RedBox DOs and DON’Ts: Scream 4

Kelsey Crouse

BY KELSEY CROUSE

In the spirit of the scariest night of the year, I will be telling you “witch” movies that will get you in a frightful Halloween spirit. I’ll disclose which movies will make you check under your bed and leave the lights on when you go to sleep and which ones are a waste of your energy to be scared this exciting month of October. Happy Halloween, everyone, and remember to watch out for the boogieman!

1996’s Scream outlined the rules to surviving a horror movie, and they were simple: 1. No sex … ever, 2. No drinking, 3. No drugs and 4. Never under any circumstances say, “I’ll be right back,” because you won’t be right back. Director Wes Craven brought the breakdown of horror movies and introduced the frightening fact that anyone can be a killer.

Over the years each Scream movie had an unexpected twist to the killer and the story behind Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) life and the truth about her mother’s past.  Scream 4 is still focused around Sidney, but it is also a new generation, which means new rules. 

When Sidney comes back to her hometown of Woodsboro, Calif., for a signing of her new book, the killings start again. After the first two teens are stabbed to death, Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) insists that she stay in town until the culprit is caught, leaving Sidney’s remaining family and friends in danger, including her teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts), her best friend Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and anyone else who gets in the way. Because this is a new generation, the possibilities of who the killer is are  endless. According to the new rules, not even a sober virgin is safe from death.

The killer is taking the story to a new level and ‘remaking’ the original story of the Woodsboro murders, leaving suspicion on Jill’s ex-boyfriend Trevor (Nico Tortorella). Could he be this year’s Billy? There are other very likeable suspects, and Trevor is too predictable to be a viable suspect. Gale Weathers–Riley (Courteney Cox), who stopped reporting to write novels, jumps at the opportunity to get back into reporting and find Ghostface … again. But Sheriff Riley rejects her help, leaving her to solve the case alone. Gale teams up with Robbie (Erik Knudsen) and Charlie (Rory Culkin), who run the school’s cinema club, in order to find out who all the film buffs and likely suspects for the murders are.

Truth be told, I am an enormous fan of the original Scream trilogy. I am not a huge fan of remakes or when a new generation of people is formed from an older movie. Still, I liked Scream 4. It is by no means the original, but it has a nice classic ‘90s style to it. There are no monsters, no superhuman killers and no ghosts, just the very real fact that a person can snap and kill everyone they know. Scream 4 is a Red Box do!