Years after the Woodsboro murders have finally ceased, Sidney (Neve Campbell) has decided to come home for a book signing. But her return also brings the return of the Ghost Face killer, and it's up to Sidney, Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox) and now-Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) to protect Sidney's family.

So we're back with a fourth installment to the Scream "trilogy," and it doesn't seem to know what to call itself. Sequel? Reboot? Remake? It can't keep its story straight. Whatever the case, we're back to constant name-dropping and references to other horror franchises. I get that it's the point of the movies, but just referencing movies doesn't make you witty or insightful. It makes you look like a pretentious film snob. Luckily the movie makes up for it by adapting to the new decade rather well, with plenty more blood, a higher body count and a story that's actually really disturbing.

Of course I hate spoilers, so it's going to be hard for me to explain exactly why, but the ending of this film is far darker than the first three films. It's the first in the series where the psychotic killer actually seems legitimately psychotic and not like an actor overdoing it. But that also feeds into the biggest problem of the film where it doesn't know if it wants to be overly campy or realistic.There's a scene where a character gets a kill that would immediately kill a real person, but they drag it out for laughs. The joke actually works really well, but then they follow it up shortly after with somebody being stabbed and somebody explaining how "it's not fast like in the movies." Well, you clearly pointed out that this is a movie. So which is it? Make up your mind!

Really, if it wasn't for the ending this movie would feel almost identical to the originals. The kills are just a bunch of stabs like in the first two and I'm never given a reason to care about most of the deaths. But the ending pulls out some big guns and brings out a lot of bizarre psychological drama that was missing in the first films due to bad acting and shoddy writing. Not that this is lacking in both of those qualities, but it works better than it used to. I'd suggest Scream 4 to anybody who saw the original films. If you didn't like the originals, then this is a movie that you might enjoy or you might not, but either way it's interesting to see it. If you did like the originals then of course you're going to like this one because it's the same exact thing, just newer.


Final Verdict: