Fowler's Frights 2015: Scream 3

Scream 3 (2000)
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox
Directed by: Wes Craven


Every groundbreaking film series needs a proper conclusion. Scream 3 is not that kind of movie. Three years after the last film, the studios were insistent on getting a conclusion to the trilogy released before the film series lost its momentum at the box office. So, when Kevin Williamson was asking the studio to be patient while he tried to balance his rigorous schedule, they went the route of removing Williamson from the project and replacing him with a different screenwriter. Because of that, what felt like the heart and soul of the franchise (the compelling screenplay) had been removed from the final product. As if that wasn't bad enough, Neve Campbell also had a busy schedule that got her limited time to film her scenes for Scream 3. Because of that, the main character Sidney Prescott isn't utilized heavily with the rest of the cast. Most of her scenes are done by herself (and with Ghostface, obviously), and that also separates a strong dynamic these previous films had with its cast.

So with Sidney not at the forefront of the film, who's left leading the cast? You really want to know? It's Dewey and Gale, played by David Arquette and Courtney Cox. In the last two films, their chemistry and relationship banter was charming and comical when it was pushed to the side of the overall film. When it's the main source of character and plot development, it's actually really annoying to sit through. If anyone tuned in to watch the Scream movies more for Gale and Dewey than Sidney, please let me know because I just can't see it. It's like when you give a good side character a spinoff show or movie, it just never really works out, especially when their shtick gets old and tiresome. Is there anything else that can make this movie worse? Oh, yes there is.

Plain and simple, the new characters suck. The thing about Williamson's writing that really worked in the other films was that even with obnoxious and jerky characters, you were still given enough about them to care if and when they die. Here, we are introduced to maybe 2 characters that are fun to be around but that's it. Jennifer, played by Parker Posey, is a lot of fun (even if her acting is over the top) since she's the actress playing Gale in the fictional Stab movies and is basically a carbon copy of Gale, which really annoys the real Gale. I also think Detective Kincaid, played by Patrick Dempsey, is an ok character, but it's mainly because of how intentionally creepy he was written in order to be a suspect for the killer's identity. Other than that, they are just generic stock characters being lined up for a body count in a slasher movie. And with Scream, you expect the characters to be a little more than that.

Thanks to a cameo from Randy, played once again by Jamie Kennedy, the rules of a movie trilogy are established, basically explaining how third acts can jump the shark. Randy basically dictates that the killer will be indestructible, there will be some kind of convoluted backstory to tie things together with the past, and anyone can die. Scream 3 falls into the category of a great film series jumping the shark and that's largely due to Kevin Williamson not returning to write this film and Neve Campbell's limited screen time. No one wanted to see a Dewey and Gail centered film and the new characters left a LOT to be desired, so this brought the series to a slightly disappointing ending. That is, of course, if this was the ACTUAL finale to the series...


Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Scream 3 is the installment of the franchise I'll watch the least with good reason. Thanks to the film we're gonna talk about next time, the finality of this film is completely scrapped in hindsight. It's sorely missing a script from Kevin Williamson and fans don't really care if the characters live or die in this one. Tie it in with a killer reveal that left me scratching my head trying to remember who they were, and you've got me saying that only the truest of die-hard Wes Craven fans need to check this out. Everyone else can skip this and go on to the next film.

Scream 3 and movie images are copyrighted by Dimension Films