The Unexpected Gift of ‘Scream 4’! [Horror Queers Podcast]

F*ck with the Original / Hayden Panettiere Is Always Right.

It just wouldn’t be a new year without Scream, right? After celebrating the OG Scream on its 25th anniversary back in December (along with seasonal treats like Batman ReturnsFear No Evil, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Witchboard‘s 35th anniversary), Trace and I are FINALLY discussing one of our fave meta films. And we had so much to say, we had to break it into 2 (!) episodes!

In Scream 4 (2011), writer Kevin Williamson returns to the franchise and Wes Craven directs one last time as Sidney (Neve Campbell) returns to Woodsboro as a new slate of murders begin. While Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) tries to dissuade his wife Gale (Courteney Cox) to stay out of the investigation, high schoolers Jill (Emma Roberts), Kirby (Hayden Panettiere), Trevor (Nico Tortorella), Robbie (Erik Knudsen) and Charlie (Rory Culkin) are caught in the cross-hairs of a new killing spree.

So which one (or two) of them is the murderer?

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Episode 159 – Scream 4 (2011)

Part 1

This is not f*cking Trevor, but it is a new year and that means we’re covering another Scream film! To kick off our fourth year(!!!), we’re finally (finally!) covering Wes Craven’s Scream 4 (2011) in a discussion that proved so big we had to split it in two!

Join us as we travel back to Woodsboro to discuss the troubled production (Weinstein woes, rewrites, reshoots, etc.) before Trace’s better half Ari Drew pops in to discuss the ins & outs of one of the screenplay’s early drafts.

Plus: we rake some of Scream 4‘s harshest critics across the coals, review some of those last-minute casting changes and discuss the reappraisal that the film has seen over the past few years.


Part 2

Ready for seconds? In Part 2 of our super-sized discussion on Scream 4, we are going through the iconic film beat by beat and deleted scene by deleted scene.

Expect plenty of praise for the women: Marley Shelton, Alison Brie, Courteney Cox, Neve Campbell, Hayden Panettiere, and, of course, Emma Roberts, who absolutely steals the show as Jill Roberts.

Plus: our reactions to the increased gore, Joe’s continued disdain for Britt Robertson, Trace’s fave Ghostface & Jill line readings, debates about Robbie’s queerness and why this film is the gift that just keeps giving.


Cross out Scream 4!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re kicking off a new series called “under seen or underrated” with Canadian rape revenge/exploitation film American Mary (2012). CW: sexual assault & torture

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for more than 156+ hours of additional content! This month, we’re covering the new Scream (2022), visually impaired thriller See For Me and Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. Plus: the results of the 2021 Hereditaries, our version of the horror Oscars, and an audio commentary on last year’s delightful Psycho Goreman!