Buy it... if you simply can't resist hearing Marco Beltrami procedurally delve into his 1990's bread and butter once more, even if that taste has become somewhat stale during the interim.

Avoid it... if you expect to find an interesting or engaging extension of the thematic narrative for the franchise, for Beltrami revisits ghosts from the past without developing them in engaging new directions.

Beltrami

Scream 4: (Marco Beltrami) Once thought stabbed to death and buried as a relic of the slasher era's resurrection in the 1990's, the Scream franchise is up to its old tricks in the 2010's once again. Director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson return from the first two features to reprise their roles for this fourth entry, along with other crew that include actors Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox. While there was originally no intent to bring the franchise back to life, Craven was convinced of its renewed viability based upon Williamson's fresh script, and, undaunted by a lawsuit from the producer of the original three films, the Weinsteins and Dimension Films pressed forward with the idea of creating an entire second trilogy if grosses permit. Performance by Scream 4 at the box office was initially considered disappointing, critics and audiences both respectful of the concept's important role in the history of modern slasher films but lamenting a lack of originality and a story that doesn't seem to really take itself seriously. That plot details the return of Campbell's character, Sidney Prescott, to the town of Woodsboro on the fifteenth anniversary of the killings so she can promote her new book. Upon her arrival, however, a mysterious reprise of murders conducted in trademark form by the "ghostface" killer immediately causes Sidney to become a suspect. The situation is complicated by both a plethora of new characters (many of them simply extras to thrust sharp objects into) and a new era of technology at play. The entire scenario is entirely pedestrian and predictable, an attempt by Craven to recapture old glory without enough revision in the basic premise to retain much interest. Continuing his role as the composer for the franchise is Marco Beltrami, whose career owes much to his ability to excel in the modern horror genre during the 1990's. The announcement of his return to the concept was met with general applause and fairly heightened expectations.

The music for Scream movies in general has been a rather muddy prospect, pop song placements and the lifting of some of Beltrami's music early in the series in favor of existing material by Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer hovering like clouds over the continuity sought by the composer. Beltrami still succeeded quite well in the franchise despite the meddling, actually incorporating the Zimmer material into his own for Scream 3. A downright gorgeous theme for Sidney has always defined the whole concept musically, whether expressed by solitary female voice in supreme elegance, stoic brass in statements of resounding dread, or in cooler choral shades. When last we left Scream on the big screen, Beltrami had successfully translated this theme into the major key for a surprisingly uplifting, contemporary farewell. But despite the memorable history Beltrami has afforded the franchise musically, Scream 4 is a substantially disappointing continuation of the narrative. He and four assistant composers handle the 2011 entry from a purely functional stance, tackling individual scenes with stylistic remnants of the previous scores while accomplishing absolutely nothing new. There exists no forward movement in the score for Scream 4, no intriguing maturation of ideas from the previous scores to reflect fifteen years of additional age. The application of existing ideas isn't particularly interesting, either, with no intelligent sense of hindsight to carry Sid through her new nightmare. Beltrami and his crew seem to have tackled the assignment by simply extending the composer's proven slasher style in ways perceived to be acceptably effective. Nothing screams the word "token" like the very short nod to the existing identity for Arquette's Dewey Riley in "Dewey in the Morning." Rather than find a creative way to re-phrase Zimmer's theme on guitar from Broken Arrow, Beltrami instead toys around with the guitar in nebulous fashion to suggest only a basic connection of identity (honestly, more thought seems to have gone into the cue title).

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Meanwhile, the aforementioned primary theme for Sid is not developed at all in Scream 4, its occasional references not worthy of much discussion. It exists in fragments throughout the score, often on the familiar piano, but only in two more outwardly robust fragments at the end of "When You Let Someone Go" and beginning of "Touch and Go" does the idea receive major performances. Even in the female solos in the former and ensemble force of the latter, however, the theme is still only partially stated. The entire score teases you with that theme, likely intentionally, and this move is fine as a fundamental choice, but Beltrami doesn't revise or replace it with anything else to carry the load. The bulk of the score consists of tired references to dissonant, prickling, shrieking, and pounding techniques of the era past, with a little manipulation to make terrifying hits more sudden. Some of these cues contain passages of interesting textures, including an enhanced role for metallic percussion worth some attention, but otherwise Scream 4 is a somewhat pointless listening experience. There are only so many ways brass can be slurred in ensemble crashes before you lose interest. Choral tones are used sparingly, a disappointment given how well they enhance short snippets of certain cues. The false resolution technique is also abused here, so much so that there's a hidden track at the very end of the score-only album (perhaps one of the two representations of the score on the song compilation album for the film). That Beltrami product is a chore to tolerate for over an hour, especially for the few payoffs in terms of reprises of Sid's theme. The quality of the recording is adequate, though it's somewhat baffling to hear the contemporary synthetic elements play such a minor role despite increased awareness of technology in the plot. The four cues of suspenseful setup, from "Cheating on My Diet/Woodsboro 2010" to "You Were Busy," contain seven minutes of palatable music. Otherwise, revisit Scream 3 for better memories from the concept, because frightfully little of interest remains in this ghost from the past. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Marco Beltrami reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.75 (in 20 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.87 (in 14,767 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.