I'm kind of in awe of the marketing team behind Scream 4. Years after Scream 3 opened to little fanfare and vanished into the Wal-Mart dollar bin, here they are trying to position Scream 4 as one of the must-see franchise movies of the year. And they're doing a decent job! Let's hear it for hype and the fickle pop-cultural collective consciousness! In any case, now that we've got an official, HD version of the trailer that leaked last weekend (and quickly disappeared), let's journey down trailer-memory lane to chart how the rules of the series (and its marketing) changed, how it lost its audience and how well the latest trailer does at rectifying that failure. I'll be awarding each trailer a score between 1 (Lame!) to 5 (Hip!) on the Hip-O-Meter (patent pending).
Scream
Guiding Marketing Principle:
Drew Barrymore! Lots of Drew Barrymore! She's in the film (spoiler?) for about ten minutes, but she takes up more than a quarter of this trailer. Beyond that ploy, it does a nice job positioning itself as a straight horror movie, then slowly revealing it's sly, self-conscious take on the genre.
Rules:
1. You can never have sex.
2. Never ever under any circumstances say, "I'll be right back!"
Pop Culture References:
Prom Night. Nice one.
Ghostface One-Liners:
"Hellloo Sidney!"
"Do you like scary movies?"
Fails:
The dated voice over, which might have worked then, but seems pretty silly today.
Hip-O-Meter Rating: 4.5
Scream 2
Guiding Marketing Principle:
More, more, MORE! More elaborate deaths, more self-reflexive winks and jokes and more characters! Ghostface even has a more menacing voice!
Rules:
1. The body count is always bigger.
2. The death scenes are always much more elaborate.
Pop Culture References:
Showgirls
Ghostface One-Liners:
"Hellllloooo Sidney!"
"It's time, girlfriend!"
"Don't you know history repeats itself?"
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Do you want to die tonight?"
Fails:
At least two of those one-liners, plus the sort-of-lame Showgirls joke at the end. But it gets points for that awesome montage of all the characters and the glimpse of the movie Stab.
Hip-O-Meter Rating: 4
Scream 3
Guiding Marketing Principle:
Uh, remember the first two movies? Footage from those takes up half of this trailer. You liked those right? Beyond that, it looks like the studio had given up hope on Scream 3 before it came out. The locations look vague and muddy and the meta-plotline about a killer on the loose of the set of a film isn't even mentioned.
Rules:
There are no rules.
Pop Culture References:
The first two Scream movies?
Ghostface One-Liners:
"Hellllllllllooooooo Sidney!"
"Welcome to the final act!"
Fails:
Most of the trailer. That swirly title screen was kind of cool though.
Hip-O-Meter Rating: 1
Scream 4
Guiding Marketing Principle:
Again, remember the first two movies? This one is a lot more like those - they did a really good job editing the trailer to prove it. You know how those movies juxtaposed jokes with scary moments? This sequel has that in every scene
And yeah, they know the rules have changed over the last fifteen years and that this new generation is web-savy with their iPhones and whatnot. The new rules take all of this into account. Just forget about that lazy "There are no rules" thing in the last movie. Actually, just don't think about that movie.
The Rules:
1. The unexpected is the new cliche.
2. Virgins can die.
3. The killer should be filming the murders.
4. Guaranteed 3rd act main-cast bloodbath! (Sidney can die.)
5. Nudity?
Pop Culture References:
Remakes of Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, My Bloody Valentine, House of Wax, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Amityville Horror, Black Christmas.
Ghostface One-Liners:
"Welcome home, Sidney. Watch the preview of coming events!!"
"What's your favorite scary movie?"
"None of the above!"
Fails:
Like I said, I'm in awe of the marketing team. This is a good trailer! It's actually funnier than the other three and pretty tense to boot. It feels kind of important that I see this movie! It seems to be trying a little too hard with some of the "gotcha" moments, but still, kudos all around.
Hip-O-Meter Rating: 4