Scream 4 is now available to watch on Facebook – for free! If you want to see the film, simply check it out in the player below – or head over to the Lionsgate Facebook page to watch it. In a year where we need every free piece of movie content we can get, this is a nice offering from Lionsgate. Scream 4 was originally released in 2011 and re-introduced horror movie fans of a new generation to the franchise. Scream 4 also has the distinct honor of being the final film directed by horror maestro Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street), so it’s worth a watch for that fact alone.
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Unfortunately for the franchise, Scream 4 wasn’t the franchise soft reboot that was hoped for. The film earned a disappointing $97.1 million worldwide, on a budget of $40 million; it was the lowest-grossing film in the franchise, and effectively killed Scream’s run on the big screen. If anything, this free screening on Facebook might be the most successful publicity Scream 4 has ever had. It’s admittedly aged well since the era of horror that Craven was commenting on (“torture porn,” J-Horror, and high concept franchises like Final Destination) is now well behind us. Hindsight is always 20/20, and the sly satire that Craven worked into Scream 4 is so much easier to appreciate. Craven nailed his X-ray of the genre at that time, and it shows.
It’s also crazy to see (in 2020), the kind of cast Craven packed into Scream 4. Besides returning cast members Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, Scream 4 also features Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Alison Brie, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Lucy Hale, Shenae Grimes-Beech, Britt Robertson, Rory Culkin, Adam Brody, and Anthony Anderson. Each of those actors definitely went on to do bigger things after and/or during Scream 4‘s run, it’s pretty wild to see them all together in one place.
After the movie franchise hit the wall, Scream would continue as an anthology TV series on MTV, running from 2015 to 2019. As we move into 2020, Paramount Pictures is getting ready to relaunch Scream for a new era. Scream 5 (title pending) is already in the works, and although details are being kept under wraps, the fifth film has pulled back in Campbell, Cox, and Arquette, while adding new talent like Jack Quaid (The Boys).
Scream 5 is set to hit theaters on January 14, 2022. You can watch Scream 4 above.