Craven Knows What He's Doing

One of the first horror movies that I remember seeing as a kid, long before I had even heard of The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi or George A. Romero was "Scream" and the film was so witty and satirical that it briefly ignited a personal teenage fondness for the "slasher" genre. I admittedly believed that Wes Craven was the be all, end all as far as horror director's go. Looking back through the years, he's been responsible for some of the most outstanding franshise's to date. You've got your "Nightmare on Elm Street", your "New Nightmare" and of course your "Scream".

Obviously they're not all great...you can't make seven or eight films in a franchise and expect them all to be good. In fact, come to think of it...some of them aren't even passable...And it seems to be a common occurence in the Hollywood of today, that the almighty dollar has caused these film creators to milk these franchises for everything they're worth. No greater example than the saw franchise. First one's great. Nothing short of creative genius. But the fact that they made six more of them, each only a year apart and each being released on Halloween means that the series has well and truly jumped the shark. I guess it was the same back in the 80's/90's with all those dreadful Elm Street sequels. But I'll tell you this much, give me any one of those shitty sequels over this "reboot" business any day of the week.

I'd honestly rather watch this than some bastardised version of the original

So far in the last decade, we've seen reboots of A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Amityville Horror, Prom Night, Dawn Of The Dead...the list is f**king endless. And just when you think you've lost all faith in Hollywood, just when you think they've hit rock bottom...somebody throws them a shovel in the form of a formerly great director that for some reason decides to sign off on the idea of their creation being royally butt f**ked by some other clown shoes wearing, wet behind the ears director. If I were a writer/director who created a beloved franchise, do you think for one second that I would allow someone like Rob Zombie to get his grubby little mitts all over it? Not a chance. I'd rather eat my own face.

This is exactly why I was all sorts of sceptical about this "Scream 4" (or "Scre4m" for all the cool kids out there)...It was marketed as some sort of a mash-up between sequel and reboot, which is all kinds of disconcerting. It was also announced that Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox would all reprise their roles, but that they would not necessarily be the focal point of this movie, because the intention was to set the scene for a new trilogy...presumably then, with an all new cast. That pissed me off first and foremost because Sidney Prescott (Campbell) is the entire focal point of those movies. She IS the franchise, Without Sidney, there is no Scream. It just wouldn't be interesting...nor would it make sense. She is to Scream, what Ripley is to Alien, or what Ash is to Evil Dead. Admittedly Cox and Arquette's characters are expendable...you really only need Sydney in order for the franchise to continue...but they're all just so damn popular, fans just would not like to envisage a scenario where the series continues without any of them, and that's a fact.

The only saving grace in the build up to this movie being made was the discovery that Wes Craven would be returning to the directors chair. Fans of the series immediately breathed a collective sigh of relief, taking solace in the fact that at least he would know how to do the movie right. And that he did. Surprisingly, the marketing all seemed to be very deceptive as the movie is thankfully still mainly focused on Sidney and co. with the rest of the blazé and frankly uninteresting characters taking a back seat. Without giving too much away, there is absolutely nothing here to indicate that fans of the series will not be thoroughly entertained. You will undoubtedly leave the auditorium feeling satisfied and grateful that finally Hollywood got a sequel right. It's no masterpiece, don;t get me wrong...but it is what it is...and it's thoroughly entertaining to boot. As darkly funny and satirical as the original, and often times even coming across as a parody of itself, this movie is exactly what it should have been, and everything that it could have been. It just makes you grateful that the town of "Woodsboro" is a ficitonal place, because it seems to be a breeding ground for the most psychotic individuals you'd be likely to encounter.

The thing that I find most bothersome about the fact that Wes Craven obviously knows exactly what he's doing, is that there are other directors, that I once held in equally high esteem who are not making the same wise decisions. There has been talk for years about whether or not Sam Raimi was going to go ahead and make the much anticipated Evil Dead 4, or whether he was just going to sign off on a remake of the original. For a while there it seemed as if he was leaning towards the latter, but apparently an aggressive, visceral outcry from fans lead to him rejecting that idea...but it turns out that he has recently gone ahead and decided that the remake is more or less a certainty, despite the fact that according to him, Evil Dead 4 is already in the process of being written?!? F**king nonsense. Why would you do a remake AND a sequel? Are you trying to divide audiences? Or do you think it would be clever to win back the legions of fans of the original by making the epic, big budget sequel that they've been dreaming of, all the while drawing in a new audience of twilight-emo-wankers with your new age, bastardised version of the original? I can understand remakes of movies to an extent, for example if the substance of the story is good, but the techniques through which the story was told appears dated...but this is simply not the case with The Evil Dead. It's as gorey and shocking today as it was in 1982. Simply put...NO...REMAKE...NECESSARY!

Would you pay money to see this kind of shit? Didn't think so!

I honestly enjoyed Scream 4 an awful lot more than I thought I would because it was done right, but I flat out refuse to entertain, or even acknowledge the idea of going to see an Evil Dead remake with this little emo shit, or any of his modern chronies involved.