Scream 4

Welcome to the fiftieth episode of What's Your Favorite Scary Movie? Hello, Sydney. It's your killer host. My name is Parker, your resident horror fanatic. I'm Caroline, Scaredy Scream Queen. I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic. And welcome to What's Your Favorite Scary Movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time. Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours. Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release. Ah guys, tonight we have made What's Your Favorite Scary Movie History in many away. One. Guess what? Drumroll. It's our fiftieth episode! Guys, please. Not only that. Not only that. But we just finished.

Not only that, but we just finished our first ever horror movie franchise. What's your favorite scary movie? That was pretty spooky. That was a great uh voice, Ian. You did really well with that. Yeah. Thank you. So what's your favorite scary movie? Please, you're gonna do this in the dark in bed. No, no, stop, Caroline. Stop. I don't need to hear about it. I'm gonna get so scared. I hate this. I'm done. Okay. I dream about that a little bit being said to me. Boing. Excuse me. Whoa, why'd the table just go up? Whoa, whoa. Alright. I hate everything that's happening right now. To celebrate our 50th episode, you may have heard, uh, probably not on this podcast, but somewhere, that Scream is me, Parker, my favorite movie.

Not scary movie, my favorite movie of all time. To round out 50 episodes, I thought these dweebs that I host this podcast with need to see Scream 4. And we did. Now let me tell you. This I'm just I'm gonna do the whole episode in this. You need to. Can I? Please. Please don't. Yeah, no, I'm gonna I'm gonna call an O here. Come on, Parker. Rat and Tomato school. I'm hanging up the phone. He's gone. So you actually may not know from this podcast that I'm a pretty big fan of Lady Gaga. You may be wondering why that's relevant besides that I'm a gay. The answer is that many people say that Lady Gaga's best album is Born This Way.

I would agree, technically, on every level, Born This Way is an incredible album. However, her album Art Pop, people don't appreciate it. They say it's art flop. They say it's not so good. But when I go to my Lady Gaga playlist and I put on Lady Gaga, you know what album I play? Art Pop. A similar thing happens with Scream. Scream one on all levels is technically an incredible movie. I might even say perfect. However, when it's a rainy day, when I need a good comfort food movie, do you know what I watch? Scream for Scream 4. Now, you may be thinking, Scream 4, Scream 4, Scream 4. Hmm. I don't think people love Scream 4.

And the answer is people don't love Scream 4 as much as they should. And as much as Scream and Scream 2 are kind of the representation of what the 90s is. You watch those movies and you're like, ugh, 90s. We are only nine years removed from Scream 4. So we're like 2011, boars snore. I just watched this movie. It is like put it in a museum. It is 2011. That is the quintessential early 2010s watching this movie. In ten years, we'll be like, look at that masterpiece. So Scream 4, released in 2011, 11 years after Scream 3. Scream 4 was directed by Wes Craven. Unfortunately, it was the final film directed by Wes Craven before he passed in 2015.

Not only is Wes Craven a pioneer of horror who made a nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3, but there has been a lot of hesitation to continue the Scream series after his death, obviously because he's created all of the Scream films. And it would be a pretty big departure from Scream uh, you know, Scream Norm to create another Scream movie without him. However, good news. Scream 4 marked the return of Kevin Williamson as writer. We discussed in our Scream 3 episode, which can be found on Patreon.com slash scary moviepod, that Kevin Williams Williamson was absent from Scream 3, and I think that the kind of um disdain for Scream 3 has something to do with Kevin Williamson's kill Kevin Williamson's absence.

He is back. However, after Kevin Williamson wrote the script for Scream 4, Aaron Krueger, the writer of Scream 3, was hired to consult on Scream 4. He made quite a few rewrites that apparently Williamson was not happy with. The original ending for Scream 4 occurred at the house. It was supposed to be a cliffhanger where Jill was taken to the ambulance and she had the uh photographers, the media taking pictures of her, that sly smile on her face, when an EMT calls out that there was a survivor in the house setting up what would be a trilogy of new Scream movies where Jill is the antagonist of Scream 5. However, the whole deal was that if Scream 4 did well in the box office, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven had already signed on for Scream 4, 5, and 6.

Scream 4 did not do too hot in the box office. And I think that's really a bummer. No, I think it ended where it needed. Caroline, you're kicked off the pod. The podcast is over. We're done. Alright. So I'm not happy. We have the three main returners. Nev Campbell as Sydney, Courtney Cox as Gail, and David R. Katt as Dewey. Please. Um what? Grimes. Oh, we're getting there, we're getting there, we're getting there. We're getting there, we're gonna get it. There are a lot of main characters in this movie. It's an ensemble movie. However, I wrote down the main players based on who is the young cast who are standing. Yeah, supposed to be like the developing new player.

I feel yeah, I feel yeah. Alright, so within that new crew, we have Emma Roberts as Jill. She was in Scream Queen's American Horror Story and The Blackcoat's daughter. Can you tell for me the director and creator of the Blackcoat's daughter? No? Oz Perkins, creator of Gretel and Hansel, which you may have found on our podcast. Oh, it did sound familiar. Alright, we also have I can never freaking say her last name. Hayden Panetier. I think that's right. Uh, as Kirby. I never well, okay, she was in Heroes in Nashville, but also I thought she was like the most beautiful celebrity ever because she launched in a line of clothes at Kohl's when I was in middle school.

Yeah. I remember walking into uh Kohl's and her big face was on some advertisement, and I was like Her big face. I was like, she's so beautiful. Like, I'm this awkward sixth grader. Why can't I look like her? She is beautiful. Yeah. Haircut in this movie, very short, smash or pass. What's she doing these days? Uh, that's not a question for me. Haircut, smash or pass. Oh, I would pass, but I mean I think it worked for her. Especially in 2011. Yeah, yeah. But I'm gonna pass on that. Ian straight male, smash or pass on the haircut. For who? Kirby, the blonde. Short hair. The main one. Smash. Ooh. Alright, well, he is the uh reliable source out of the group on whether women are hot.

Yeah, well, Ian, I'm not doing that for you. Gross. This really escalated. I would look so ugly at that. Alright, uh, Eric Knudson. Knudsen. I have no I have no correction. KN Udson, uh, who plays Robbie. He was on Saw 2 in 2005 and The Mist, the TV series. Ooh, Stephen King. Uh, Rory Colkin as Charlie. Colkin was in Signs from 2002, Lords of Chaos in 2018, and also Castle Rock, which I haven't seen. You really just breezed over that he was in Signs, which is a massive M Night Shyamalan movie. Cool. Famous. Oh, I've been waiting to say this one. Nico Tortorella as Trevor, and I sat here during the whole freaking movie trying to figure out how I know him.

He was in Trespass in 2011, and also the following, but most importantly, he is the uh cute understated nerd boyfriend from Make It or Break It, the gymnastics TV show, which is so freaking good. You guys all need to watch it. Never seen it, but also he is a co-star in the TV show Younger, starring New York Queen Sutton Foster. Are we done yet? Make it or break it. No, there are too many celebrities in this movie. Uh speaking of which, a few shout-outs to. That's not the word that I wrote on that. Parker wrote G Wiz all one word. G-E-E-W-H-I-Z. Gee Whiz! Go whiz! There are so many other celebs in this film. That's what I wrote.

Thank you very much. Okay, a few shout-outs to the intro scream queens, Lucy Hale, Sinee Grimes. Wait, wait, Hale. All right. Who you might recognize from our Patreon episode on Blumhouse's Fantasy Island. Check it out at patreon.com slash scary moviepod. Second name I said, but we're saying again because it's hilarious. Sinee Grimes. Beach? Oh, Beach. My crush. You have you have too many crushes. Why do you have a crush on her? Crush. I don't know. I literally, this is that's the one person in this movie I've never seen before. She's in 90210. She's like the main character in 90210, the bring back. Is she your celebrity pass in your relationship with Caroline? I don't know. We haven't discussed it.

I thought Anna Kendrick was yours. What about the lady from The Turning? Oh, yeah, her too. You only get one. Would you pick Sinee Grimes, Beach, or Anna Kendrick, or Blonde from the Turning, whose name I cannot recall? No comment. You can't choose. Give the people what they want. I choose you. Disgusting. Alright. Uh, Anna Packwin. Kristen Bell, who has aged so beautifully, she's way more beautiful now than she was in this movie. I love her. Um, Amy Teagarden, Britt Robinson, Allison Bree as Rebecca Walter. Do you like Bree? I do. Okay. Comment down. Marielle Jaffa as Olivia. Marley Shelton as Deputy Hicks. Deputy. Deputy. Uh Nancy O'Dell. Nancy Odell, who has appeared in every Scream movie from Scream 2 to Scream 4.

Uh, we also have Anthony Anderson as Deputy Perkins. Adam Brody as Deputy Haas. Also, he is Seth Cohen in the OC. I have a I have a big crush on him. Get out of town with all your crushes from re fr TV. I love him. Uh Mary McDonald is Kate Roger L. Jackson as the voice. Now, Mary McDonald as Kate, I actually did not have a crush on her, but used to be a pretty big fan of Battlestar Galactica. Get out of here, nerd. The IMDB summary reads, quote, ten years have passed, and Sydney Prescott, who has put herself back together, thanks in part to her writing, is visited by the ghost face killer. Oh my god.

The uh rotten tomato score, the critic score is sixty percent, the audience score fifty-five. Uh-huh. It's like some kinky ASMR. Is this hurting your throat? If you're horny listening to this right now, keep going. The critics consensus is quote. The franchise is oh, it's breaking. I'm losing it. One last try. The critics consensus is quote. The franchise is showing its age. But Scream 4 is undeniably an improvement over its predecessor. Ian is squeezing the mic so hard for it. Just enough meta humor and clever kills. I told you. RAP to Ian, his throat is gone. He will never be on the podcast again. It's not, it's not even like it's hard. How hard. You sound like one of those like fucks up your mouth.

Creepy old overweight men who like smoke cigars and hosts like a late-night radio show. Ew, don't make it weird, Caroline. That's what it sounds like. Craven said, as I said earlier, that if Scream 4 was successful, it would be the beginning of a new trilogy. But after underperforming Anne Craven's death, the Weinsteins. Weinsteins! Weinsteins benched the franchise. Unfortunately. However, Scream 4 was released eleven years after Scream 3 was released in 2000, but was not the final addition to the franchise. A perfectly acceptable television anthology was presented on TV. However, the third season, abysmal. It was horrible. The first two seasons, fine, interesting, not nearly as well written or created as the movies. But the third season, offensive.

Horrible. At the end of 2019, as we discussed in our Hellraiser episode, Spyglass announced they would be not only rebooting Hellraiser, but heading Scream 5. So I said that this was our first trilogy complete or not trilogy franchise complete completed. Complete. Completed. However, we might have to follow some new additions soon. Hello, Sydney. That is scary. Stop. I'm done with this. Alright. As I said earlier, scream for you are close to my heart. So what's everyone's first reactions having just watched the movie? I did not hate it. Same. I was um thoroughly happy. The dread was lost quickly. Yeah, I was I was engaged pretty much right from the beginning. They hooked me. Not yet. Uh uh, excuse me.

What? Parker, we have something to tell you. What? Oh, engaged. Oh my god, back off. Um yeah, I was I was involved. I got involved. I was like happy to see Courtney Cox show up and like she looked great for the first time. She was gonna show up. No, I was just like, I was I have not been appreciative of her character in the past. Gail Weathers. And so when she showed up, I was like, she looks great. I think she's gonna like really super approachable in this episode, yeah. No, really, like Gail for the first time is kind of um more humanized. I think she's the biggest bitch in this movie of all. The movie.

I kind of loved her by the end, though. I I loved her in this. Yeah. Um I've never liked Gail Weathers up until today. Yeah. Anyways, uh, loved her, Sydney. Yeah. Sydney was hot. I've never been a big fan of her. Oh my god. I mean, like, she she does the job as the protagonist, but like you know, I'm um warm. Listen, we talked about earlier. Sydney's had quite an arc over the franchise. She starts out victim in the first movie, fighter in the second movie, insane in the third movie, and the fourth movie, you can see that she has overcome a lot. She has looked within herself, she's written a book, and she's ready to fight again.

And in this movie, she literally fights. She's ready for Ghostface in this movie. She has been waiting for 10 years, almost just like Lori Strode had waited for 40 years between Halloween and Halloween 2018. A little bit less extreme. A little less extreme, but I actually think I think she'd been working out, you know. I actually think that Scream 4, the structure of Scream 4 is a huge setup for Halloween 2018. To me, Halloween 2018 hits all the same beats of uh reverence to the original movie that Scream 4 hits for Scream. I don't think Scream or I don't think Halloween 2018 would be what it is without Scream 4. You know, and I I kept thinking the entire movie, I was like, what is it that's different about this one that is just captivating me so much more than even the first one, I would say.

I don't know if it was just like more glossy because it was like closer to present time, like it's not from the 90s. Or I don't maybe the storyline just felt like it was more succinct and like put together. I felt way more involved though. I would argue that Scream 4 is to us who were born, we were all born in the 90s. Scream 4 is to us what Scream would have been to the people our age when Scream came out. I think the reason we're connecting so much with Scream 4 is because we are the target audience. We are the age where we know all of the celebrities in this movie and we relate to the technology, the flip phones, not the flip, the slide phones.

What do you call those? Uh sidekicks. Yeah. Oh my god. I wanted one of those so bad. It's funny because nine years later, all the technology in this movie is already outdated, but I feel already there's an iPhone on it. One iPhone. I okay. Really? Who? Uh in the car when she puts them on speakerphone, there's an iPhone. And when she looks on Jill's MacBook and it has the messages between her and Kirby. iMessage. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I I maybe. But I also think I think 2011. I think the the dialogue, the script was a little bit. Yeah, it was more well written, and I wasn't like sitting here thinking, like, oh my god, who talks like that anymore?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I was um pleasantly surprised. Uh your classic scream movie, but with a twist. And um You mean like modern day twist? Yeah. Yeah, I I I thought it was a good movie. Yeah. So my it's hard to pick a favorite part of this movie because it's all good. So many murders. But the movie begins with what I would say is the greatest horror movie introduction of all time. Don't at me. Don't at him. But at Parker Delray. This opening tickles my pickle. Alright. At Parker Delray, we don't need to know. Now, when I saw, because I saw this in theaters. When I saw this in theaters, I was. Uh, this was the year that I graduated from high school.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. 2011. 10. 15. I was 16 years old when Scream 4 came out in theaters. And I was psyched. By 16, I was already a massive fan of the Scream series. Nerd. And I was like, I get to see a Scream movie in theaters. Nerd. I was so excited. And when the very first opening scene between Lucy Hale and Ian's Bay started, I was like, oh no. Yeah, beach. I was like, oh no. I'm about to witness something truly tragic and horrendous. It was entertaining, but it was not good. And then they whip out that reveal that it is the beginning of Stab Six. And when that happened, I was like, oh shit.

Shit. And then I was like, oh, Kristen Bell and a Pacquin, I love true blood, signed me up. Little did I know, Frozen came out in two years, and I would be so excited. And I was then like, oh, this is weird too. Also, super meta. They're talking about Saw 4 in the first one because 2011 the torture porn craze had just wrapped up. The second opening was about Scream and like, oh, that meta shit's been done before. A bunch of articulate teens sit around and deconstruct horror movies until Ghostface kills them one by one. It's been done to death. The whole self-aware postmodern meta shit. Sick of four in 996 already. I like the stab movies.

They're scarier. It's not aliens or zombies or little aging ghost girls. There's something real about a guy with a knife who just snaps. Shit, it's the beginning of Stab 7. I think I screamed out loud in the theater. I was like, what? It was pretty good. That got me. So a lot. The first one was meh. The second one was less meh. And it's building up the third one, which, spoiler, is the actual intro to Scream 4. It may not be the best thing you've ever seen, but it is the perfect culmination from part one to part two to part three of actually building up through these parts to have this huge dramatic over-the-top kill where the first girl is thrown through the window, just like uh, just like in Scream One with Drew Barrymore, and then just like in Scream One with Tatum, the garage door is squished down onto her back and she's killed, and it says Scream 4.

I think this is the ultimate, like edging, slowburn orgasm you've ever had in your life. It's incredible. Parker was talking about orgasms. You better believe I came at least five times during that movie. So, like I said, all of our favorite characters are back. Actually, Caroline said that, but I wrote it. All of our favorite characters, Sidney, Gail, and Dewey, are back. However, the young cast is here with Jill, Kirby, Robbie, Charlie, and Trevor. And they look suspiciously like the cast of Scream. What I think is the genius of Scream 4 is they set it up to be like, hey, here are the old folks from this movie. We have young folks who clearly will carry the future of the series, but then they don't do what Scream did.

Because when I first saw this, I have an anecdote about it in a moment, but when I first saw this, I was like, oh, well, Jill is the new protagonist. We're gonna see how it plays out. They might just play it the exact same way Scream was played, because this movie is both a sequel and a reboot of the original, which I think is really insane. How can they both remake Scream but also be a sequel to Scream, which was the goal? And so I was like, well, they do the exact same thing. Spoiler, this bitch from my high school had posted a status. She saw Scream 4 Thursday night when it opened. I saw it Friday.

Sue me. Wow, I thought you were a true fan. I know. I saw it on Friday. I was busy on Thursday night. She had on her Facebook posted. Tell me why you would post this as your Facebook status. She posted, just saw Scream 4. I guess I'm never trusting my cousin again. What? There is no reason to post that. The only reason is to be a massive asshole and spoil a movie for everyone who reads that. So I was watching this movie. I can't even tell you if this movie tricked me because I knew from the get-go that it was Jill. I would like for both of you to tell me. Who did you think was the killer in Scream for?

You know, if I've learned anything from Scream, it's that I'm not gonna guess it. So I wasn't even trying the whole time. I love that. The only thing I knew was that A they wanted me to think it was the boyfriend or the ex. Yeah, Trevor. But I knew for a fact that there had to be two killers. Yeah. But beyond that, I was I was I was a little bit I I saw it coming right at the end, but I was surprised when it was I love that about this movie. I think that Jill, it's like you see it for the first time and you're like, ugh, it was so obvious. But it's you can't.

Because not only does Scream a mainstay of the series a staple. Because she got cut at the beginning. Yeah. A staple of the movie is that everybody's a suspect, everyone's a red herring, Deputy Hicks, Trevor, other people. They all seem like Kirby for a little bit. Kirby seems like the killer. Charlie seems like the killer. Spoiler who he is. Uh there's so many options, and at the end, it's something where you look back at the facts, it all makes sense, but there was no way you would have guessed it because it could have been everyone. I want there to be a movie where Daffy Duck is the killer. Dewey. Dewey? Dewey. Oh my gosh. I was like, this joke is lost on me, Ian.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I want Dewey to be the killer. No. So bad. He's Dewey. Well, no, yeah, that would never happen. But I think that the biggest trick of this movie is that you think, I think here's how they pull off Jill being the killer. So throughout this movie, there is one sole person that you know cannot be the killer, and it's Sydney. There's no way for Sydney to be the killer. That's true. And Gail and Dewey. Yeah, for the most part. But like, there is irrefutable proof that Sydney is not the killer. And they have aligned Jill and Sydney so closely together that in my brain, it was like, oh, if Sydney can't be the killer, then Jill can't be the killer because they're the same person.

And so it is a huge shock that Jill's the killer, but then when she's explaining it, it's like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Now, Scream 4 tries really hard to update the franchise to be a 21st century thing. Their whole tagline was new decade, new rules. And so they introduced streaming and phone stuff because texting was not texting was not even available in Scream 3. So they're trying to introduce technology into how Ghostface would be the killer. And for the most part, again, placing myself in 2011, I think they're pretty successful. Obviously, in 2019, it is outdated. But looking at 2011, I think they do a good job. I think so too. And they even mentioned in the beginning that was so fucking stupid.

Pure horseshit. The death of horror right here in front of us. I jumped. Scared me. A fucking Facebook killer? You're kidding me, right? I guess now it would be Twitter that make more sense. Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, no. It's not that one. They mentioned Facebook and then they mentioned Twitter, but that's in the fake out. Those are the fake outs, but she does say if it were really now, it would be Twitter. And that's even a good commentary. Yeah, but not true. Yeah. I mean, Facebook is still alive and well. Yeah, but Facebook is for old people. I don't even know where to go from here. This movie is rich. It's dense with fun.

Fun left and right. I think that the under the side character that is my favorite is Alison Bree as Sydney's publicist. She is so funny. Cool murder. When Sydney first gets that threat in the trunk of her car and she gets a call, she says something like It's Rebecca. God Henry. It's true. Like you and from then I was just like, hell yeah. And then later, Sydney gets to the hospital after Olivia's violent death and is like, Sydney, ooh, ow. And then dies in the parking garage, which I love. That death is so good because this movie, what's so smart about Scream 4 is that obviously a mainstay of the Scream series is that they know that we watch horror films.

We know the tropes, and even now they're still turning them at us. So when Alison Breeze in her car, she doesn't drop her keys. She gets right in, but the car won't stop because Ghostface has literally taken the wires or whatever out of the car. Starter. He's broken the car. So they keep turning these tropes and saying, You think that this is ridiculous and silly and unbelievable? Here's the reason why it could be believable. The chains on the front door, those take a second to get off. So they have to run back up the stairs because they can't get the chain off their door. I love that about this movie because it knows how to play every expectation we have against us, even in the 2010s.

About Alison Bree's character. I love her. I think that she kind of took on the personality of Gail Weathers in the first couple of films. Yes. She's like the busybody career woman, like just trying to take advantage of the situation. Gail's been softened by love. Yeah, but then she dies, like Gail probably should have, you know. Yeah. I totally agree. She's better in Mad Men. Do you have any specific deaths, characters, or scenes that you would like to touch on? Oh, well, Alison Bree's character, obviously. Oh, I would actually like to go to Olivia's death. When Jill and Kirby are in Jill's bedroom and they're watching Sean of the Dead, you get this great bait and switch of Ghost Face is on the phone.

He says, I'm in your closet. There's this like half jump of them opening the closet. It's not really scary, but it's like it it works. And then he says, I never said your closet. I never said your closet. Okay, I thought mine was pretty good, but shut up. And then he's in Olivia's closet and he rips her up. I did kind of love that scene of like them just watching it happen and not being able to do anything. Yeah. And we all saw that comment. We did, but I also think it's a great surprise. And it played out nicely. And it played out nicely because we've discussed that Scream had a lot of issues with sensors and it being too gory and too violent.

And they and the MPAA didn't want to let them have an R rating. They want it to be like a straight to video like X rating or whatever. And you can see that in 2011, that type of gore has been allowed to after, especially after a saw and hostel, which may be coming up on the podcast soon. They have allowed that type of over-the-top intense gore to pass by their ratings, you know? And you see that especially in Olivia's death when she is being stabbed repeatedly and thrown on the bed. And when Sydney comes up to her room, her guts are literally out on the bed in front of her, and it's gross. Sausage party. They said that they were going to up the gore from an original because a reboot has to outdo the original.

And I think that looking at the gore and the scares, they definitely achieved that. Agreed. Totes. Another thing that I love is how many times did they say something along the lines of this isn't a fucking movie? I love when movies do that. They keep saying, like, if this were a movie, then this would happen, but it's not a movie. They say that like five times in this movie, and that's so good because like we're like, this is a movie. You're so silly. But at the same time, it grounds us in the reality of the movie of them trying to say, like, if this were a movie, then this outlandish thing could happen. But since this isn't a movie, then everything has to be real.

And I think that's another staple of Scream, is that it's not a supernatural killer, it's not something crazy, alien, ghost happening. It's that there are real people hating real people. And I think that that is well, they're not real. It is a movie. But I think that that's a powerful thing about Scream is that these characters, we've seen Sydney, Gail, and Dewey in four movies now. Those are that it starts becoming like we know who these people are. We've seen them over and over again. We want to see them more. I feel like I'm BFFs with Sid, and it they feel a little more real. And so that they say that so many times. I love that.

I love it. He loves it. There is the incredible coining of the terms shriekel and scream make. I wish I'd thought of those. So then we get into the meat. There's the Stabathon, which is really fun. They say that if the killer is really going to be in the 21st century, he should be streaming his kills to be famous. Fame based off of uh trauma has been a theme of Scream ever since season one and it recurs season one, film one, and it recurs here. Um, I like the Stabathon. Originally, the Stabathon was not in Kevin Williamson's script. It was added later. If Stabathon was not in it, we would not have Gail injured, and it would not have felt like stakes were really high.

Then we get to the meat. Kirby says, if the party is the finale of Scream and a remake has to outdo the original, then the after party is the real finale. After party and after the party is the hotel lobby. I'm about to show you gotta somebody, so take it to the room and somebody. Alright. Will you give me that doot doot? Beep beep. It's the freaking weekend, Lydia. I'm about to have you some fun. I'm done with that. So they're at the um party. They're at the party that falls past the end of the original party. So there are a bunch of great things that happen at this party that falls past the end of the original party.

My favorite thing here. You may recall Hayden Paneteer. She goes downstairs and there's kind of a redux of the original scream where she sees Charlie taped to the chair. Sydney's like, I gotta go find Jill. Because there was that great fake out where Jill where Sydney's like, Jill, hide under the bed, and then she tricks Ghostface into being like, hey, she's out here. Little does she know, Ghostface there the whole time. Um so he asks Ghostface asked Hayden, Panateer, Kirby, a few questions that you should have been able to answer. Because when I said originally our 15th episode was Scream One, and before that, we had done a crash course in Slashers watching Halloween, Friday the 13th, a nightmare on Elm Street, uh Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

We watched Child's Play a little bit later. He asks her a few questions. He says, name the weapon of choice for these killers, Jason. Which one was Jason? Friday the 13th, you fool. Oh. Part two. Oh, uh, uh, butcher knife, Freddie Krueger. Freddie. Oh, yeah. Nails. Knives for fingers. Yeah. Now the question Hugh you would not have been able to answer is he said, which movie started the slasher craze? The answer is Peeping Tom. Obviously. Where uh that's been in contention for so long. Nobody really knows because Psycho was a good guess from Kirby, but it was a trick question. I don't know. That's contentious. But the part where he says, which remake, and she goes on this rant of naming every horror movie that she can think of, this swelling music.

Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie in which the film Halloween uh Texas chain's on Dawn of the Dead, the Hills have eyes in Amityville horror, uh, Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th, and a nightmare announcing my bloody Valentine when a stranger calls Pop Night Christmas House of Wet in the Fog. It's one of those right. That is a very emotional scene. She's starting to cry. Tell me that is not an incredible moment in cinema history. I was impressed with her knowledge. It made me well up inside and want to cry with her. But little does she know that Charlie in the stomach, he's like, We've been each other with each other for four years and you notice me now kills her.

A lot of high school angst in horror movies. Yeah, exactly. A lot of high school angst here, a lot of high school angst in Scream 1, but you'll notice that they know it and they're like, Isn't this ridiculous in Scream 4? Scream 4, I was building up to Scream 1 in our first episodes. I think this whole time we've really been building up to watching Scream 4. Oh my god, I can't get over it. So a lot of good lines here in the in the end. We figure out that Charlie isn't really the main killer. It's Jill! Ah! She says, All the plots are about trying to kill you. Love that line. Everything I learned, I learned from you.

She says to Trevor, here's one that fucks you, dumps you, and doesn't even make you famous, and then shoots him in the dick. Ouch! Ouch. That made me scream on the inside. Yeah, that would suck. And then the great. Greatest scene in cinema history. Jill says Charlie Williams do Trevor and you a demonia really lost baby. She stabs Charlie and goes on this rampage of throwing herself into picture frames, stabbing herself, ripping nails across her face, throwing herself onto glass tables. I've never felt so much joy than the first time I watched this movie in theaters. Both of you were like, ugh, during that. She executed it very well. It was incredible. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, this hospital thing at the end feels a little tacked on.

As we said at the beginning, Kevin Williamson's original idea was to end the house and have a cliffhanger leading into Scream 5. So Aaron Kruger wasn't into that. They created this hospital finale. How do you feel about the hospital? I think they could have left it as a cliffhanger and not made Scream 5, and I would have been fine. Agreed. It's spooky. Yeah. And I think that it plays perfectly into the idea that in the 2010s we're obsessed with fame, and she even says, everyone's online, how does anyone get famous anymore? I think we all knew that what's her face was not dead. Sydney. Yeah. Like there's like I knew she wasn't dead the whole time.

Well, it would have been a much more dramatic ending because we've watched her for four movies. If they're not gonna kill her at the beginning of Scream 4, then it has to be something crazy. And that wasn't crazy the way she stabbed her in the stomach. Right. Now, so all that happens, yada yada, this whole thing where Gail is like, how does she know I have a wound in my shoulder? Boring, that was a little bit of a yawn. I do like the scene overall. I know that this is just not what the movie was doing. But people have said before, I'm not the first one to say this, that Sydney should have died in Scream 4.

And I have a very specific reason for wanting this. I love Sydney a lot. She's one of my favorite movie characters of all time. But I wish she would have died in this movie because if they make a Scream 5, that would have been a very easy out for Nev Campbell, who has said before that now that Wes Craven has died, now that she thinks the story's kind of played itself out, she doesn't seem eager to return to Scream. And now I feel like if we get a Scream 5, which apparently we will, it's going to be like the movie starts and they're like, Sydney Prescott. She was a hero. She died five years ago. You know?

Or it's just gonna be like, remember that one time and then go on with the whole movie. No, I think it'll be she'll get paid enough. I don't know. I think that if Sydney had died in this movie, not only would it have made Scream 4 a more powerful entry in the series because it took bigger risks and did something more gut punching, but it would have more easily set up future installments in the Scream series. So I don't want to say like Scream 4 should have done this because they just didn't do it, but I kind of wish they had. Same. Um, I will say on that note, I wrote down early in my notes when Olivia was being killed.

Something I love about Scream 4 is that every stab, every punch, every fight seems so visceral in this movie. It like, I don't know how Scream 4 did it, but there is such intense, like physical contact between Ghostface and all the people that you feel in your body. It looks real, it looks violent, it looks like it hurts. And I don't feel that in every movie, and I wish that every movie could pull off what Scream 4 does here. They must have had a good choreographer. Alright, another couple of things that I want to bring up. I like that this movie is both satirizing remakes with the young cast rising up in place of the older cast and sequels with the original cast.

In the film commentary, David R. Kette says there's an electricity between Scream and Scream 4. And I think he's totally right that there is a weird connection between the first and fourth movies that is in part because it has this clash of characters confronting themselves. And I think that that's really uh really tangible when you're familiar with the entire franchise. Because if I had to rank the scream movies, I would say scream one, scream four, scream two, scream three from best to worst. And I was tempted with us to watch scream one and then scream four. However, if you don't watch scream two and scream three, scream four loses a lot of its power because you don't know the characters, the beginning thing is lost because you don't know stab.

And I just think that this this franchise really expertly executes the progression from beginning to end here. I don't think we missed that much. I think with a little message, it could have been like, you know, twelve years later, um, media has been like making a bunch of money on the story of this block. You don't think that's it? You don't think something would have been lost? Because you've seen them. You might be a little, you know, blonde too. You don't think you I don't even remember what happened in the second one. Oh my god. Well, you're wrong. Like, she went to college, that's it. And she went through a lot. Ugh. So the other thing that this movie does well is that it it hits on social media and the obsession with online fame.

Now, the three of us, we are on this podcast. I'm not saying we're famous, but it's a little bit resonant being like we're putting our voices and personalities out there for the world to listen to, just like Jill is killing people to be seen. I'm I'm not saying we're doing this to be seen because you know what? I just love horror movies and I love talking to you cool cats. But, you know, we are at this point all so connected to the internet and our online personas that I think this movie really smartly hooks into that in a way that I said Halloween 2018 seems really connected to Scream 4. There are podcasters in that movie, but they never really hit on a modern era being different for a slasher than the original.

They, in fact, do things where it's like somebody's thrown phone, phone is thrown into a punch bowl. Here, they have complete access to technology, and I think what's smart about this script is it finds ways for technology to interact with the slasher instead of having to be like, oh, if they had cell phones, then slashers wouldn't be able to get them because they could call the cops from anywhere. I think Kevin Williamson really nails it. It's true. What would you say from Scream4? Because again, a lot of entries, what would you say is the most memorable murder? Uh I think I have to say the PR lady. I don't know her name. Alison Brie. Well, no, what's her character's name?

Her character's name, duh, is Rebecca Walters. Yeah, I I don't even think they said that. Most memorable murder. Rebecca Walters. Right to the fucking skull. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Deputy Perkins. Yep. Then he says, fuck Bruce Willis and falls down. Again, this movie is pulling out those pop culture references left and right. Mamma. I'm going to say the most memorable murder. Mamma. I'm a little bit partial to Olivia being thrown out the window and then us seeing her guts in bed. I think I'm going to go, though, with Alison Bree. Not because of the parking garage scene, which I do love, her little click-clack heels, but the sole image of her body. Not only does she fall out of the parking garage, which is cool, and then you see the van kind of explode in sparks, but then they show us a brief second of her body slapping against the top of the van.

I love it. That whole sequence to me is perfection. Now, on a scary scale, I will say I was surprised. You both jumped and yelped more than I thought you would. On a scary scale, one to five, how would you rate Scream 4? Uh give it a three. I have to give it a three as well. I'm gonna give it a two. I think they pull off a bunch of good jumps, and I'm giving it a two over one because I also, like I said earlier, think that the gore and the visceral nature of each kill is really intense and disturbing, and it elevates it above the other, not elevates, but it just takes it up a notch because we had already seen the torture porn craze happen.

Now, on that note, would you give Scream for a smash or a slash? I'll give it a smash. I'll give it a smash. I'm gonna give this one a really fucking hard smash. Parker, do you like it? You like this movie? Uh I bet you I know what Parker's new favorite movie is. I did not even bring this up. You've heard me before say I'm a gay man, gay person right here. Oh. This movie, it the one thing that it kind of misses is that it doesn't give us a good set of rules. It kind of tries to make them throughout the movie instead of having a monologue like in the first three. However, the one rule that they give us, he says to survive a slasher film, a modern slasher film, you have to be gay.

This line has always perplexed me. Gay people do not make before 2011, gay people do not make it out of horror films. In fact, they're usually the killer and they look like psycho monsters. So I have to assume, I I I can assume, I don't even know, but perhaps this was an addition that wasn't Kevin Williamson because he's a gay man himself. I have no idea where this comes from. The only thing I can think of is that at the end he says, I'm gay, and then he kills him anyway. So maybe they're saying, like, that's something insane, that's not true, because he dies anyway. That line has always miffed me. I've never known what it meant, and I would love for someone to tell me.

So, there you go. That's my thought. My one complaint about Scream 4, a perfect movie. On that note, what's your favorite scary movie? And say it. The Lodge. The Lodge! No! Say what's your favorite scary movie? What's your favorite scary movie? The Lodge. The Lodge. Guys, I'm ready to step into the light. Are you saying yes? Out of darkness. To the dress. My favorite movie is Scream Four. You did not even give me credit for the incredible recreation of Sydney's book monologue there. And actually, Scream 4 might be my favorite movie of all time now that I'm watching it. That movie was incredible. Parasite was. Parasite, no, it's just my favorite movie of last year. Alrighty.

I don't even want to let it go. I want to keep talking about it forever. Well, we don't better. Alright, Parker will be here all night, friends. Next time on What's Your Favorite Scary Movie? Did you just fart? Caroline, Ian, you guys are taking a little bit of an international journey. Am I correct? Yes. So to prepare for that. Give me an Icelandic horror movie. We are not watching an Icelandic horror movie. We are watching the travel horror classic, Hostel. Ooh, does it take place in a hostel? I don't want to see. You'll have to wait. Until we watch Hostel, which is, spoiler, a movie I've never watched all the way through. Oh, damn. That bad, huh?

I wouldn't put that much credit into it. I just grossed me out a little bit. Um couldn't finish it. Bedbugs in the hostel. Um, until we watch that, feel free to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us. Is this gonna ruin hostels for me? Shut up! I can only imagine the person that lady staring at you in the middle of the night. Leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, and we'll give you a scream over the airwave Scream 4. My other story. I have one more, real quick. Oh, he can have a story. Yeah. When I was 16, I'd seen Scream 4, loved it. I left the theater ecstatic. I was like, I just saw the greatest movie of all time.

And then people were kind of so-so on the reaction to the movie. And I was like, what? That's so sad. I was with, don't laugh at me, I was 16 and I had a girlfriend. I had a babysitter. My parents didn't trust me. Oh my god. And we had gone to our local video rental store. We had gone to a local video rental store called Hastings, and we were browsing. She was my friend. We actually enjoyed each other's company. How old was she? She was in her early 20s. I mean, you guys could have been like dating at that point. Ew. A woman, I would never. I'm just saying, if you if you liked ladies. I might have been 14 at the time.

Or 15. I was either 15 or 16. I was probably 15 because I couldn't drive. That would be why I would have a babysitter. I don't know. You guys shut up. So I was with my babysitter. We went to the video rental store called Hastings. Don't admit that on the podcast. Shut up. He was with his teen sitter. Let me get the story out. We walked to our video rental store. I was browsing the horror films as one does. Was she in the adult section? So we were at the video rental store. I was walking through the horror films. I looked at the shelves and I said, Scream 4? Scream 4's not out yet. So I quickly pulled one off.

I said, Jordan, we gotta go right now. We checked out. We left. I told my friend who was having a party later that weekend, I said, listen, Scream 4 is out on DVD. You better go get it for your party. She went to the video store. She said, Scream 4 is not on the shelves. I said, I bought it earlier. It is. She said it's not. I went to the cashier and asked, My friend bought Scream 4 earlier. Where is it? They said somebody at the store had made a mistake and put out their stock of Scream 4 DVDs a week early. Somebody got fired. And three people bought it. And if anyone found out before the movie even came out.

Yeah. Oh. If anyone found out they could be sued. I watched Scream 4 five times in one week. Because I was like, nobody else on this earth can watch Scream 4 on DVD right now. You saw it before it came out? No, no. It was the D out on DVD. I saw it in theaters. But I watched it five times in one week because I was like, nobody else can watch this right now. That's funny. Wow, there are two other people out in the world that had the same experience as you, and you don't know who they are. No, I love that. I watched it a lot of times, and I still watch it a lot of times.

My name is Parker Heron. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and the slasher app at Parker Del Rey. My name is Caroline. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at Carol Manifesto. And my name's Ian. You can find me right here every week. And you can find all three of us scary movie freaks on this podcast, like Ian just said, and distracted me. But also on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Scarymovie Pod. You can reach us with feedback, movie suggestions, anything you want at ScarymoviePod at gmail.com. You can view our calendar, hot reviews, everything you could possibly want at scary moviepod.com, and you can get bonus content, including our Scream 3 episode if you're really missing that entry, in the franchise at patreon.com slash scary moviepod for only five dollars a month.

I'm gonna slit your eyelids in half so you don't believe when I stab you in the face of the photograph.