Scream 4 is a loving return to form for both the post-modern slasher series and director Wes Craven, who originally was supposed to pop up in the sequel.
Horror legend Wes Craven is responsible for many formative films and franchises from the horror genre. He’s a formidable director who turned out content consistently throughout his career and was able to create powerful icons that were representative of their decade. Whether it’s The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or even some of his stranger efforts like Shocker, there are plenty of popular choices for the best Craven film. That being said, it’s the director’s reflexive deconstruction of the slasher genre, the Scream series, which largely stands out as the director’s crowning achievement.
Scream is an extremely important film to the horror genre. It isn’t just a smart, scary update on the slasher genre, but it largely help rejuvenate the flailing genre in the ‘90s. Scream helped show audiences that there’s still plenty of fuel left in this simple kind of premise, but Scream also wisely takes a self-aware approach that uses decades of passion and knowledge for the horror genre to fuel its story. Scream was a particularly significant film for Craven since he actually directs all four films in the series. It’s a franchise that he had a considerable amount of love toward, which he took even further by making cameo appearances in a number of the Scream pictures.
Wes Craven Cameos In Scream 4, But The Scene Was Deleted
Scream 4 still has its critics, but it’s a very well regarded sequel that achieves what many modern sequels fail at. The film lovingly reunites the original cast with some new faces, but Wes Craven was also supposed to show up. Scream 4 originally included a scene where Craven appears as one of the forensic technicians that’s present at the crime scene from the film’s opening murders. Craven’s part isn’t large in the scene, but he makes an impression as he seems a little over his job. What’s interesting about this cameo is that Craven went to the fans for advice about it. Craven polled people on Twitter asking them what his cameo should be and the forensics technician at the murder scene resonated the most with him.
Scream 4 went through some series production woes that resulted in a number of deleted scenes and an alternate opening that was supposed to simplify the film, rather than have anything to do with its quality. Craven’s scene was a casualty of this. Even though Wes Craven’s appearance in Scream 4 is restricted to the DVD and Blu-Ray releases, Craven does cameo in Scream 2 as a doctor in the hospital. However, nothing tops his cameo in the original Scream where he shows up as “Fred,” the janitor of the high school who’s dressed identically to Freddy Krueger. If Scream 5 does happen, it would be nice if the sequel could still find a way to honor Craven in some way.