the dialog at times was simply awful. The worst thing was that it again completely forgot what it was trying to teach in the previous films. It seemed that everyone in the movie was about as dumb as a rubber boot. "You take the gun and go look that way, I'll go unarmed this way so the killer can get me first." I mean it surely doesn't take a genius to write a believable stalk scene, but please don't let braindead retards have a shot at it, ok? Had to really struggle to get through this, so luckily the guessing game worked somewhat great, but a good movie that doesn't make.
20%



Scream 4 (2011)

After almost 11 years they try to revive the series that made slasher movies popular again. So is it just a bad attempt to cash in with the old formula or do they actually have something new to the genre? Well it was bit of both, but unfortunately more on the first part. The beginning was quite nice with it's funny movie within a movie within another movie trick, though as "layers" are the hot thing in movies today that was kind of predictable. None the less it kicked off the movie quite nicely. The old cast of course return and then there's the fresh meat for the grinder. That's actually one of the biggest problem with this series, the three characters from all of the parts just won't die so you just don't fear for them anymore. Though that "immortality" was used quite nicely in this one with a bit of a moral dilemma that what's the point of surviving if all your loved ones always end up dead. But for some reason the movie just states that once and never really goes into it any deeper. In my opinion they should have killed them all right from the start and get a fresh cast to the new "revision", at least that would have made it clear that all bets are really off. Now you can basically figure out who's going to die and who's not right from the start. That being said the movie almost took an unexpected turn with the main three characters, but then again it didn't dare to go with it. This part actually had learned a bit from the mistakes of the first three and didn't always go for the cliched route after making fun of it first, but still it wasn't really innovative either. Actually before the "first ending" this movie was on it's way of being a very good and quite fresh new look on the slasher genre. But why the hell in this part as well the motives need to be discussed in long dialogs before the job is done? Is it really the only way to tell them to the viewer or were the writers just lazy and borrowed the formula from the previous films? I actually really liked the motives, they fit the modern day problems very well, but despised the way they were told. That being said I thought the movie took a very good turn after the motives dialogs, but too bad again they got scared to really go that way and the "second ending" watered the movie down all together right to that category of cash in with an easy concept. That's a shame as the movie had it's moments and at parts really looked like it would go to a different direction, but unfortunately it ended up in the same slot as the previous ones. For fans of the series this is well worth watching, but the rest might not enjoy it that much.
58%


After watching all four of them I must say I'm quite surprised how bad they were. I mean sure the first and the fourth were ok, but I remembered the first and the second being a lot better. But I guess that's how it goes, times change and things don't work as good anymore as they used to. But I must say I agree to what they say in the fourth part, I'd watch any of these movies over another gorno movie (gore porno or torture porn) like from the Saw series for example. And that just shows in how bad shape the "big" horror movies are today.