Were Scream 4's Death Scenes On Par with the Original's?
While standing in a (people-less) line at the Glendale Americana last night waiting to get into Scream 4/Scre4m/What's the Scr411m?'s midnight showing, I wondered: What is it about Scream's death scenes that remain so memorable? Will the new ones live up? After seeing the gory caper, I have a definitive answer. Join the discussion if you've seen the movie! Major spoilers ahead.
First of all: I think we can all agree there was at least some merit to Scream 4. (Read S.T. VanAirsdale's review here.) Craven gave us the funny asides, spellbinding caricatures (Trevor!), ridiculous "meta"-horror (which Courteney Cox identifies as such during one awesome moment), and some genuinely terrifying moments. It's worth seeing in a theater, if only because it's going to be much less jarring on DVD. But in terms of magnificent death scenes? I'm a little disappointed.
For me, the most memorable slaying was that of Sidney's publicist (Alison Brie). The parking garage may have been a traditional setup, but the killer's five-story disposal of her body over Dewey's press conference is the series' most shocking moment since Jamie Kennedy's untimely demise in Scream 2. Because the movie spent its first 10 minutes tricking us with serrated Stab openers, we were deprived of Scream's usual longform jumpstart -- and that's a little unforgivable, right? Don't tell me you could tolerate that garage-door bit with Aimee Teegarden without remembering the brilliance of Rose McGowan's death in the first movie.
I was especially let down by adorable AV nerd Erik Knudsen's murder. The horror buff's outdoor stabbing is preceded by minutes of anticipation and a fakeout balcony scene, but his eventual death occurs much too quickly. Most of the deaths occurred too quickly. (Emma Roberts's mother, anyone?) Knudsen's final [paraphrased] words, "I'm gay, if that means anything!" were cute, but the scene needed thrice the devastation. Let's not even talk about the movie's final eighth, which nearly stained the whole film for me. Defibrillators and bedpans are not cinematic treats.
What do you think? Did anything in Scre4m match the terror, anticipation, and cleverness of Drew Barrymore's saga-commencing death? Or even Sarah Michelle Gellar's in the first sequel?
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Well, there WAS the cheating boyfriend getting shot in the body part nobody wants to get shot in, but if they are, they immediately want to shot in the head.
And the killer "staging" their injuries was the best scene in the whole movie.
Olivia got owned in this film. While the garage scene was very cool, I think Olivia's death was brutal and great
I really have to agree with Kyle here. Olivia's death was brutal. I was really surprised with the amount of blood in just that one scene.
Also, it was awesome that the boyfriend was dressed like Sidney's dad!
No mention of that stabbing in the face ? For me it was by far the best death (ok, the final Bruce Willis joke was lame, but still). I thought the parking garage scene was quite geriatric. Nothing new here. It felt like I was watching Cursed.
I thought the head-stabbing and subsequent blind swinging was totally affecting. I was moved, I was disturbed. But yeah, I could have done without the Bruce Willis line, too.
What about Kirby? What the hell was the deal with that? Is she dead? I liked hayden panettiere in the part. I didn't like how her part ended. They spent half the movie making you think it's her, and then they don't even give her a good last scene. I also wondered who the hell is going to be in scream 5.
It was the little things that made it for me. Robert Rodriguez's credit for directing the original stab movie. Trying figure out who the killers were was fun. It was exactly what a scream movie should be, no more no less. Craven and Williamson thanks for not disappointmenting me. It made my weekend..
Yeah I felt the murders were kind of rushed to be properly scary. I did find the scene where gail got stabbed to be a really scary scene and i thought she was going to die. I think maybe she should have, at least it would have changed the game and been kind of shocking, you know, broken the rules. Otherwise the movie was okay and I think it had the best idea for a killer of all the sequels.
Memorable deaths in Scream 4? Yeah, the PR rep comes the closest, but not close enough to some of the ends characters met in Scream and Scream 2.
Memorable deaths in Scream 4? Yeah, the PR rep comes the closest, but not close enough to some of the ends characters met in Scream and Scream 2.
This writer's too picky. LOL Robbie's death was more than good enough, he wasn't even the best character in the movie for me. Mary McDonnell's character had two scenes in the entire movie altogether, how much of a death scene did she need? But I thought her death scene was pretty creepy. The police officers could have used a little more "oomph?" to me, especially considering Adam Brody didn't even have any blood and he was just quickly dispatched of, but I guess they were just getting rid of the cops. Olivia's was particularly gruesome. I thought most of the last half lacked the "fun factor" the first half had. It was all dark and serious and not as funny. The actors all got really emotional and dramatic. Kirby got it pretty violently but I would have thought Kirby needed a Ghostface chase scene considering she was such a well-liked character. Her scene fell into that category of darkly bitter in the latter half of the movie so she was just getting it so nastily. If she wants to go down in Scream's history as one of those cool characters who got such a nasty offing, shouldn't she have had a fun chase sequence not thrown in with the killer's "reveal"? Just a thought. In my honest opinion, though, Trevor's death SUCKED! The absolute worst death scene of this or any other horror movie in the past couple years. It was violent and somewhat shocking even though it's been seen in other movies, possibly scary movies, before. But I REFUSE to accept that one of the VICTIMS of a horror movie's body count should get SHOT to death. Victims in slasher movies are supposed to be STABBED. Why do you think the movie-within-a-movie movies in Scream are called "Stab"? DUH! Trevor needed something better. I don't really care where he was shot or the scene's context, being shot in the head and the crotch thing just blew it for me. I almost didn't hate his character even though he cheated supposedly. But his taste in women sucked. Although that was the worst part of the movie for me was the "killers". UGH! I could spend an hour ripping the ending a new one. I mean, SPOILER: I liked Jill and would have preferred her being a secondary heroine as kind of a new spin on the horror movie rules rather than turning out to be the killer. The killer in this movie was so savage and the physicality and mentality of the killers didn't measure up to me in any way. Charlie looked like a girl, and Jill wasn't strong enough to pull some of those deaths off. If you pay attention they try to say Jill's the one who dumped Sidney's publicist! A skinny teenage girl dumped a grown woman off a garage roof?! HELLO?! That's all. Please excuse my rant. LMAO The opening, however, was awesome to me. It was easily the second to Drew Barrymore's. Plus we got to have three openings for the price of one. It was hilarious, shocking and surprising. Not to mention, Scream now has an Oscar winner in the opening. LOL Anna Paquin brings new credibility to Scream to me at least.