it came out in 2011, less than a year after instagram was launched, when the concept of fame via social media was certainly a thing but no one was throwing the word influencer around yet

and its main killer's entire motive is gaining fame through social media by staging this massacre and presenting herself as the sole survivor

ten years ago, Jill's line "i don't need friends, i need fans" was a bit silly, but now? yeah. yeah

scream 4 basically predicted the rise of the social media influencer AND some of the fucked up ways that would intersect with real life killers making a grab for fame

commentary that seemed a bit much in 2011 feels prescient in 2022. scream 4 knew what the fuck was up

and it's the first film in the series that does that. 1-3 were all about bringing the past into the present; scream 4 is the one that looks ahead into the future

i'm not saying it doesn't have a krajillion flaws, oh boy does it (anyone else tired of that horror movie thing where there's a knockdown dragout screaming fight with gunfire in a hospital and nobody like. comes to see what's up?), but it deserves a lot more credit than it got