All 6 Scream movies, ranked from worst to best
5. Scream 4
Scream 4 was the first movie in the franchise I was actually old enough to see when it came out, and for that reason it’ll always hold a special place in my heart. The fourth installment premiered in 2011 and is such a quintessential 2010s horror movie. I mean that in the best way. It begins with the 15th anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, and similar to Scream (2022), it introduces a few new characters while still focusing on Sidney Prescott and co.
People either love or hate the opening scene, which, of course includes a few murders, but this time takes an extra jab at the horror genre and some of its cheap gimmicks. There are two fake-out death scenes as we watch friends watch the Stab movies and debate whether or not they’re good. I like this opening well enough; it’s not one of the best but it’s fun and features appearances from popular actresses of the time like True Blood‘s Anna Paquin and Pretty Little Liars‘ Lucy Hale.
Emma Roberts stars as Sidney’s teenage cousin Jill, who’s living in Woodsboro. As expected, her high school classmates begin getting killed off by the new Ghostface. Scream 4 does not reinvent the wheel, but it’s entertaining; you can just have fun with it and not think too hard. The commentary on horror movies is still a huge part of the film and we even get a fun scene of the characters discussing remakes, but it’s not as clever as similar scenes in other entries.
Rounding out the cast of newcomers is Hayden Panettiere as Jill’s witty best friend Kirby, Rory Culkin as the Woodsboro Film Club President Charlie, and Marley Shelton as Woodsboro’s deputy sheriff Judy Hicks, among others. Cox and Arquette reprise their roles as Gale and Dewey respectively. I truly love the cast of Scream 4. Roberts is an awesome scream queen with edge and Panettiere does a great job bringing one of the best characters in the franchise to life.
In the end, it turns out that Jill and Charlie, who happens to be her secret boyfriend, are responsible for all the murders. Living in Sidney’s shadow her whole life, Jill was jealous that she never got any attention and wanted fame of her own. This leads her to put on the Ghostface costume and kill her friends, and even her own mother! It’s pretty extreme, but nothing more shocking than things we’d seen in this franchise before. Jill decides she wants to be the sole survivor of her spree so she kills Charlie, too. And she almost gets away with all of it.
Scream 4 is also fun because it doesn’t just end with Ghostface’s reveal and demise. After the police arrive at the scene, Sidney and Jill are taken to the hospital, and once Jill finds out her cousin survived, she sneaks into her hospital room and tries to strangle her. She fails and ends up dying, but for a minute it looks like Ghostface might actually survive. The movie ends with Jill’s name all over the TV as she gets her five seconds of fame.
As I said, the movie is entertaining, but not much else beyond that. Scream 4...It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst.