Review

Given the unwritten rule that sequels are horrible, Wes Craven's Scream 3 has little chance of success. After all, it's the third movie in a slasher-series that is so familiar its jokes have been woven into next-gen culture. By now we know the characters, we have come to expect their witty summaries of film theory, the gruesome ways in which characters must inevitably die, and the clever cameos from Hollywood starlets. And that is exactly why Scream 3 is such a delight: it fulfills these expectations, but is filled with surprises.

The story follows Sidney, the heroine from the first two movies, who is now living under an assumed name in a rural town, hoping to escape her traumatic past. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the murders from her high school and college years are being filmed as a movie, "Stab 3." Trouble begins when cast members from "Stab 3" are murdered in the order they're supposed to die in the movie. What is especially frightening is that several scripts of "Stab 3" have circulated around town, and no one knows which one the killer's read. Enter Dewey (David Arquette), the friendly cop from the earlier Screams, who is now working as a Hollywood consultant, and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox Arquette) to understand why the murderer is leaving pictures of Sidney's mother at every crime scene and put an end to the latest spree.

While the earlier screams were clever because they poked fun at the horror flick genre, Scream 3 succeeds because it pokes fun at itself constantly. The film abounds with jokes about the movie business: trilogies, casting couches, and studio pressures are just some of the jokes. It is a witty move on the producer's part: realizing that their plot is silly, they deflect criticism by embracing the innate silliness. Jenny McCarthy, the former MTV host, delivers a hilarious cameo in two scenes, which (surprise, surprise) pokes fun at her scandalous past and the fact that she is in such a movie in the first place. The film succeeds as a horror movie because the fright is never in the same scene as the humor. The result is an emotional roller coaster: one minute you're laughing at the wit, the next you're hiding your eyes from the gore. The film's only downpoint was the "stretched" conclusion, which seemed a bit arbitrary and didn't seem like the all-conclusive trilogy ending I'd been led to expect. If this is truly the end of Scream, I am not convinced by the finale they have put forward. Despite this criticism, Scream 3 is truly a scream, and even more impressive when you consider it is the third in a (supposedly) 3-part series.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Kerry Shaw