Scream 4 Screened for Some Unknown Reason...

...or did it?

I've held off on posting this - shocker, I know! - but Scream 4 actually screened in Pittsburg this past Thursday. Maybe? I was going to hold off posting anything about the film till Saturday (3 months to go!) when by then I was hoping to report that someone from the cast will be working the red carpet at the Golden Globes. *fingers crossed* Guess I couldn't wait. Anywho, yes, according to many reliable sources the entire film was shown to an audience. The main question many have is why exactly this happened? Theories point to them testing the film with different endings to see which one plays best. To buy that you have to believe that they filmed completely different ending sequences and its never been reported anywhere that they did. Other possible reasons are that they thought the contracts they had present would be enough to keep everyone honest or that they feel they have a strong enough product that they want to use this to build buzz. As every website that has carried this news will say, why would you screen a film this early when one of the biggest parts of the film is the whodunit angle?

Now, if you visit the film's IMDB message boards - and I strongly recommend you don't - you'll find a few people claiming that they were part of the audience. Perfectly enough, they say they won't spoil anything because of the strict confidentiality agreements they signed. Or that they weren't there. Whichever.

All that leads to this: just what did the more reliable seeming early reviews say about the film. A few recurring snippets:

+far and away the most violent of the series, lots of brutal kills
+the opening sequence is probably the most violent part of the film and is really clever and funny (SPOILER: it involes ALL six girls that were announced late in production)
+easily better than Scream 3, some say better than Scream 2 if they thought it was lesser than the first film
+Neve and Courteney are great but David seemed a bit off
+Gale is back to her old self (YES PLEASE!)
+the new cast is very good, with one exception - they seem to be leaning towards Hayden Panettiere or Marielle Jaffe - no one would confirm who it is
+the film was finished with the exception of a few effects shots and no ending credits
+the ending plays out too long
+it ran about 110 minutes

Regarding the ending being too long, I remember certain adults telling me this about the first film when I was just a thirteen year old Darren. But they were wrong! So whatevs.

So that is that. It could also be that the film didn't screen at all and Dimension is sending out fake information to throw people off.

Also, its been announced that Anchor Bay/Starz will be releasing the film on DVD/Bluray. Since The Weinstein Company and Dimension no longer have a home video distributor, they've been letting Sony release most of their stuff for about the past year. Its also believed that Anchor Bay will also be releasing the original trilogy on Bluray at some point this year. YES PLEASE.