Scream 4

Finally, a quality leap compared to its predecessor. The fourth installment is like a breath of fresh air for the series! The new characters are fantastic (Hayden Panettiere is brilliant!), and the thrilling pace is non-stop. Most importantly, the final reveal of the killer is shockingly incredible. I really enjoyed Scream to the fullest! We'll see what the next installment brings. For me, the fourth one earns a solid 7/10. (02/09/2023)

I liked the more technically bloody and visually better murders and the shocking revelation of the killers at the end – you have to give this franchise that, for the fourth time the viewer has no idea who it is until the end of the film. What's a bit of a downer, though, is the somewhat impersonal approach, where the 1st and 2nd parts were much better in terms of characters, here they are typical boilerplate skeletons without personality, and the behaviour of the victims is a bit ridiculous at times. All in all, though, another decent entry in a cult franchise. And now to number five, I'm looking forward to it like a little kid and expecting a five-star, bloody carnage. (01/17/2022)

0% fear, 100% playful (sub)genre tongue in cheek. If Craven and Williamson hadn’t missed the European train, or else if they had had the courage to work with it, this could have been better. Much better, if they had left out the superfluous “alternative ending". They aren’t resuscitating the American teenager slasher with this, they are simply proving that it is long since dead and can’t be approached otherwise than by making a comedy. (04/14/2011)

Hayden Panettiere and her Hitchcock-Lady hairstyle is the highlight of the film for me. :-) This juicy slasher tops the previous installments by increasing the body count as well as the number of jokes and film references (both in the dialogue and in the form of posters on the walls). Too bad it came out eleven years after the third Scream and thus serves only as a nostalgic reminder of the famous franchise. The tastes of today’s horror audience have evolved since then. (05/08/2011)

It's entertaining, even for the fourth time, even though I'm not a huge fan of this crazy franchise. Wes Craven plays the same notes over and over again, but technically, he does it well, he can make fun of himself and combines it with good references to tons of movies trying who knows what, but not entertaining. The cast isn’t impressive either, so we are basically where we were some years years ago. A solid dose of fun purely for a single viewing. I really couldn't find a deeper meaning or any other reason to watch this film again. (12/20/2011)