Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven returned as writer and director. The movie was a return to form as the story was back in small town Woodsboro and had a heavy cast of mostly TV stars. The more familiar ones like Hayden from Heroes and Emma Roberts who has done mostly kid stuff were nice additions I thought. I wass excited as heck for this one to come out. I followed the franchise since day one. I followed production as it started all the way to the day filming ended September 2010. I wanted Scream 4 to show other movies out there how it is done. Because, quite frankly, Scream 3 was a hot mess and an absolute piece of trash worth seeing only once.
So, the day arrived and April 15, 2011 I finally saw my Scream 4. I had high expectations and the movie delivered. Outside of a few minor compliants of course:
The movie fails to develop most characters enough to care when they die (Like Scream 3)
The story is too rushed
The ending kind of becomes too much and parts should have been edited out and scenes earlier on should have been expanded upon
Nontheless, Scream 4 was a fun ride. A great reminder smart and clever slashers still exist. Emma Roberts who I thought was a waste in the beginning really carried the ending. Julia would be proud of her niece. So, why on earth did the movie basically flop comapred to the others? A weekend opening of less than 20 million followed by a total of 36 million since release is pathetic. The movie was supposed to be a revival of Ghostface and a start of a new trilogy. But with a 40 million budget the movie will need to do killer DVD sales to recover. I never would have thought this one would struggle to reach the U.S. domestic total of part 3 worldwide!
So, what happened?
Was it too much to expect people to care after 11 years?
Was it the sad marketing job?
Was it the wrong release date?
Competiton from Rio?
Scary Movie franchise making the Scream movies a joke?
I finally found out the answer today:
Scream 4 is now available in full on none other than youtube
. So, that and all the reasons above the movie was sabotaged from the get go. And even though it has already doubled its budget, unless part 5 comes in cheaper on the cost side I doubt Harvey and Bob will resurrect Gale, Sidney and Dewey another time. What a disappointment. Because the movie was even more fun to watch than Scream 2 or Scream 3.
