Why do we think we need another Scream film to alleviate the so so horror movies we have had the past few years? While Scream definitely had it’s ups, it also had it’s downs. I must say though that the series had a great audience and that is most likely why we are having a fourth installment.

Check out the promo poster that the guys over at Arrow in the Head found. It’s a pretty solid promo shot but nonetheless…eh.

What do you guys think? Should Neve and crew of signed back on? I know it has the cast of the other films but come on? Is this trying to out last the Saw series? What do you all think?

You hear that sound? The one echoing all across the internet this morning? That’s the less than joyful noise of a dead horse being thoroughly flogged.

Looks like horror filmmaker Wes Craven will be returning to direct the fourth installment of his popular (in the 90s) horror franchise, Scream. With Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette all returning to no doubt combat one more whacked out psycho, Scream 4 has a slated release date of April 12, 2011. That’s almost exactly 11 years since the last entry hit theaters.

Kevin Williamson, the brain trust behind the first three films, has apparently turned out a script Craven is happy with. Wes’ acceptance doesn’t exactly lift my spirits though.  After those Hills Have Eyes remakes I question Craven’s taste. The news that Williamson already has ideas in place for Scream5 and 6 isn’t exactly cheering either.

Although I’m not surprised by this decision, especially at a time when studios are looking for ‘sure things’ with a built in audience, Scream feels like a concept that has long since run its course. It singlehandedly resurrected the slasher film, and gave birth to the terrifyingly annoying post-modern teen horror flick. Still, in this current climate of Saws and Hostels, one can’t help but be a bit nostalgic for those less malicious, tongue-in-cheek thrillers.

Unless of course, Williamson is planning to make the new movies grittier to match the changing times. Here’s hoping they end up being big goofy throwbacks. It’s about the only way I can seem them working at all. At least, though, this isn’t another remake. That’s something right?

Am I the only one what would rather be getting news of a Joss Whedon helmed, SMG starring, Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie instead of this?

I, mean, if we are in the business of resurrecting by-gone late 90′s horror franchises, why not?

Look! Another movie for us!

Last month we reported that David Arquette and his lovely wife, dancin’ Courteney Cox Arquette, were in talks to return to the Scream series.

Now it’s confirmed.

“We are going to be doing Scream 4,” Arquette told E! Online. “Kevin Williamson is writing the script at this moment, and hopefully Wes Craven is going to direct.”

Planned as a new trilogy, the next Scream series will focus on younger stars with no sign of Neve Campbell reprising her Sidney Prescott role. She has reportedly declined the role because she’s obviously busy with other projects.

Projects like NBC’s The Philanthropist.

Cox has also taken an interest in television and can be seen this fall on ABC’s Cougar Town.

Why the long face?

Last week we covered the Arquettes, Courtney Cox and David, and their talks in the proposed new Scream trilogy. Original Scream director Wes Craven has yet to confirm involvement with the new project but has left the door open to the possibility. “I’m not closed to it, I’m not open to it,” said the horror icon. “I’ll be perfectly happy to read a script and tell [Bob Weinstein] what I think.”

The new Scream films will feature a younger cast but are intended to include cameos of the original cast. No official word from Neve Campbell on if she will be included. Scream 1-3 scribe Kevin Williamson is currently working on the script for the new series.

The Scream series provided a satirical take on the cliched-riddled slasher film genre. The story features a serial killer wearing a Halloween costume who repeatedly attempts to kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

The next Scream is slated for 2010.

Talking point: Did Scream’s take on slasher films lead to Saw and other “torture porn” movies?

Gasp

Earlier this year, Bloody Disgusting reported that Scream 4 may be headed to a theater near you. Though not quite in the way you’d expect.

With Scream and Scream 2 writer Kevin Williamson attached to the project, there are rumors of Wes Craven returning as well. Planned as a new trilogy, the next Scream series will focus on younger stars.

David Arquette and Mrs. David Arquette (Courteney Cox) are currently in talks for cameos, but don’t expect the Scream franchise to focus too much on the past. It sounds like they’re headed for a Halloween H20-esque faux-franchise holder. New kids + key original characters = profitable yet underwhelming performance.

The timing for another round of Scream couldn’t be better. As the torture-porn scene fades into obscurity, more movies from the slasher sub-genre are starting to appear in the muck with a large segment of them being rehashs of older stories.

Don't go in the house!

Let me just tell you that Last House on the Left is one of the most disturbing and realistic thrillers that I have ever seen, TWICE. The original, filmed in 1972, remains a cult favorite, especially for Wes Craven fans. This story is the ultimate vigilante/revenge movie. Wes Craven delivers up yet another gruesome story in his latest remake of Last House on the Left. With updated scenes and the latest special effects, you have not seen this Last House on the Left before.

Violence, violence and more violence!  The violence starts within three minutes of the opening scene and doesn’t end until the last moment of the movie. This disturbing tale begins with an escaped convict and his cronies preying on two young teenaged girls. They kidnap and assault these two young girls in such a brutal manner that it sometimes becomes difficult to watch.

Start with a house in the woods six miles from the closest neighbors, add a thunderstorm that knocks out the electric, and lose the keys to your only means of transportation, and you have the primary setting for this intense and unbelievably graphic movie. Imagine being the parents of one of these girls, who simultaneously realize the fate of their daughter and that the monsters who hurt her are in their home. What would you do? Would you kill them or run? If you said, “KILL ‘EM,” then you’ll appreciate this storyline.

But be warned – this movie is extremely violent and extremely disturbing. Once you watch it, you can’t erase the visions from your mind. The special effects are unbelievable and abundant. Imagine all the gore you see when knives, guns, and even garden tools are penetrating the body. This movie doesn’t leave anything to the imagination.

On the lighter side, as with most thrillers these days, you hear some really funny one-liners like the convict calling the parents “crazy people.” The audience where I viewed this movie cheered and laughed quite often. There’s nothing like a little vengeance to get an audience stirred up!

As for the acting, the casting was right on! Garet Dillahunt (Krug) and Aaron Paul (Francis) play the villainous brothers who, with the psychotic girlfriend, Riki Lindhome (Sadie) terrorize the teenage girls. Sara Paxton is amazing. She is a strong teenage girl named Mary, whose will is never broken. Paxton brings the story home for us.

Additionally, Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn play the avenging parents who often reminded me of a wrestling tag team with gruesome, often over-the-top, attack methods. Oh, and you can’t forget the up-and-coming Spencer Treat Clark. Clark plays the son of Krug, who is forced to be a witness and victim to his father’s gruesome attacks. Clark is definitely a young actor to watch. He definitely tied the story together as the pivotal character.

So, if you are all about blood and guts, violence and rage, and over-the-top brutality, then you’ll love Last House on the Left.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

The Last House on the Left is bad. Not bad in a “so bad it’s good” way. Not bad in a “wow that really sucks” way either, although it’s absolutely atrocious. This film is just a bad piece of filmmaking all around. The filmmakers didn’t even try to hide the fact they were making a movie on the cheap and it truly shows. Not assisting them is the cast, almost all of whom seem to wish they were somewhere else.

A remake of executive producer Wes Craven’s earlier film, Last House on the Left opens with Krug (Garret Dillahunt) being rescued by his team of misfits (Riki Lindhome and Aaron Paul) from the clutches of two detectives, who the trio murders. We’re then introduced via piss-poor editing to Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) who begs her parents, played by Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn, for permission to visit her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac) at work. Reluctantly, the mother agrees to let her daughter go. While at work, the girls run into a kid named Justin (Spencer Treat Clark) who wants to buy cigarettes and promises he can get them really high. One trip, ten puffs, and a poorly shot and edited scene later, Krug and the band of misfits burst in on Krug’s son Justin and the girls. They’re kidnapped, brought to the woods, Paige is killed and Mari is brutally raped. She tries to flee but is shot and a convenient rainstorm detours the group. The murderers and Justin can only go one place: the last house on the left, where Mari’s parents and revenge await.

There are shots in here that I quite honestly couldn’t understand why any experienced cinematographer or director of photography would put on film. For instance, why is your camera centered on the chest of the characters when you’re smashing a wine bottle into someone’s head? When characters run, the camera bounces up and down so much it goes beyond the point of shaky cam to just plain bad filmmaking. Worse, shots appear when they have no point. Yes, the film is about THE last house but that doesn’t mean fifty shots of the house need to be intercut with the fate of one of the characters.

If the Razzies decide to add Worst Editing to their categories, they almost certainly have to award it to this film. When we’re being introduced to the Collingwoods, we see Mari’s mother Emma walking to her daughter, then, with no transition, she’s standing in a hospital waiting for her husband. Yes, films cut from place to place but normally there’s cohesion and storytelling taking place. Here, we’re just flung from one place to another with no explanation. It should be noted that the only places where the editor tries to make a coherent scene are the kills – but this is really no surprise, given the film’s subject matter. It’s sad to think the trailer was cut together better than the film it shilled.

Acting is never a staple of ‘revenge’ or ‘horror’ films but it’d be tough to find a cast that ever appeared so bored. Sara Paxton plays almost all of her scenes with a “what the hell am I doing here?” type of vibe. The only scene she shows any emotion in is when she’s being brutally raped (weird, eh?) She’s supposed to be shivering and hurting, instead she’s like, “Oh no, I’ve been raped and wounded. How awful.” Monica Potter doesn’t compliment her by being just as boring and uncaring. Where she should be getting at her daughter for not spending a night with the family, she nonchalantly watches as her husband hands Mari one-hundred dollars for a night on the town. No one is expecting an acting school to be put on here but no one seems to be even trying to put on a decent performance. The only character remotely interesting is Spencer Treat Clark’s Justin, and that’s due to the fact he at least has one and a half dimensions of development. It’s stereotypical, the whole “reluctant son” ordeal, but when everyone else is completely devoid of development or personality, you lack options.

Of course, this being a revenge picture and all, there have to be murders and this one doesn’t disappoint – for numbers at least. Where it fails is lack of buildup to the fatal moment. There’s no real sense of suspense in the parents’ mission of revenge for what these three did to their daughter (I would say her friend as well, but the movie never bothers to pass the word of her fate on to the parents, like she’s just an afterthought.) The kills do happen and they’re pretty generic. They’ll please a crowd for blood, but only the last one stretches any creative muscle.

The Last House on the Left is just a poorly made, poorly scripted and poorly acted attempt at remaking a film. It’s a neat concept and although it was executed pretty decently at first, it appears no one (even Craven himself) tried to make it a neat little film. Instead they give us an ultra cheap horror remake without any creativity or entertainment. The characters lack personality, the direction is horrid, the editing is nonexistent, and there’s no original thought (save for the last kill) in the movie. If you have a choice to go to The Last House on the Left, turn right.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆