Nostalgia

Nostalgia has become one of the most prevalent, pointless arenas of entertainment over the past decade, to the point where it's choking out the quality of any movie or TV show that exists partly for nostalgic reasons. Because she loves the original trilogy, my wife dragged me to watch Scream 4 (because, as you may have guessed, I have no interest in using the faux-title being plastered all over the poster and marketing materials) last weekend. I'm not a big horror movie fan, but the first movie in the series was relatively funny and scary, and the second movie has the only genuinely creepy moment in any of the films. But I'm baffled and mildly disturbed that some people (including my lovely wife) think the movie not only deserves a pass, but was pretty damn good.

Maybe it's just that I don't get the point of the modern slasher (or torture porn) horror movie: introduce a group of zero-dimensional pretty people to get killed in presumably creative and gory ways. Oh, but there's at least one or two people who don't get killed, so they can get attacked in the sequel. Lather, rinse, repeat. I get that people like to be scared, and I see the value in a good horror movie, but most American horror movies are lousy, uncomfortable, and disgusting. Scream 4 is no different, eschewing any interest in character motivations, plot, and themes for nostalgia. Remember that one bit in that one movie 15 years ago? What do you say to a rehash of that one bit with all new actors? Wouldn't it be really funny to have characters in the movie comment on how dumb horror movies (like the movie they're in) are?

What fascinated me most is that I rebelled against the meta jokes in this movie, and boy, are there a lot of them. As an example, I love the NBC comedy Community. It's one of my favorite current shows on television. Anyone who watches the show knows that it can be very, very meta. One episode this season, using the "bottle show" structure (wherein the majority, if not the entirety, of the episode takes place in one setting with a minimum of characters), had characters directly commenting on being in a bottle episode. So how does Scream 4 represent the opposite side of the line from Community? (Fun fact: Alison Brie, who plays Annie in the latter, is also in the former, and is one of the only performers enjoying herself.) The problem lies in a lack of investment for the characters.

Only three characters from the original Scream films appear in this new movie, played by Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. Three guesses on how many of the characters in the movie, including all the newbies, make it out alive, and the first two don't count. Why place any investment in a new movie if all but three of the characters exist to become dead meat of some kind? Does it really matter who's behind the mask if that person is just going to die? While I have to give credit to Kevin Williamson, the writer of the film (or, rather, the sole credited writer), for not ending the movie on a note where we assume the killer will magically spring to life for the next entry in the saga, that doesn't make the outcome of the movie any less dull or lifeless. And, yes, I know: I must be thinking too hard about a silly horror movie, right?

I loathe that kind of mentality. I straight-up hate it. If the people making the movie didn't put any thought into it, why should I pay any money for it? Some folks enjoy mindless trash (and make no mistake: that is what Scream 4 is), but I prefer my mindless trash to not be mindless. Some of the best action movies manage to be slick, entertaining, and suspenseful without actually being stupid. At the very least, great action and horror movies make you forget about any potential plot holes while you're watching. Is Die Hard an airtight film in terms of plausibility? I'm sure it isn't, but when I watch it, I never think about whether or not it makes sense. Many genre movies, including Scream 4, call attention to their flaws, leaving aside only the flashing red arrow pointing at the problem. For audience members like my wife, any flaws are washed aside because of nostalgic callbacks.

Make no mistake, this is nothing new. Nostalgia in movies and television is a spreading cancer in the entertainment industry, and unfortunately, the onslaught is because of us. If movies like Scream 4 tanked (and it didn't), Hollywood would stop making them. If you don't make money, you're out. But people like to be reminded (even when they are paying to be reminded) about stuff they used to like way back when. Sometimes, the nostalgia factor can work, but it only works if there's more to the story than just the past. Looking back fondly, wistfully, at times gone by is not a bad thing, but doing so has to work on multiple levels.

Another recent sequel that was extremely nostalgic while being incredibly satisfying is Toy Story 3. The most climactic, powerful, emotional moment in the movie is leavened by one of the best and most elaborate callbacks in movie history. (Spoilers ahead if you are the one person who has not seen the movie.) Woody, Buzz, and their pals are at the end of the line: the villain in the film has left them to die in a massive, hellish incinerator in the local dump. Initially, Woody looks around to find something, anything, that will save them. They can't go out like this. But then, he notices that Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Potato Head, and everyone else are accepting their fate. They hold hands. If they're going to go, they'll go together. Woody joins them. They get closer and closer, and then suddenly, the lights come on. A massive iron hand lifts them out of the trash (yes, this is a literal deus ex machina). Who saved them? Why, it's the little green men who've been in each film of the trilogy...maneuvering a giant claw, just like the one they once revered as a deity.

Even writing about it, I get a little emotional (and I don't care how dumb that makes me look). Why? Because even though that climax plays on our nostalgia for the characters, it's presented them with very real, very high stakes. It's to the credit of everyone involved in making the movie that, as I sat there in the theater, watching this moment, I had lost all logical sense, because I actually thought Woody and everybody else was about to die. "Holy shit, they're going to kill one of them? All of them?" This was my thought process. Of course, looking back on it, the filmmakers would have been both daring and idiotic to kill off some of the most beloved animated characters of the past two decades, even if it made for thrilling cinema. But I'd forgotten about the little green aliens, or about the possibility that the good guys would get out of it. I was hooked, in the moment.

I'm not trying to take Scream 4 to task for not being as ambitious a movie as Toy Story 3 was. I wasn't walking in expecting that. I was hoping--barely, mind you--that the movie would attempt something other than exactly what is expected. We know the motions; some people may get glad that we're seeing it all over again, but I was hoping for a little shake-up. Instead, the final entry (hope springs eternal) self-consciously copies the original, trying to substitute a meta commentary on the flaws of the script as enough of a pass for the script being so shitty. Nostalgia is not a bad thing, even in this case. But nostalgia does not make a movie good. Too much can make a movie bad, forgettable, or just misguided.