How Scream 4 Should Have Ended (And What Came Next)

It may be hard to imagine these days, but back in the early 90s, the horror genre was not as booming as it is today. The state of the genre was doomed to a feedback loop of churning out sequel after schlocky sequel of the three big franchises: Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the Thirteenth, and Halloween.

Oh and there were those pesky Chuckies and Leprechauns running about, too. But general audiences and critics were not interested in these decidedly unfresh films that kept coming out. If horror was going to survive into the 21st century, the genre needed to find a way to bring general audiences back into the theatres. And as if by magic, in 1996, Scream did exactly that with its fresh new spin of meta-commentary, a whodunit approach, and of course all those likeable, cool characters such as Randy, Dewey, Gale, and Sydney.

Although Scream 2 is pretty much universally agreed to be one of the best sequels in the history of horror, Scream 3 aka “the Scooby-Doo one” seemed less like a real film and more like a parade of celebrity cameos. SERIOUSLY, was Jenny McCarthy actually in that movie?!

At that point, mercifully, the franchise was smart enough to know when it had worn its welcome and took a break for 11 years. Then the original creators behind the first film, screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven, got the band back together and Scream 4 promised to bring the franchise back for a new generation. Except what we got was a Lifetime movie passing as a Scream film. Did we really need nearly every female member of the cast to be wearing hair extensions? 2011 was such a different time.