Review: Scream 3 (2000)

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Scream 3

Rating

Director

Wes Craven

Screenplay

Kevin Williamson, Ehren Kruger

Length

1h 56m

Starring

Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Matt Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Deon Richmond, Kelly Rutherford, Liev Schreiber, Patrick Warburton, Jamie Kennedy, Roger L. Jackson, Josh Pais, Heather Matarazzo, Lynn McRee, Jay Mewes, Kevin Smith, Roger Corman, Carrie Fisher

MPAA Rating

Review

In the final installment of the legendary Scream Trilogy, murder and mayhem are again rampant, but as the series wears on, so does the plausibility and interest.

In 1997, the Woodsboro saga began. “Scream” was a delightful departure from the traditional horror film. While it had the same classic elements that director Wes Craven puts into all of his films, it had something those films didn’t have…a sense of humor. From day one, it made fun of itself making up rules for horror films to go by, all of which held true easily enough.

The first film was a major box office success. Then came “Scream 2” in 1998 and it soared at the box-office equally well and remained fun and irreverent. This time it takes place at Windsor College where Sidney (Neve Campbell) is again terrorized by a knife-wielding, masked freak.

Now we come back two years after the second installment and find that nothing’s changed. This time the film takes place on the set of Stab 3, the third film in a series of horror films based on the Woodsboro case. Sidney has hidden herself away in the woods while Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox Arquette) is continuing her yellow journalism and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) is being used as a technical advisor on the film.

When the first body appears, it’s detective Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) who reunites the unlikely couple, Gale and Dewey, to wax on their break up and other unresolved issues. They try to find Sidney, but only her father and Dewey know where she is. The killer is looking for Sidney and this time, it’s personal…then again, it’s always personal.

Where the original were both classic examples of horror features along with being spoofs of themselves, “Scream 3” falls on unoriginal humor, lofty expectations and windy explanations. Most of the problems with the third, and final, film is that the writer of the first two films, Kevin Williamson, is nowhere to be found. Nearly everyone else is back, but he is not. Perhaps that’s why it took two years to get released instead of the one year between the first two.

The main characters are fully developed, but the secondaries border heavily on two-dimensionality. Scott Foley and Lance Henriksen, director and producer of Stab 3 respectively, are not extremely interesting. They’ve both got problems that aren’t readily available and while it is definitely interesting to see the “Millennium” star in such a role, he doesn’t add much to the story but another body or another suspect or whatever they make him out to be.

The Stab 3 counterparts all have a similar trait: they’re useless. Outside of the Stab 3 Gale (Parker Posey), the rest are cardboard cutouts of stereotypical actors. Posey is sensationally funny as Gale Weathers’ counterpart, but it’s too little, too late to keep “Scream 3” from being a pale reminder of the lack of originality in sequels.

The classic horror elements are back; Craven has taken care of that. Marco Beltrami’s score is again terrifying, but rarely is there reason or purpose since 95 percent of the film isn’t scary at all. While you care about the characters from the first two films, you eventually find yourself rooting for their demise; but then again, I can’t tell you who lives and who dies…that would ruin the movie, now wouldn’t it?

Only the “Scream” series fans will want to see this film, seeing the previous two are required to understand a lot of the plot and non-fans will both be lost and bored. Like all horror series, “Friday the 13th,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Halloween,” etc., eventually it’s the fans who keep the alive and not the traditional movie audience, because the films are specialized and often repetitive. Too bad there couldn’t have been a better ending to the series, even if it is still a good trilogy.