The original Scream ushered in a new era for teen slasher films, in which the on-screen participants were clued in to the many clichés of the genre. By the time the first sequel was released, a plethora of copycat movies that used the same formula to varying degrees of success had already flooded the market. Scream 2 was vastly inferior to its predecessor. Why then a need for a Scream 3? Well, as the “smart” script says, in a the final part of a trilogy, “all bets are off” and “anything can happen.” Well, that might be somewhat true, but Scream 3 does little to alter the course of mediocrity set by the first sequel.
As it stands, the surviving characters of Scream 2 are trying to put the past behind them. (A key mistake according to the Scream 3 script.) Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) lives in seclusion, working as a women’s counselor. Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox-Arquette) works for an Entertainment Tonight-type TV show. Only Dewey Riley (David Arquette) is doing something related to the past. He works as a technical advisor to the producers of Stab 3, the latest movie in the fictionalized version of the Woodsboro murders. When Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is murdered, all involved in the both the real thing and the movie version of the murders find themselves banding together to figure out who could be behind the latest rash of killings.
There are some funny moments in Scream 3, but the scares are pretty much non-existent. The script, penned by Ehren Kruger, lacks Kevin Williamson’s smarts and humor. The movie feigns intelligence by including several actors in cameo roles and making them joke about the proceedings rather than playing by Scream‘s rules. It doesn’t work. There’s little more I can say about the plot without giving something away. I will say that, as in Scream 2, there’s very little chance you’ll figure out who the killer(s) is/are or the motivations behind his/her/their actions. That’s a shame, because that’s what I hated most about Scream 2.
Thankfully, I think this movie series has come to an end. If there is a Scream 4 planned, I’m going to make sure I miss it.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
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