10 years of panic 4 | Terror has an anniversary today and we have separated several CURIOSITIES

It’s impossible to talk about the Scream franchise without mentioning (always) the importance the original had for slasher terror. Written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven (one of the genre’s greats), Panic not only revitalized an ’80s subgenre, but he was also responsible for using a lot of conscious humor and metalanguage like never before. in movies like this.

It was only natural that such a success – which made many critics consider it one of the best films of the 1990s – generated a sequel the following year. Scheduled as a trilogy, the third feature took longer to come out of the oven due to the standoff with protagonist Neve Campbell (Craven didn’t want to make the film without her), which ended up removing screenwriter Williamson from the game, staying out of his prime. Panic. But lo and behold, eleven years later, Panic 4 came out, with the entire cast of actors, Craven in the direction and Williamson in the screenplay, going back to the roots. It was the group meeting.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about here. Panic 4, the franchise’s late and, say, underrated streak ends 10 years of its 2021 theatrical release. The film premiered in theaters on April 15, 2011.

To pay homage to this late Panic, who is not getting the attention and value he really deserves, and to start heating up the engines of the new film – which will be released on January 14, 2022 in our country, that is – say in less than a year – we decided to comment on some curiosities about this feature which fits perfectly into the franchise. Ah yes, I must also mention that the text contains spoilers, with secrets of the plot. If you haven’t watched the movie, come back to the story after you’ve done it. Check.

Ticketing and new trilogy

Panic 4 was set to be the start of a new trilogy, with a fifth film already in pre-production at the time of its release. In addition to the trio of protagonists (Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox), Marley Shelton (who lives with Police Officer Hicks) and Hayden Panettiere (Kirby) would also return. However, according to reports, the death of Wes Craven (in 2015) and the TV show MTV Scream, also launched in 2015, ended the dreamed new trilogy. However, the global box office of $ 97 million (on a budget of $ 40 million) and lukewarm reviews (60% approval) are factors that may also have cost the pursuit of the fifth film at the time. . The new chapter will actually be released next year, with another eleven years of difference.

Kirby is alive!

Enjoy watching:

As noted above, Kirby (Hayden Panetierre) would be one of the returning characters in a possible fifth film, slated for release right after this one. Many fans even ask on the internet that the blonde be included in the cast of the new Panic (2022). Others may scratch their heads wondering how she would come back if she died here. Turns out the original script consisted of a scene where the character’s survival would be clear – the section ended up being cut. However, Wes Craven himself in a commentary on the DVD stated that Kirby was left alive and that we can see at the scene of her attack as she continues to move.

Kevin Williamson pistol

While many celebrated the return of original screenwriter Kevin Williamson to the franchise (after being left out in Panic 3), things didn’t go as well as everyone might think. According to reports, the writer’s relationship was so bad with the producers, the Weinstein brothers (Bob and Harvey), resulting in countless conflicts, that they ended up bringing back Ehren Kruger (third-party writer) to rewrite excerpts and scenes. Williamson expressed his displeasure at the film’s release, however, filmmaker Wes Craven threw in hot rags indicating that the colleague’s backbone, main ideas, concept and story were maintained and that Kruger had only done so. minor adjustments.

Good finish

As everyone knows, the actors David Arquette and Courteney Cox, the interpreters of the cop Dewey and the journalist Gale Weathers met behind the scenes of the first Panic (1996) and after the second (1997) they were married in 1999. In the third (2000), Cox he even uses the name of the then companion in the credits. However, each dream ends one day and the couple’s relationship ended, with the announcement of the separation already in 2010. In other words, during the recording of Pânico 4, the actor couple had to be professional. and overcome suffering to complete production. . We see that Courteney Cox no longer uses the surname Arquette in the credits of the fourth film.

Dewey and Gale’s baby

In a first version of the script, the couple Dewey and Gale would have a child in the fourth film: a baby. However, remembering the maxim that it can be problematic to work with children and animals on a movie set, the idea was changed. And you, would you have liked to see the couple as the parents of a child?

The anti-social network

Panic 4 is the first in the franchise to be more closely tied to the world we know today. In the early films, cell phones and the Internet were still in their infancy. In the fourth, we have blogs, webcams, Facebook and Twitter in the middle of the company. However, this element would be even stronger in the script. In one of the earliest versions of the text, instead of the already iconic phone calls, the killer used social media, especially Facebook, to communicate and terrify his victims – which happens in one of the opening scenes. In the opening also the characters Rachel and Chloe (Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell) play with the fact in a gag dialogue.

The original opening

According to Wes Craven in a director’s commentary, the opening of the film would be different. Originally, the film’s debut would take place at a party celebrating the end of Sidney’s book. There, Ghostface would appear and attack Sidney, seriously injuring her. The rest of the film would take place three years after the event. However, once again the Weinstein brothers, the producers, stepped in. According to them, a jump in time disrupts the rhythm of the film. And you what do you think?

Scream Queen Emma Roberts

Today, young Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts’ niece, has countless works in the horror genre in her career, to the point that some fans consider her to be a new Scream Queen. Shows like American Horror Story and Scream Queens, and movies like The Envoy of Evil and the Hunt prove it. However, it all started here with Panic 4, which was Emma Roberts’ first foray into the horror genre of her career. And what a role! We can say that the girl started off on the right foot.

Cop Hicks Cut

Above, I commented that although she appears to have been killed in the movie, Kirby (Hayden Panetierre) has raised doubts, for the first time in the franchise, about a character’s survival. Fans want her to come back and even the late Wes Craven claimed she was left alive. However, with another horror blonde, something different happens. Policewoman Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), while she clearly survived the outcome of the film, it wasn’t the original idea. In a first version of the scenario, the policeman would be eliminated offscreen (when a character is killed without us seeing him) and his corpse would appear to be found by Sidney at the climax of the story. Officer Judy Hicks is confirmed in the fifth movie, thankfully, as that was one of the good additions here.

Other Ghostfaces

It has to be the cheapest thing to get involved in creating the script for a Panic movie and being able to closely follow who will be the killer of the time in the plot. Most of the time, this makes perfect sense in the story and the revelation is always a surprise (cof cof – except you Panic 3 – cof cof). And in the fourth movie, it’s no different. However, this has not always been so. In one of the screenplay’s treatments, it would be revealed that Ghostface, or one of them, would be Trevor (Nico Tortorella), Jill’s (Emma Roberts) boyfriend, further imitating the first film. It is precisely for this reason, because it is very close to the original functionality, the idea was opposed.

Another who ended up outside was the one who allegedly brought in Officer Hoss (Adam Brody) as one of the killers. This proposal is even interesting. First, because that would give more importance to the character, who practically cuts the sound off and goes quietly, and we can even notice some suspicious behavior on his part in some scenes (which corroborates the fact) – well let everyone here act suspiciously on purpose. However, having a law enforcement officer as one of the criminals would bring unprecedented frankness.

The Wes Craven Stage

Many might not realize it, but it was kind of a tradition for the Pânico franchise to bring some advice from director Wes Craven, giving the best of himself to Alfred Hitchcock (another who liked to appear on bits and pieces). stupid in his films). That is to say, except in the first Panic, that everyone is tired of recognizing him as janitor Freddy (in Freddy Krueger’s clothes) in the school hallway. However, the director also appeared in Panic 2, as a doctor in the hospital, and in Panic 3, as a tourist in the studio behind Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith). The joke would repeat itself in Panic 4, with Craven even asking fans on Twitter what advice to give in the film. In the end, the filmmaker ended up playing the coroner in a morgue scene where he examines the bodies of Jenny (Aimee Teergarden) and Marnie (Britt Robertson). But do you remember that scene? Me neither. It turns out it was removed from the movie and can only be seen on the DVD and Blu-ray supplemental material of the movie.

The farewell of Wes Craven

Wes Craven is a true master of terror. In addition to the Panic franchise, he was responsible for the creation of one of cinema’s greatest maniacs, none other than Freddy Krueger in The Nightmare on Elm Street, of which he directed two feature films, the first of which was. There are a lot of pearls, but also a few slips. Nothing that detracts from his brilliance as a preeminent and eternal director of the genre. His last film work, sounding like a farewell, was here at Pânico 4, in 2011, ten years ago. The director would leave us four years later, in 2015.

Make sure to watch: