Scream 3 (2000)

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In some ways, I consider the 'Scream' franchise divided into two or three parts, with 'Scream 3' rounding out what I'd consider the original trilogy, while everything after it can be categorized as relatively late follow-up, following in the footsteps of something like 'Indiana Jones' or 'Die Hard' with their fourth instalments coming into play very late, and mostly built on some nostalgia. It's another series where one could drop it after "Part 3" and be perfectly fine in not continuing the story with those later releases.

Much like most third films in a series, however, 'Scream 3' is probably the weakest, but it's hard to deny that it does a decent job of following through with the meta formula that these movies have established. In some ways, I can see a lot of the "bad" here being purposeful in the film's attempt to poke fun at a third instalment being almost always weak, but if things aren't well executed, it can make the movie just plain bad. Just because something gets done on purpose doesn't mean it turns out particularly good. 

'Scream 3' picks up just a couple of years after 'Scream 2'. The movie's backdrop is a studio lot, and the set pieces of 'Stab 3', a film based on events we haven't seen, and one can assume the unseen 'Stab 2' was based on the events of 'Scream 2'. I suppose the point here is somewhat clever, as it shows how a studio will make things up as they go along, as long as those box-office numbers keep coming in. So, I can at least give the film some credit for portraying something like studio interference in such a way.

Since the events of 'Scream 2', Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) now lives a secluded and locked-down life, working as a crisis counsellor for abused women. Eventually, she gets a call from someone posing as her deceased mother, which, to make a long story short, leads her to Hollywood, where some murders have started within the cast and crew of 'Stab 3'. Here, the old "Scream Team", including Sidney, Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), reunite to solve this familiar murder mystery, and find out who the new Ghostface Killer is.

As per usual, there's a whole new set of rules brought to us by Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), having to do with them facing the concluding chapter of a trilogy. The killer is now superhuman and won't die easily; no one is safe from death, and the past will come back to haunt the lead character. From there, it's standard fare for one of these movies. However, it definitely leans towards the sillier aspects of these movies, much like 'Scream 2' did, but with a much weaker execution, damn near going overboard with things like a Jay & Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively) cameo, which, while fun, feels perhaps a little forced.

Even though I love me some Jay & Silent Bob, and appreciate the commentary on studio interference in movie-making (especially with money-grabbing trilogy chapters), that's also its downfall. It IS the third time we've seen this kind of thing in a few short years, so it's fair to say it was getting a touch old by this point. This was also the peak of the teen horror genre of the late 90s-early 00s, so I think by this point, especially with other non-'Scream' titles grabbing our interest, the 'Scream' thing was starting to get just a little stale, if not the whole concept of teen horror, which was often highly predictable.

Speaking personally, this chapter's slowly falling into the "guilty pleasure" category because, while it has a few clever elements, the overall execution feels almost laughable. I'd swear, they made the characters extra stupid for this one. All of it leads to a disappointing reveal that almost feels cheap. I think if they could have been more clever, or even risky with who the killer was in this one, I'd have gotten more out of it. I can't classify it as something awful, but I have to admit that I probably find it to be the weakest entry into the whole series, even if I do see it in that "guilty pleasure" light nowadays.

2/5

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