Scre4m

SCRE4M has a great first 15 minutes. You walk in expecting something stupid, it shows you a hint of that, and then turns everything upside down and pleasantly surprises you. You think, "Well, shit, they still got it" and then they wow you again. The first 15 minutes of SCRE4M show you they're self-aware, but not in the fashion of a parent who just learned what LOL means and jumps to his daughters room to joke with her. Rather, these 15 minutes are filled with the old magic that the original SCREAM had. And then everything goes to hell. Past this opening, we watch as Sydney Prescott, the victim of the original trilogy, played so perfectly by Neve Campbell, returns to her hometown of Woodsburrow, where it all began. She has a book out about not playing the victim any longer, but inevitably, her presence in the town causes everything to start over again. The film proceeds to present a plethora of hot teens, and just as they build a background for the character, thus making us "care"--STAB--they're dead. We see this pattern early on in the film, and a bunch of lame and boring stab sequences accentuated with stupid music just shows how filmmaker Wes Craven has decided that everyone watching his movie is a real idiot. Except that, he's made an idiotic film, that can't be helped by the starpower of Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Heather Graham, and Hayden Panettiere. (Also, Emma Roberts is an awful actress who is trying to be "badass" in her misccast role). SCRE4M falls so close to horror movie formula its laughable, except its not...and that makes it worse. Truly awful, especially after raising expectations in the wonderful first 15 minutes (which is no where near enough to keep this movie from sucking).
Scre4m: ★1/2