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Tuesday
13Jan2009

Shout it Out: 'Scream 4' On the Way

DateTuesday, January 13, 2009 at 3:22AM
Wes Craven's first Scream movie - which might also be appropriately credited as Kevin Williamson's first Scream movie - represented an important moment in the horror genre. For years leading up to that film, there were no fresh ideas in horror coming out of the major studios. It was all Jason Takes Manhattan and Freddy Does His Taxes or whatever. But then Scream kind of turned the horror movie on its head a little bit, and suddenly, it was cool again.

That movie was enormously successful, as were its sequels, and it spawned a new wave of slick, teen-driven slasher flicks, sold untold Halloween masks, and ultimately launched the unspeakable PG-13 horror movie era. And maybe it can do it again.

Bloody Disgusting confirms what has been strongly believed for some time: There will be a Scream 4, and at least an early draft of it wll be written by Kevin Williamson. Craven may or may not direct, but he is involved, and offers are being made to both Courtney Cox and David Arquette-Cox, as well as Neve Campbell. They won't be the stars of the film, however, and the deals would be for cameo roles.

Instead, Scream 4 would kind of relaunch the series, or at least that's what I take from Bloody Disgusting's statement, "This will be a younger version" of the series. That only makes sense. The first film is now over a decade old, and nobody wants to see Neve Campbell on the run again. (Sorry, Neve.)

The only real drawback to any of this is whether the creative team can keep it fresh. That wasn't the case with Scream 3 in the slightest, which probably had something to do with the franchise stopping at that point. It's tough to juggle tension, gore, humor, and breaking down the fourth wall in 90 minutes.

Of course, if this truly is a 21st century version of the same idea, then I know a teenager who's going to be moving into a house haunted by the ghost of a creepy Japanese kid.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

Just so you know, Scream didn't start the PG 13 horror. All three entries were R rated. The Ring is probably more to blame.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterknives

you are right. but what i think colin means is that it started that mainstream-teenn horror movie obsession. or maybe relaunched it from the 70s/early 80s.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterabower

Right, I was just saying that by extension, the Scream trilogy made horror movies hip and profitable again, attracting bigger stars and bigger crowds. Hollywood then turned a lot of them into PG-13 affairs to keep the money coming in.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

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