One More Screaming Fit

Yesterday I wrote about watching the Scream movies, and I gave a short accounting of the original. I still like it. The sequels I was watching fresh, and I didn't like them so much, although they weren't all bad. I'll just hit them all today, since I doubt I have enough enthusiasm to carry this beyond today. "Scream 2" still had for itself some aspects of horror films left to skewer. In particular, making a sequel lets you jab the genre's known propensity for sequels.

It seems evident that some deliberate effort was made in the first sequel to be more diverse in casting. Including one actor with a tan would have made the sequel more diverse than its lily-white predecessor, but they went much further. They didn't cast anyone of color in an especially meaningful role, but I guess what they did was something. In any case, the first sequel had some value to it. It's not that bad that they made it, though reuniting everyone who survived the original in this new college town is iffy.


The third film attempts to dig into Hollywood, and suffers from too little of Neve Campbell and frankly too much insider commentary. I don't think people generally are that into the inner workings of the entertainment industry. Their curiosity stops at the sex lives of on camera talent. Still, "Scream 3" happened, and I don't begrudge anything that gives Lance Henriksen work, no matter how ill-suited to the role he is. I wouldn't watch it again, though.

The fourth film has the distinction of coming after a gap of over a decade. This did not prove to be a fatal problem, though it easily could have been considering the ravages of time that strike even actors, and considering how this series has depended on flaws in telecommunications that are no longer there so much. Still, the younger actors who populate this movie, while superfluous considering each one is very much a double for one of the returning castmembers, are appealing enough that I endured the movie with some minimum level of enjoyment.

Altogether, the Scream movies are fine. They tilted too heavily into hyper-hip film literate snark and they began to often feel not very much like slasher movies, but they were never without some reason to watch. I sure hope they leave the movies as they are (and I know that's hoping for too much) , because they can't stand much more, but they are pleasant enough movies that represent a very fair chapter in the history of the genre.