Ninth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #18 Scream 4

What is there to say about 2011's Scream 4 (or, Scre4m, if you must)?  It's bloodier and not nearly as clever as the very clever first installment, and is truly not at all scary.  There are jump scares here and there but at this point, entirely unoriginal and, to me, a let down from the dream team of Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven.  Maybe that's the point: all the characters are all in on the joke, big horror fans themselves who know that horror movie sequels continue with diminishing returns.  But what would have been wonderful would have been if yes, all the characters acknowledged that ... and then this fourth Scream movie turned out to be amazing, to put a lie to it all.

Scream 4, as the third sequel, is governed by the rules of modern horror remakes - per the meta-commentary of the movie's high school Cinema Club: patterned after the structure of the original but with more extreme kills, plus throwing the rules of the original out the window.  I guess they did that?  SPOILERS Certainly we had a female villain, and excellent Final Girl Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell, returning the role once again).  But it sure felt like more of the same, all over again.  Props to Hayden Panettiere who is pretty funny as horror movie fan Kirby.

Also, this is two horror movies in a row about fame-obsessed teenagers as slashers.  Fear for the future, my friends.

Also?  LOL with Adam Brody up there on the poster: I don't think he even had three lines before getting offed.  Put Neve Campbell up front where she belongs!