SCRE4M

Rather than manufacture any sequences with a recognisable sense of tension or terror, Scream 4 is more comfortable taking diminishing swipes at the building-blocks of its own genre. Characters auto-critique their actions to a suffocating degree; for some reason director Wes Craven finds it interesting to shoot endless scenes of TV actors standing around trying to work out the perfect fake-out context for their own, inevitable, death. Scream 4 doesn't have anything to talk about. Unlike the original Scream's obsession with masculine violence within the knife and knicker genre, Scream 4 doesn't seek to deconstruct a distinct horror movement. Instead it more-or-less disregards current torture trends, or even PG-13 demakes, to invent meaningless 'new' rules based on no film anyone has ever saw. The film's violence is significantly more frenzied for this outing though, despite a series low 15 certificate, and the killer's identity and motive absolutely pop, but there's barely any foreshadowing to help the knife twist land. A bold, teeth-kicking conclusion is swerved too, wasted to serve a static fourth act where punishment is meted out. Brand boredom maintained for the inevitable fifth instalment then.