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]

Maybe a filmmaker wants to tip their hat to the slashers and psychos who thrilled and chilled them in their youth; perhaps they want to make a post-modern comment on the nature of watching violent entertainment; maybe they just want to scare us good and proper with a moment of sheer blood-curdling terror. Whatever the reason, there are some pretty good horror movies about watching horror movies; here are seven (admittedly skewed towards the modern and the domestic) for your perusal.

1) Scream (1996)

Kevin Williamson's sly, self-referential script exploded every slasher-flick cliché ... and picked some darkly glimmering moments out of the rubble. Starring Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a girl beset by a masked killer, Scream paved the way for a host of imitators, but the original is a surprisingly fresh and remarkably well-structured mystery -- plus, Williamson and director Wes Craven's commentary on the DVD is like a master-class on the history and methodology of slasher film. When the blood-stained climax sees our heroine suggesting our killers have "seen too many movies," the reply comes back fast: "Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos; movies make psychos more creative!" It's a great line -- and you also wonder if it's true. Scream's killer famously asked "Do you like scary movies?" Scream itself asked why you like scary movies, and left you to puzzle over your answer. (Bonus question: How many times did Scream show up on a Cinematical Seven throughout the month of October?)

2) My Little Eye (2002)

Five contestants sign up for a reality-TV-style contest; they spend six months locked together in an isolated home. If you stick it out for the duration, everyone wins a cool million dollars; if one person leaves, though, everyone loses. Much of My Little Eye is shot with distorted web-cams and a you-are-there queasiness -- we're the audience for the "show," and we get to witness as things start to go very, very wrong. Eventually, the truth comes out -- and we feel ourselves becoming a very different kind of viewer, watching something very different than the 'contest' in the film's set-up, seeing the film's events through very different eyes. My Little Eye may not be perfect, but it has one grim, chilling moment that's among the scariest, creepiest scenes I've ever seen in a horror movie.

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.

If you have a teenager in your house, you already know they think everything their parents suggest is lame. Pop one of these flicks in the DVD player on family movie night, though, and you just might up your cool quotient a notch or two. Your teen is probably familiar with the more recent horror flicks that have come down the pike, but a marathon night of some of these films will show him that mom and dad know horror, too. Besides, every horror fan should have a basic knowledge of some of the old-school stuff. (And yeah, I know there are a lot of films I left off this list, but I could only pick seven, and these are my personal faves ... what are yours?)

Scream -- I can't say I'm a real horror girl, but if Scream had come out when I was a teenager, my friends and I would have watched it over and over again. It's fun, it's creative, it has (like so many great horror flicks) a scary killer in a mask. Who could the killer be? Half the fun of Scream is that the killer could be anyone -- after watching this film, your teen might just re-evaluate her own friends. Which of them might have the potential to be a psycho killer? You just never know.

Sexy is as sexy does, I guess. Picking the hottest chicks of horror is a pretty tricky business. Not only are my picks completely subjective, slaves to my personal whims and moods, but also they are likely to change from day to day. Already, since I submitted my picks, I'm regretting not mentioning Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil, or Eihi Shiina in Audition. And what can I do with more obscure hotties from other eras like Jenny Wright in Near Dark, or Britt Ekland in the original The Wicker Man, or Simone Simon in Cat People? Do they not deserve a shot at hotness? Well, in any case, here are the seven I wound up with -- in chronological order -- and in all honesty, they're all pretty darn easy on the eyes and a little spooky besides.

1. Fay Wray in King Kong
In a movie entirely populated by men and beasts, Fay is a welcome bit of softness. If King Kong had been made two years later, the Hays Code would have required Fay to wear a high-necked negligee with bloomers and probably several other layers of underthings. But thankfully for generations of young boys, the film was made in 1933, and Fay was able to wear her flimsy, silky number that clung and flapped in the breeze. Likewise, the movie was better able to suggest the subversive relationship between beauty and beast. (Watch the trailer ... or head straight to the gallery!)

2. Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Elsa was the ultimate goth chick in cinema. Many came in her wake, including Barbara Steele (Black Sunday) and the little known but easily recognizable Carroll Borland (Mark of the Vampire). But make no mistake: even without her two-foot fright wig with the silver piping up the side, Elsa was a hottie in her time. You can see it in the film's prologue; she plays Mary Shelley, freshly emerged from penning her chilling magnum opus. She has cat eyes, and a devilish grin that entrances even the strongest men. One question: if Dr. Frankenstein was able to build such a sex bomb, why did his male monster come out so ugly and blocky? (Watch the trailer ... or head straight to the gallery!)

Police in Hickory, North Carolina, are investigating a robbery that occured Thursday night, in which a Hickory man unwittingly allowed some strange burglars into his home. The victim initially opened his door to a woman requesting to use a telephone, and after showing the woman to a bedroom phone, the Good Samaritan exited the bedroom to find himself facing two robbers, one of them wearing a Darth Vader mask and brandishing a chrome-plated pistol. The victim was ordered to hand over his wallet, which contained about three-hundred dollars, and was then pistol-whipped. There was no serious injury. The victim also reports that the trio went through his home looking for something, but didn't take anything.

The Darth in question is reported to be only 5'7, which would make him considerably shorter than actor David Prowse, who played the character in the original Star Wars trilogy and stands 6'7. If nothing else, this Darth-mask robbery is a refreshing change from the never-ending string of Scream-mask robberies that have seemingly gone on since the Scream films first hit theaters. The most recent one, reported on February 19 in Mansfield, Massachusetts, saw a Scream-killer robbing the Rockland Federal Credit Union and making off with an undisclosed sum of cash.

This is good news, especially for those of you who toil away working on film and television production in Los Angeles. According to the L.A. Times and FilmLA, a nonprofit group that handles permits for on-location production in L.A., production is on the rise in my fair city and I couldn't be happier. This increase is a welcome change from what was happening only a few short years ago.

Back then, the local L.A. industry was hit very hard by the triple-threat of impeding strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, as well as the unfortunate trend for producers to take production out of L.A. and up to Canada or elsewhere. These three factors served to depress further an L.A. economy that was already down and also served to put many of my friends out of work.

Some of the shows that recently shot in L.A. and are helping with the recent boom include Sam Rami's Spider-Man: 3, Michael Bay's Transformers and the unfortunately named Live Free or Die Hard, directed by Underworld helmer Len Wiseman. Plus (yes I know this is not a TV site) there are several TV shows currently shooting in L.A. and contributing to the economic upswing as well -- including the new ABC hit Ugly Betty, The Nine and Jericho, starring Skeet Ulrich of Scream fame.

Now that the trend of sending production to Canada seems to have wained slightly -- mostly due to it being less of a bargain to shoot there than it used to be -- and with no potential strikes looming on the horizon, it seems like things are looking up for the L.A. based film and TV community. Unfortunately, even with this upward trend, production is still down overall from its 1996 peak, so there's still a long way to go.

One would think that with a name like Wes Craven - his real name, by the way - that a life as a director of horror films would be the man's inescapable fate from the very start. While the 66-year-old Cleveland-born Renaissance man has created some of the most revered films of the modern genre like A Nightmare On Elm Street and the breakout Scream trilogy, there is more to him than that. He studied writing, psychology, philosophy and literature at Wheaton College and Johns Hopkins University, taught college, and did not even start working in the film industry until the age of 31 as a sound editor.

It was in 1971, though, when his path would intersect with that of another future horror legend - Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham. Their meeting first resulted in the largely forgotten Together, footnoted only because it starred a 19-year-old woman named Marilyn Briggs (who consequently met brothers Artie and Jim Mitchell, who rechristened her Marilyn Chambers and made her a porn icon in Behind The Green Door). However, the collaboration made fellow tyro Cunningham want to work with Craven again. The next year saw the release of the Cunningham-produced, Craven-directed The Last House On The Left, a remake of Swedish titan Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, believe it or not, a raw and grimy low-budget effort about a pair of murdering rapists who unknowingly hole-up in the house of the parents of one of their victims. The film became a cult favorite and launched Craven's career in movies.

Craven's second film, the savage and effective 1977 survival tale, The Hills Have Eyes, was about a family who, while traversing the desert, encounters a group of inbred maniacs who prey on these seemingly helpless castaways. Nearly three decades later comes the first remake of Craven's own work, with the new version helmed by French it-director Alexandre Aja (High Tension), released in the U.S. on March 10. Craven, who produced the film for Fox's boutique arm Fox Searchlight, was cool enough to call me at home for an impromptu chat. After I insulted his parentage and suggested a scenario in which he couple with a Cheerio (thinking I was being pranked by my friend Eric), I apologized and basked in fanboy glory for the remaining 22 minutes of our phoner.