Scream Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Thanks to that Internet phenomenon known as Twitter, the Scream world was buzzing over the weekend, clearing up some questions whilst opening up a whole other can of worms.

Last we heard, the Arquettes were in talks to reprise their roles for Scream 4. But they weren't the only ones Kevin Williamson was counting on. June 10: "Come on Sid! Say yes! Please!!!!!! I'm begging!!!!!" But it looks like begging didn't help to schmooze Neve Campbell back to her killer-fighting role. On Friday, Williamson followed up with: "Trying to figure out a Sid-less scenario. She won't do it. This sucks." (The tweet has since been removed, but can be found in the Google cache here.) He now says that he's "moving forward will all my characters regardless...it's the story I wanna tell."

Williamson further clarified his comments to PopWrap, saying "I've had numerous conversations with Neve. She's a friend. Nicest girl on the planet. It just ain't workin' out and it sucks for me." He also admitted that Campbell not doing it kinda hurts his original idea, because her role was a lot bigger than we all may have originally thought. "It was no cameo. I'd never play Sid out that way. And I ain't got no Sid-less scenario. So, I don't know yet what to do." He did, however, clear up one thing. This is definitely not a reboot: "It is a sequel. Scream 4. The first chapter of a new trilogy."

Could this be a chapter where the frights start from moment one and actually carry through to the end? Williamson is scaring himself, but can he still scare us?

Has this thought ever crossed your mind: 'Boy, The Godfather was awesome. But it needs to be remade as a gangster saga in the hip hop world.' Or: 'The Shawshank Redemption was great, but I want a prequel, with Zac Efron as the Tim Robbins dude in college!' Or: 'Citizen Kane had too much talking -- and no color! I thought my TV was broken. I hope they reboot it with Will Smith as a rich guy who creates a new social networking site, marries a supermodel, and flies to the Moon!'

Has there ever been remake / reboot news that you've warmly greeted? We've groaned about / bitched about a ton of remakes in various stages of development. Just within the last month, we've written about Short Circuit, Alien, Total Recall, The Karate Kid, Scream, Barbarella, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Flight of the Navigator, Footloose, Mona Lisa, The Mechanic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also looming out there: Predator, Commando, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Warriors, Tell No One, and District B13, among many others. Next week, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 hits theaters, and later this year Fame, Night of the Demons, A Christmas Carol, The Wolfman, and Brothers will endeavor to obliterate all memory of their original inspirations.

As Elvis Costello once sang, "I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused." Of all these, I'm least looking forward to Total Recall, but most of these numb me with disinterest. How about you? Can you pick out one that is your absolute, most fury-inducing, 'how dare they' remake / reboot?

I know that Hollywood isn't really a stickler for the words they use, but how can something be a "reboot" if you not only include the same characters, but also the same actors (from a decade before) in those roles? In January, I alerted you all to the fact that the new Scream reboot was still a go, and that Jamie Kennedy might reprise his role. Now it looks like many of the Woodsboro biggies could be coming back.

Entertainment Weekly has posted that Kevin Williamson -- who wrote the first two Screams, stayed away from the third, and is writing the fourth/reboot/whatever -- has asked Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette to return, affirming earlier rumors. If this becomes a reality, and Courteney isn't too busy with Cougar Town, that means that Randy, Dewey, and Gayle are back for more blood.



Just to make things more confusing, IMDb actually has a plot summary stating that this reboot/sequel/I-don't-know will be set 10 years after Scream 3. So I guess Randy made a whole slew of videos and his sister will keep popping up to share with the latest group of serial-killer fighters? How many times can he explain the rules? How many killer relatives can one Sidney Prescott really have?

Scream was already the trilogy that started off beautifully and ended with the worst whimper. If they really want this to succeed, they best give us some real news on the plot to whet our appetites, rather than tap into our "what in the hell are they smoking?" reaction pool.

Oh, what might have been! Alison Lohman gives a terrific performance as the cursed loan officer Christine Brown in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which opens tomorrow. If not for the vagaries of scheduling, though, Ellen Page would have played the lead role. Would Page have been any better? We'll never know, but she joins a long list that inspires thoughts of 'What if ...?'

Once upon a time, we might have seen Leslie Howard as the titular Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Instead, Colin Clive played the good doctor, Boris Karloff got a jump-start on life, and the rest is horror history. Here are seven more recent examples of actors and actresses who were considered for key roles in great horror films ... and the ones who replaced them, listed in chronological order. [Disclaimer: Based on information provided on IMDb's "trivia" pages, so no guarantees on accuracy.] Better? Worse? You decide.

1. Melanie Griffith / Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Even though she was in her mid-20s, Spacek looks so young and fragile as Carrie that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Griffith was 18 or 19 and already had made an impression in Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile when she auditioned to play the telekinetic high schooler. Conveying Carrie's complexities might have been beyond her still-developing skills at that point. The pic above, left, is from Joyride, released the following year.

It's been cooking for over a year, and while you might have wished for the project to slip into development hell and never escape, Scream 4 is still on the way. According to HorrorMovies.ca, a community member has shared the latest about the sequel, which is said to reboot the horror movie-loving franchise.

If the source is right, 4 will jump into production early this year, "re-starting" the franchise, but adding in some old characters. It seems that Jamie Kennedy told iFMagazine that he might reprise his role, and that "the rest of the cast would be a mixture of new characters with 'old faces that you wouldn't believe,' and that the film will only go ahead with the involvement of director Wes Craven." As of December 13, writer Michael T. Kennedy was still waiting to hear from the Weinsteins about whether his script was a Go.

I'm not quite sure how you reboot the franchise, include the original characters, yet focus on new ones. Was there another killer out there while Billy and Stu sliced and diced their friends? Is Sidney not the only girl in Woodsboro to attract vengeful murderers? What faces will return? I've always wished for a Scream franchise where Randy and Tatum were the ones who got to live, but I think that ship has sailed.

*Note: The attached photo is a fake.

Some of the fondest memories of my misspent youth were the hours I wasted watching bad '80s horror with my girlfriends. Sure, as we aged they became drinking games, but I digress. In spite of growing up as a proud little feminist (think Lisa Simpson with a lower grade point average), I learned to accept the sad truth that a girl's role in horror is usually as cannon fodder -- unless you look very closely. Listed below are some horror flicks that not only give us gals something to do other than scream and occasionally take a shower, but have given me that much-needed boost of 'bad-ass' that all girls could use from time to time.

1) High Tension / Haute Tension
Alexandre Aja's High Tension usually goes to the top of the list for a feminist horror critique. Some critics have been insulted by the film's seeming judgements on sexuality and gender, while others have praised it for attempting to breathe new life into the 'Chainsaw Massacre' formula. It all starts with college friends Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco) heading out for a weekend in the country. But, when a serial killer comes knocking it becomes a fight to the death for Marie to not only keep herself alive, but save her friend. Regardless of what you might think of Tension's twist ending (and I won't spoil it here), you can't deny that this flick has a lot to say about love, sex, and violence. But even if gender wars aren't your thing, there is still plenty to recommend in this story of two women being stalked by a vicious killer -- there is just something about a gal wielding a concrete saw, isn't there?

(All this month we'll be bringing back some of our favorite Halloween-themed posts, as well as digging up some brand new stuff from beyond the grave. Enjoy!)

By: Monika Bartyzel

This was supposed to be a list of horror movies appropriate for dates. Unfortunately, I kept coming up with reasons why each movie wasn't a good idea. While my rationale wasn't entirely realistic, it got me thinking about movies that open certain cans of worms. Pregnancy. Momma's boys. Infidelity. These seven flicks have got lots of relationship deal-breakers in them, and can lead to some date-damaging conversation, rather than sexy innuendo and rose petals to the bedroom. They might uncover questionable morals, or even some private kink that you just can't get into. And some will get just a little spoilery, but most of them are classics, so you probably know the gist already.

Either way, you've been warned!


Eraserhead (1977)

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is just a simple, nervous printer who thinks his girlfriend, Mary (Charlotte Stewart), has broken up with him -- that is, until he is invited to dinner with her and her family. He finds out that she has had an amazingly brief pregnancy, and has given birth to some sort of strange alien baby. Being the noble boyfriend, he marries her, and is quickly left with this weird, wailing tot when she abandons them. Henry starts to become unhinged, and that just doesn't bode well for baby.

While this may be a short film, Eraserhead is packed full of taboo dating topics. Pregnancy. Marriage. Accepting abnormal babies. Ditching the family when sleep-deprived. Infanticide. One minute, you're watching an eerie David Lynch movie, and the next, you're having discussions about what you'd do with alien babies, whether you'd be noble and marry the mother of your out-of-wedlock kid. Or heck, whether love would keep you with her even if it looks like she got horizontal with some other strange sort of being.

It seemed like one of those not-to-be-believed rumors when Erik wrote about it last October. At least, that's what I hoped, but no. It's true. We're getting Scream 4.

Yesterday, The Weinstein Company sent out a press release about how it's signed a 7-year pay-television deal with Showtime, to begin with the company's 2009 slate (that includes flicks like Inglorious Bastards and Dimension flicks like Youth in Revolt). (Read it in its entirety after the jump.) Nestled towards the end, the press release says the deal includes "the remake of David Cronenberg's Scanners, re-starting the Scream franchise with Scream 4, and Piranha 3D."

The first was amazing. The second was okay. The third absolutely sucked. And now we're getting a fourth. At least they're restarting things, because really, I don't know how many relatives can come out of the woodwork to wreak havoc on Sidney Prescott. But how much of a restart will this sequel be, and what could they possibly teach us about scary movies this time around? That the bad guy never completely dies?

That's it! Beware folks, Randy Meeks could come back from the dead and still be the real mastermind!

There's good news for those of you who are tired of the strange, low-quality films that Jamie Kennedy has been taking on for a while now. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that he'll be joining Ghost Whisperer, which should keep him busy for the time being. Kennedy will be playing a psychology grad student "who forms a bond" with Jennifer Love Hewitt's Melinda – hardly the goofy fare he's lathered himself in these days, so maybe this will even pull him out of his comedy schlock rut.

It seems like a distant memory now, but back in the good ol' days, Kennedy was the ultimate, cool, funny nerd who upped the ante in Scream as the virginal, movie-obsessed Randy Meeks. Those awesome, colorful suede shoes ... his rundown movie rules ... he was the reason I loved the film, and I almost boycotted number three until I heard about the little surprise.

Well, no matter what he does in his professional life, at least we can go back to moments like the above clip.

Last Rewind Answer: Ron Howard was the actor/director who did not pop up in Going Overboard.

Note to Jessica: Please don't ever cut your hair. Yes, that's Jessica Alba up top re-creating that memorable scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. No, thankfully, she's not starring in another remake -- this time the gal took part in a photo shoot for Latina Magazine where she re-created memorable scenes from several classic horror films. Hmm, I think I smell a trend brewing. Yup, definitely a trend. And is it me, or does Alba look like she's kinda laughing in that image; not screaming. It's like a laugh scream -- and I hear only the most talented actresses can pull one off successfully.

The other films Alba, ahem, crucified during the photo shoot include Rosemary's Baby, Scream, The Birds and The Ring. You can check out those photos in the gallery below, and be sure to let us know (as well as Alba) which one you think she should remake next.

[Photos via Egotastic]