Scream 4

I Scre4m 'ed !

Scre4m comes at a time when the horror genre has almost redefined itself: the most appreciated movies are ones like Paranormal Activity, REC or the Blair Witch Project: shot with hand held cameras which lend to the feel that they are authentic videos. Wes Craven revisits the old school approach, and does it in great style. The first 10 minutes itself are enough to give you your money's worth.

The beauty of the film is its self-referential style, where it actually attempts to discover "new rules" in slasher films. This was anyways necessary, as Scream 3 exhorted us to forget the older ones anyways. Kids in this film celebrate the genre by dressing up as Ghostface and Drew Barrymore in an annual slasher film event. Contemporary trends have been introduced, and the stalker now texts and uses Facebook. And yes, there's an iPhone app which mimics the murderer too !

Still, amidst all the potshots and humor, the seat-cringing horror is intact and the kills are bloodier.

The film is set 10 years after the original in the town of Woodsboro, where Sidney (Neve Campbell) comes visiting to promote her self-help book. Gale (Courteney Cox) and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) are now married to each other, and all is well until the killings resume, targeting Sidney's younger cousing Jill(Emma Roberts) and her friends. Murderers love young chicks.

Lots of twists and turns, and an elaborate ending where guessing the killer is not easy. Definitely better than the previous one in the franchise. Go ahead, 'Scream' in approval.