"We're working on less of a shriek-quel and more of a scream-make."

Upon re-watch a decade later, I still say "Scream 4" isn't really the sharp, underappreciated, redeeming sequel that its growing reputation over the years would have you believe; it's less goofy and a bit more biting than "Scream 3" but still a basically mediocre rehash of everything the series has tried before, BUT in the wider context of slasher movies and endless sequel chains, this is more rewarding than your average fare. Familiar faces everywhere you look, loyal legacy stars, some lip service about post-millennial horror cinema trends, the still-topical notion that the craving for celebrity breeds sociopaths (hardly a new idea circa 2011, but perhaps increasingly worrisome 10 years later in the age of influencers and social media attention whoring), having that "back to basics" appeal of being in Woodsboro again and populating the cast with high schoolers again instead of the decidedly adult arena of "Scream 3". Plus an undercurrent of wanting to pay respects to Wes Craven, this being the last ride of his remarkable 40-year career before passing away in 2015. The movie isn't incompetently made...just kinda useless in the "Scream"ology.

Its scarcity of fresh material could be leveled at part 3 as well but "4" is so far removed from the original zeitgeist of "Scream" that it bears a heavier burden of having to revitalize the brand in a striking way, and it doesn't. It's just a rerun with the language slightly updated to reflect the franchise's middle-age status and a shiny new roster of young Hollywood talent. There's a mild effort to mix it up with the kill scenes - one is witnessed from across the street in adjacent second-story windows, one's in a dark parking garage this time, someone gets stabbed through the mail slot of a front door, etc. - but none of those is going to be added to the highlights reel at the "Scream" Memorial Museum down the road. Compounding the lackluster entertainment value is muddier cinematography than usual in the series, an exhaustingly empty shell-game prologue that just seems like an excuse to show off a bunch of cameos, yet more forced conflict between Dewey and Gale, and some specifically derivative moments that make it hard to tell this movie apart in your memory from some really bad aughts-era slashers, like didn't Anthony Anderson die in the exact same way in "Urban Legends: Final Cut"? Didn't "Black Christmas" 2006 also do a dull, gratuitous killer-reveal post-climax finale in a hospital?

Okay fine, but let's end with some positivity:
- a "Final Destination" joke made me chuckle

- before we know whodunit (unless you're rewatching it like I did here), there's a scene where the killer makes one of their threatening phone calls to...the other killer, to throw us off the track. Clever or cheating? Would've been better if there was some hidden clue in that moment to reward rewatches but at least I'm intrigued by this gambit

- throwing shade at Marley Shelton's character, when Sidney asks her where she was when someone got killed, and it cuts to Shelton standing there on the stairs inside this home several feet away from Sidney, her face entirely unseeable, as she answers. Fairly creepy.

- didn't realize that Nancy O'Dell squeezed into 3 of these "Scream" movies, good for her.

- for what it's worth, Marley Shelton herself is a survivor of the teen-movie revival from whence "Scream" came (she co-starred in "Never Been Kissed", "Sugar & Spice", "Valentine", even "Trojan War" and "Pleasantville" if you can count those). Maybe it's just my fondness for those times talking but maybe "Scream 4" would have benefitted from savvier casting like this, like maybe find a part for James Van Der Beek or Mark Paul Gosselaar, Seth Green or Jennifer Love Hewitt...Fairuza Balk!

- good line: "I'm gonna slit your eyelids in half so you don't blink when I stab you in the face"

- not cohesively done really but there's a throughline about found footage that could've become a worthwhile theme: like when someone suggests "the killer should film everything", and Gale's attempts to plant hidden cameras at the Stab-a-Thon party almost turning into a live feed of her own death, and the gay kid always wearing the headset to record what he sees...

- Hayden Panettiere is the most dynamic of the bunch (and somehow really pulling off the hairstyle of a 50-year-old woman), good to know she'll be back for future installments.

- Rory Culkin had potential here too, possibly on the basis of his twisted Culkin lineage and/or that he never plays normal people in movies (that's what this series needs, more popping weirdos like Lillard and Jamie Kennedy), but as written the role is an afterthought. He could've left his mark with a better script.

- "'Stab 5' has time travel" - heh

*generously upgraded to 2.5 stars from 2