^ Absolutely agree.

After an eleven year break between films, I think the Weinsteins were overestimating Scream 4's box office potential. The target audience from the original movies are now older and many have children. Most of today's teenagers just aren't that familiar with the series. If it breaks $100 million worldwide, that's still very respectable business. I say strike while the iron's hot (or warm) and finish out the new trilogy. Considering the outcome of part four, I'm quite curious as to where they were planning to take it.

I'm bothered hearing this series could be going the DTV route. The Scream films were a rare beast -- a horror series where each film grossed $100 million+ domestically and had very little drop-off in attendance. I'm sure that distinction is what kept Bob and Harvey from exploiting the brand years ago. I'm very thankful they made another film with the original crew. A sequel sans Wes/Williamson or any of the main players will really turn off the die-hard fans who have already helped put this film in the black. As long as there is some profit to be had, I don't see the point in putting a knife in the theatrical sequels just yet.

caught this at a matinee yesterday and went there with no expectations at all and for that I thought the movie was just fine.

* I did think the movie was at least 10 minutes too long
* the ending I thought was just ridiculous. If they wanted to end it the way they did they should have cut out some other stuff during the middle of the movie and expanded the ending. Or used the ending as a way to lead into 'Scream 5'.
* Hayden looked horrible with the short hair, unless they were going for the lesbian look, in which case.....

Did anyone else notice the scene where the cops were outside the house and when the white cop (can't remember name or actor) went up to the cop car to check on Anderson, he actually called him Anthony instead of his cop name (which they were just referred to by surnames)? Or did I imagine that?

cop's name was anthony perkins...get it?

what happened??, I had planned on seeing the movie at the Uptown theater today but I guess it wasn't doing so well, they dropped it and added 'Lincoln Lawyer' (prior to next week's release of 'Thor') -

Is 4 not raking in the bucks in the theater or something??

It's still playing here but only 2 showings a day. I don't think it did as well as they were hoping. Too bad, I thought it was pretty good.

Same here. After tonight, it's down to just two night showings at my local theater.

From Dark Horizons:
"Studio chief Harvey Weinstein tells MTV News that despite poor domestic box office results for "Scream 4", another sequel in the series is quite possible.

"I'm sure [Wes is] going to do a sequel, I'm sure he's going to do a sequel" says Weinstein who was bullish on the film's international performance. "Foreign [sales] are so strong that we'll do over $100 million worldwide. It's at $90 million now, with about five or six major countries to go and a lot of small ones. We'll probably do $110 million."

Weinstein admits he's disappointed with the domestic results, but isn't fazed by them - "I wish it would have been better domestically. But it's not the worst thing in the world that's ever happened.""

Please put this movie series out of its misery!

Yeah, no kidding. Perhaps Weinstein is just saying this since the movie is still playing in some markets (and has not yet reached some countries). I think it would be highly unlikely we'd see another sequel given the box office reaction to this one.

The video to go with that transcript. He seems very optimistic. It would be stupid not to continue.

<embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:653270" width="512" height="319" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="configParams=id%3D1663593%26vid%3D653270%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A653270" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed>

Too many characters. Not enough character development.

Hated the re-cut scenes, why didn't they just leave Kevin Williamson's script be like they did when they made the original? Trust your writer. Why do studio execs always think they're better writers?

If they were such good writers, they'd be the ones having made all that money from writing, not producing. Stick to what you're good at. Stop killing the movies we love.

So disappointing, because I'm such a hardcore fan of the parts 1 and 2 and even somewhat 3...........

I rented this tonight on Vudu. I like the first 2, but Scream 3 was pretty crappy as was this film. I did like the opening sequence, but the ending was horrible. The biggest distraction for me was Courteney Cox. I haven't seen her in anything since Scream 3 and was just startled by her plastic face. Everyone else resembled themselves.

There's no point in continuing this series though. At least not using the same formula they've been doing with the sequels. I think it would have been better if Scream 4 had none of the original cast members in it. Just start fresh.

After watching the deleted scenes, they went with a better/punchier opening. The other one was good in theory but dull in execution.

Really disappointed with this movie. In fact, I liked 3 better because it at least tried to continue to do something interesting with the story. Everything about this movie felt so cliche this far along, outside of the fantastic opening scene.

I disagree. I absolutely loved the fact that the original trio

Finally saw this tonight and holy shit, was it ever horrible. The acting, the writing and the direction. The most painful scene was the three girls all on their phones in the two bedrooms across from one another. I mean, that was just ridiculously bad. I give it a 2/10 rating. The absolute worst in the series.

I thought it was pretty good in the context of sequels. Much better then Scream 3. I did like the little shot they take at the state of becoming 'famous' in our society, it is so true!

And after watching a movie with a generation of kids with cellphones at that age, thank god I didn't goto Highschool where Social media was this popular! Just watching people talking, texting, using their camera's on their phones 24/7 would have driven me fucking crazy! The millenials are the ADD generation.

All of these movies are exactly the same. Boring and predictable. I've wasted way too much of my time watching all 4 of these trying to figure out what all the hype is about.

I enjoyed the 4th one (and the previous 3). But I don't need to see any more of Sidney, Gail and Dewey. Time for this series to move on and develop some fresh characters.

I kind of agree with you. I really did like the fake out of "This is a re-boot" and then "No fuck you, It's a sequel" though.

Maybe have the next one have mid-size cameo's for Dewey and Gale. I kind of like the idea of Dewey becoming a Dr Loomis type character. Then the final Scream have Sydney bow out gracefully. Kill her or happy ending. Writer's choice.

Sorry for the 1.5 year bump on this, but I just caught it on Netflix. I didn't think it was bad, just not on par with 1 or 2... definitely better than 3 though. I'd probably give it a B-

I do think they missed a huge opportunity to have dialogue that would make the audience believe the original trio could die at any point. I'm thinking during the Cinema Club scene Charlie could have said something like "Anyone can die now. It's been 10 years. The actors from the original have moved on, and are just in it for the paycheck. They'd be happy to be written out at this point."


Not that anyone cares after 2 years now, lol

"Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you, 24 and I think there's so much more."
Neil Young and the Stray Gators

"I don't give a damn for the same-old played out scenes, I don't give a damn for just the in-between, I want the heart, I want the soul, I want control right now."
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band

HE'S BACK! Yes, fellow horror fans, Wes Craven has returned to the franchise that made him an icon for the 90s generation of post-modern, self-aware, and in tow he brings Kevin Williamson, the scribe who scripted the first two outings, with alleged rewrites from Erhen Kruger, the screenwriter of the third installment as well as Transformers 2&3. But at this point, self-awareness has reached it's peak and culture has practically started eating itself. Is Williamson's smart-aleck brand of horror already out of date? Does Craven, pushing up on 70 now, still have the guts, especially after a string of misfires like the Cursed and the god-awful My Soul to Take?

The good news is that the answer to the latter is largely yes. More brutal than many a young horror director, Craven still puts he gore and brutality onscreen with a viscera that the 80s MPAA never would've allowed, though as imaginative as some of the kills are, there is a point where stabs in the guts get a bit old. Still, Craven and horror alum Peter Demming, the ASC ace who managed to keep up with Sam Raimi's manic direction in Evil Dead II and the romping Drag Me To Hell, deliver the goods with some rollicking, generally suspenseful, and satisfying set pieces and Craven's ever reliable spooky skill indicate that the PG-13 rating was, happily, never in anyone's mind.

And Craven happily manages to get in a delicious dig as one character defeats a villain and cries "You know the thing about remakes? Don't 'mess' with the original!" washing away the memory of the appalling, terrible, abortion of Nightmare on Elm street that recently raped the legacy of a great film in the name of a dollar. Sadly, THIS is where the film SHOULD direct its energies and neglects to. The opportunities to satirize the current industry and it's obsession with remakes (and even the audiences' complicity), but Williamson's script is sadly a bit sluggish, and despite references to the likes of Don't Look Now and Suspiria and Peeping Tom make me wonder if Williamson just Googled something or has actually SEEN the films. An injection of artsy spookiness would do the franchise wonders if they want to keep this tired series going. Craven's obvious skill at orchestrating suspenseful and fluid camera work beg for a film that let's him cut loose with his surrealist edges like he did in Nightmare on Elm Street and New Nightmare.

The pairing of Williamson and Craven was once inspired largely inspired, largely because of Williamson's ear for dialogue, something that Craven often handled in a clunky way in his own scripts, in spite of his strong ideas. But Williamson can't help but feel a bit like a relic of the 90s (with the current wave of 80s nostalgia, he should be popular again in a decade or so), and as one character cries "How meta can you get?!" and expects the audience to buy into her claims that she doesn't know what it means. Happily, the film manages to mix it up, bringing along the classic cast with some hot new stars, but it just doesn't feel as hip as it once did. For horror fans, Scream 4 is a fun trip back in time that doesn't completely manage to recapture the glory of what once was, but still brings to mind fond memories of the good old days, and it's a good time. Craven, happily, still has it, and in spite of the films flaws, there's lots of fun to be had. But Williamson's Scooby-Doo/Agatha Christie mysteries and ironic dialogue show that he's still got some ideas, but he needs to refine them. The whole affair is comfortable, but never exceptional, with Courtney Cox's plastic-laden face somewhat emblematic of the film's sense that things are getting a little old.

Still, it hard to deny that even with the film's many flaws, this is a pretty good time for genre fans. Craven, always intellectual and outspoken in use of the horror genre as a political allegory, as well as never shy about his opinions on pointless sequels and greedy producers, doesn't have anywhere the cutting commentary on the movie business that the film begs for, it's a little slow, and it's getting old, but there's still fun to be had. But they're going to need to spice things up if they want to keep them going.

^ Little late to the party , aren't we?


I think the reason this movie didn't do that well is the fact that everyone who made it a hit back in the day are now grown with kids, jobs, etc. The age demographic that made it a hit back then can no longer see rated R horror movies , so there really wasn't an audience anymore.

I can longer see R rated horror movies?