a few spoilers that you would know if you read my review of Scream 2
I never thought I would say this, but this movie isn't as good as the rest of the series because Jamie Kennedy isn't in it. There are other reasons that Scream 3 isn't as good as the first two, but Jamie Kennedy (or lack thereof) is definitely one of them. There is also a different person writing the script and much less satirical material in the script. The movie is still enjoyable and the three lead performances are still good. The story is still interesting as well, albeit not that scary. For your information, I also can't wait to see Scream 4 but I can't see it in theatres because nobody will go with me and the one person that offered is a huge chicken and going with him would be a total disaster. Anyway, I'll stop jabbering about my movie-going partners, let's get on to the actual movie.
Scream 3 takes place in Hollywood, mostly on the set of Stab 3, the second sequel of the movie within a movie of the second film. Sidney Prescott is now living in isolation to protect herself and is working over the phone at a women's crisis line. She, once again, is tracked down by another Ghostface and she comes out of hiding to visit Gale and Dewey and help track down the killer. Ghostface is also killing the stars of Stab 3 and that's where the whole whodunit par of the movie comes into play. This movie has also given me a revelation. Dewey has gotten the most worse-for-wear physically out of all these movies, seeing as he's been stabbed in the back twice and Gale left him for dead trying to save her own ass and run away from Ghostface, whereas Sidney has become the most worse-for-wear mentally, for obvious reasons.
The film still has the whodunit element of the first two films and still has some of the satirical elements of the first two films as well, but not quite as much without Kevin Williamson writing the script. Randy does appear posthumously in the movie, in a videotape explaining the rules of trilogies. The rules include the killer being more invincible, any one of the characters dying, and the past coming back to bite you in the ass. Well, all of those things happen. Not any of the three main characters of course, if you've seen the trailers for the fourth film than you know they live. Plus, if any one of Sidney, Dewey or Gale were killed off, people would be pretty pissed because these are actually very good characters. I was pissed off from Randy dying in the second movie, even when Cotton died in the first fifteen minutes but I can't imagine how mad I'd be if the three main characters died. Anyway, the characters and some of the satire carried on into this film okay.
The three lead performances were good, but the rest were just okay. David Arquette has taken Jamie Kennedy's place as my favourite character in the movie (well, in the third movie. Randy's my favourite character in the first two) and he gives a good performance, as well as Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell. The rest of the acting performances were just okay, including Parker Posey as a parody of Jennifer Aniston and several other actors. Plus, without revealing who the killer is, I'll tell you their motivations are rather predictable, albeit a bit surprising. So all in all, the three leads were good, but the rest were okay.
The Scream films have never really tried to be scary, and this one follows the same formula. It's honestly not that scary, but I can see why some may find it scary because the visible gore is amped up a bit. I would only recommend Scream as a watch to complete the series. As a stand-alone film, it's unspectacular in every way possible, but as part of the very successful Scream series, it's not that bad. I need to see Scream 4 but I probably won't until the end of next week and you can expect a review of that. So all in all, a decent but unspectacular movie, check it out at your own discretion.
