Wealthy, blandly attractive teenagers better watch out, because Ghostface is back with a redesigned mask and total mastery of YouTube, Tinder, Twitter and texting on the move.
MTV premiered the first 8 minutes last week and as a fan of the film franchise, here are my thoughts:
Like the films, there’s good and bad.
Good:
A couple make out in a car while being recorded on a phone. The video is posted online and trends. Another couple, who are shallow and cold, die awesomely the same night. I like the cyber bullying revenge angle a lot. It seems like you read about the tragic suicide of some poor kid taunted by their peers online every few weeks. If Ghostface keeps targeting bullies, I’m okay with that.
The blood and stuff are actually pretty well done and graphic for television standards. Decapitated heads in a hot tub, a decent throat slitting. It doesn’t bear the artificial look of CGI blood spray, which I loathe. It won’t get as gory as some of the films, but it’s a good start.
Bad:
I understand that the series is very different from the films; it is set in the town of Lakewood and deals with a 20-year-old murder that mirrors recent killings. But it seems to be missing something crucial.
I miss Roger Jackson’s iconic voice over the phone. Texting is the new talking, or so I’m told. There’s simply no feasible way to text while holding a decapitated head, especially at the rapid fire speed at which this new Ghostface gets it done. It’s incredible! It takes me like five minutes to hunt and peck out one word.
Speaking of new faces, gone is the Edvard Munch-inspired mask I wore at Halloween in 1997. The new visage is more human looking and fitted with leather straps, like Jason’s hockey mask. It reminds me a little of the killer’s mask in the 1980s slasher comedy Return To Horror High.
I’m hesitantly curious and optimistic about the TV series. As it plays out, I’ll bring you my thoughts and reviews each week. Will Roger Jackson lend his voice to NewFace? Will Sidney Prescott come to town to investigate the killings? Will David Arquette continue to (infuriatingly) not die?
Keep it here for the answers!
I love the Scream series and I agree, Scream 4 is a ralely fun slasher film, and probably the best since the original.It’s interesting to compare the saga with the Toy Story films. Toy Story 3 and Scream 4 returned 10 years after Toy Story 2 and Scream 3 were relased. However, TS3 was a huge success and S4 failed at the box office.I know the audience of TS3 is and has always been bigger but it still shocks me when I read Scre4m couldn’t reach $100 m. worldwide. Maybe we are experiencing the death of horror right in front of us and, like Scre4m implies, all we can do ir return to the classics.