Scream 4 (2011) brings Sidney Prescott back to Woodsboro on the fifteenth anniversary of the original murders, and it treats a reboot as the new thing Ghostface would copy. Wes Craven directed. Kevin Williamson returned to write the screenplay. Dimension Films released it in the United States on April 15, 2011. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette star, with Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere as the next generation. It underperformed in the United States and later looked, to a lot of fans, like the film that predicted where the series went next.
At a glance
| Release date | April 15, 2011 (United States) |
| Director | Wes Craven |
| Writer | Kevin Williamson |
| Starring | Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin |
| Runtime | 111 minutes |
| Rating | R |
| Genre | Slasher, mystery |
| Budget | About $40 million |
| Box office | About $38.2 million domestic; about $97.2 million worldwide |
Plot summary
Sidney is on a book tour for a memoir about surviving. The last stop is Woodsboro, where her cousin Jill lives with Jill’s mother, Kate. Dewey is now the sheriff. Gale is married to him, out of the newsroom, and bored. Two girls are killed the night Sidney arrives, and the town treats the anniversary as a reason to throw a party anyway. A high-school film club, including Charlie and Robbie, talks about remakes as if the word were a clue. Kirby Reed is the one who actually knows the old movies.
The killer’s calls quote the first film and then correct it. The rule this time, the kids say, is that the unexpected victim is the one who dies, and that a reboot can recast the lead. Sidney stays because Jill is family and because leaving has never worked. Gale starts investigating against Dewey’s orders. The film is a homecoming and a complaint about what horror sequels had become in the decade since Scream 3.
Spoiler section: the ending
Jill is the killer, with Charlie as her partner. She wants Sidney’s fame without Sidney’s scars, and she plans to frame her ex-boyfriend Trevor and walk out as the sole survivor. She turns on Charlie once he is no longer useful. Sidney, Gale, and Dewey spoil the hospital ending. Jill dies on a gurney after Sidney has already been written up as the victim. The last look is Sidney’s, not Jill’s.
Production and behind the scenes
Williamson came back after sitting out the screenplay of Scream 3. Craven agreed to direct what both of them talked about as a restart rather than a part four the title could not avoid. The budget was about $40 million. Production shot in Michigan, with Dearborn and Northville standing in for Woodsboro, after a tax-credit deal. The opening, a stack of fake Stab openings, was Williamson’s way of getting the remake joke out before the real call.
Campbell, Cox, and Arquette had not shared a Scream set in a decade. Arquette and Cox were separated in life during the shoot, which the production did not hide and which the Dewey-Gale scenes do not comment on. Roberts plays Jill as a girl who has studied Sidney. Panettiere’s Kirby was written to die. Test screenings and later fan campaigns treated her as unfinished business, and a later film brought her back. Marco Beltrami scored it again. Craven’s cameo habits are quieter here. The film is his last horror feature.
Release and reception
Dimension opened the film on April 15, 2011. It made about $18.7 million in its first weekend and about $38.2 million in the United States and Canada. Overseas business brought the worldwide total to about $97.2 million, short of the earlier films and short of the budget’s hopes. Reviews were mixed, warmer than Scream 3. The series paused again until the 2022 film, which treats this one as canon.
Cast
- Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
- Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers-Riley
- David Arquette as Dewey Riley
- Emma Roberts as Jill Roberts
- Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed
- Rory Culkin as Charlie Walker
- Erik Knudsen as Robbie Mercer
- Mary McDonnell as Kate Roberts
- Marley Shelton as Judy Hicks
Trivia
- The opening kills two actresses playing a scene from Stab 6, then two more, before the film starts for real.
- Alison Brie plays Sidney’s publicist and is killed in a parking garage, a one-scene reminder of the book tour.
- Kirby’s movie-trivia standoff is the film’s reply to Randy’s rules from 1996.
- The title on screen is Scream 4. Marketing sometimes styled it Scre4m.
- Craven died in 2015. This is the last Scream he directed.
- Jill’s motive, fame as a survivor, is the line later Ghostface films keep arguing with.