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Review of Scream 4 (Marco Beltrami)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
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 had become somewhat stale since his superior Scream 3
score.
Avoid it... if you expect to find an interesting or engaging extension of the thematic narrative for the franchise, for the composer revisits ghosts from the past without developing them in meaningful new directions.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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 was up to its old tricks in the
2010's once again, destined for decades worth of pilfering. 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 lead 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 after reading
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
permitted. 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 Beltrami's return to the concept was met with general applause and fairly heightened expectations. The music for the Scream movies in general has been a rather muddy prospect, pop song placements and the lifting of some of Beltrami's music in Scream 2 in favor of music 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 style of Zimmer's 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 audiences left Scream 3 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 had afforded the franchise musically, Scream 4 is a substantially disappointing continuation of the narrative. The recording budget for the fourth entry was substantially smaller than that of the prior two, emulating the situation he faced with the initial film and forcing him to seek a lower cost orchestra in Europe as a result. He and four assistant composers handled 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 Sidney 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" in Scream 4 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 or even his own material for the character, Beltrami instead toys around with the guitar in nebulous light-hearted fashion to suggest only a basic connection of identity but not actually develop it. (Honestly, more thought seems to have gone into the cue title). Similarly recognizable but not very appealing is how Beltrami's team handles the more aggressive Woodsboro theme, tinkering around with it in "Woodsboro 2010," "When You Let Someone Go," and "The Media Arrives" but choosing muted stylistic connections in those performances that obscure its purpose. The loss of the great, rattling chain effect in this theme is lamentable. Meanwhile, the primary theme for Sidney is not developed particularly well 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 a few 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. As in "How's Gale," this theme is often mutilated by the composer's team, notes in the melody altered to dilute it rather than enhance it, as had been explored briefly in Scream 3. Hints of that more elegant variation do make a brief appearance in "I Know How You Feel" and "Sid's Advice," which closes the score on a more dramatic note. The entire work teases you with the 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 melodic 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 the horror cues in Scream 4 contain passages of interesting textures, including an enhanced role for metallic percussion worth some attention, but otherwise the score 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. There are brief moments of subtle comedy, as in "Working Together," and the first third of the score struggles compared to its predecessors in that it is slim on suspense and horror material during this time. The false resolution technique is also abused here, so much so that there's a hidden track of "Stab" movie-within-a-movie music at the very end of the initial 2011 score-only album for the soundtrack. That Beltrami product is a chore to tolerate for over an hour, especially for the few payoffs in terms of sustained action or reprises of Sidney'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 up front, from "Cheating on My Diet" and "Woodsboro 2010" to "You Were Busy," contain seven minutes of palatable music worth adding to a compilation of the other three scores. In 2022, the Varèse Sarabande released a 6-CD set containing music from all four of Beltrami's scores for the franchise, with one expanded disc dedicated to Scream 4 and three really brief demo cues on the 6th disc. The additional sixteen minutes of unreleased music from this score on the set help establish the early suspense and add redundant action cues to the third act. The three demos are of little consequence. In fact, the whole 6th disc in this set has little value. Don't seek the 2022 set for the additional Scream 4 material, as the original 62-minute presentation was more than adequate and contains all the highlights. Brian Tyler took the composing duties for 2022's fifth entry in the franchise, Scream, with results no better than this. In the end, revisit Scream 3 for the best memories from the concept's music, because frightfully little of interest remains in this ghost from the past. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
2011 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 61:38
2022 Varèse Album: Total Time: 79:15
(CD 6 has three tracks from Scream 4)
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or
film. That of the 2022 album feature notes about both the film and
score. That set is contained in an awkwardly unfolding Ghostface-shaped
sleeve, with each CD held within a slim cardboard case.
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