Scream 3

Scream 3 is the third installment of the Scream series. This one takes place on the set of Stab 3. There’s another movie being done on what happened in Woodsboro. The movie is like a movie within a movie. The people who are playing the main characters in Stab 3 interact with the main characters. One by one, the people involved in the movie are being killed. The police seem to think that the killer is trying to kill off people based on how they die in one of the many scripts that were leaked on to the Internet. The police also seem to think that the killer is after Sydney. That’s why the police want to keep an eye on Sydney. That means that anyone could have seen it and could be a killer. As in the first two Screams, the killer is after Sydney. She goes to Hollywood to escape the killer, since she’s in hiding. Who is stalking her this time?

Thoughts

Before I get to what I liked and didn’t like about the movie, I want to point out that I like the Scream series. This is one of my favorite horror movie trilogies. This is one of my favorite horror movie trilogies. With that said, I do think that Scream 3 is the weaker movie of the three if I had to choose. Sequels usually start becoming predictable after the second installment and this one was no exception. I think that it was a good movie, but it was not without it’s problems. Now let’s move on to what I liked and disliked.

What I liked about the movie

I liked how some of the characters from the first two movies appear in the movie. It was a good way to tie the movies together. I have read reviews from people who said that they didn’t like the characters from the previous movies being in the sequels, but I didn’t have a problem with it. This movie is flooded with so many new people that it needed the familiar faces from the other movies to remind us that this is a Scream movie.

I liked how the mystery element was still a factor. The movie kept you guessing who the killer was until the end. This was the same plot that was in the other tow movies. Since the cast was big, it could have been anyone who was after Sydney and the other people involved in the Stab 3 movie.

The killer has an inventive way of tricking the other characters. The killer has a device that allows them to mimic other peoples’ voices. The characters weren’t aware that they were talking to the killer. This enabled the killer to be able to kill them. It also provided red herrings, which are needed in a mystery. There is one red herring that doesn’t make sense, which I will discuss in the things that I didn’t like section of my article.

The acting was pretty good. The originals were really good. The newer additions were pretty good. I think the standout performances of the newer characters were Patrick Dempsey and Lance Henricksen.

The movie has a twist ending just as the other two do. This is a good and a bad thing. It’s good because it’s a surprise ending. I’ll discuss the bad later.

What I didn’t like

My main problem with this movie is the fact that Sydney isn’t in the movie as much as she should be. The point of the movie is that the killer is after her, but she’s barely in it. She disappears for a big chunk of the movie. I read that she was filming for her show Party of Five during the making of this movie. If this is true, the writers should have found a way to work around her schedule. In Scream and Scream 2, Sydney’s character was in the bulk of the movies which makes her disappearance in this one noticeable. Was this a way for the audience to get to know the new characters better? I think if she had interacted with the characters more, then their deaths would have made more sense. That brings me to my next problem with the movie.

There are too many new characters in this movie. They are clearly in it just to die. They have no other purpose. Cotton’s girlfriend, Jenny McCarthy, and Jennifer/Gale’s bodyguard are a few examples of useless characters. I know the body count needed to be bigger, but Scream 2 didn’t need this many people in the movie.

Earlier I mentioned that there was a red herring that didn’t make sense. While Sydney is in hiding, the killer(s) make it appear as if her mother is after her. This brings her out of hiding. Anyone who has seen the first movie knows this is impossible because she’s dead. For some reason, Sydney seemed to believe that her mother is after her. There was never a need for us to think that her mother was the killer since she’s dead. It could have been a good twist if her mother wasn’t really dead. The only purpose I see to Sydney’s mother being mentioned a lot is that she ties the killer to Sydney.

Another major problem I had with the movie was the identity of the killer(s). The killer(s) weren’t in the movie enough for it to be a real surprise. I would have preferred that the killer(s) was/were in the movie more than that.

The original characters watch a video of Randy telling them the rules on how to get rid of the killer(s) in a trilogy. None of these rules applied to the movie. One of the rules was the past didn’t matter. That was not true because the past (Sydney’s mother) was important to the killer(s) motive. The second rule was Sydney could have been killed. I don’t think I’m spoiling this because anyone who is familiar with this trilogy knows Sydney wasn’t going to die. The third rule was the way to get rid of the killer(s). Randy stressed that stabbing or shooting the killer(s) wouldn’t work. You had to decapitate or blow up the killer(s). The killer(s) didn’t need to be decapitated or blown up. The killer(s) death was the same as in the other two Scream movies.

Questions

Why was Sydney in hiding when she thought she killed the killers? In the beginning of the movie, Sydney is in hiding with Dewey and her father being the only ones who knew where she was.

Possible Spoiler* Why would the killer(s) kill the cast of Stab 3 before the movie was done? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to kill them after the movie was done?

Why was Scream 2 forgotten about? Randy’s death was the only connection to Scream 2 When the killer(s) is/are being talkative to Sydney, they don’t make any reference to what happened in Scream 2. They only mention the killers in Scream. This is also why the twist is a bad thing. The killer(s) plan completely changes the point of the trilogies. I don’t want to spoil how it does so you will have to see that part for yourself. LOL!

Why do the killers in all of the Scream movies reveal their intentions to Sydney? Wouldn’t it be easier to kill her instead of talking about how they are going to set her up and then kill her?

Final Thoughts

Even though it may seem as if I was being hard on this movie, I did enjoy it. I just expected this one to be as good if not better than the first two. I thought it was good, but it wasn’t better in my opinion.