Scream 3
I think when I first saw this I was probably still reeling, even after 3 years, from how much I’d disliked the first sequel, so it probably never really had a chance with me, and I feel this may have been the case with a lot of people, and it’s sort of a shame. This is a major improvement and a fine end to the trilogy. You just know it’s a cut above just as soon as you have a scene featuring Lance Henrikson and Roger Corman in bit parts followed by Parker Posey playing Courtney Cox’s character in the movie within the movie, Stab 3.
The Hollywood setting permits a series of set pieces to rival those found in the first – one victim dies in the costume and prop department, haplessly defending herself with rubber knives and hiding terrified amidst the plethora of “killer” costumes they have on stand-by for the movie; and a genuinely creepy moment when Sydney stumbles onto the Stab set, a near-exact replica of the location of the first movie, right down to her own bedroom, a scene which, together with an early dream sequence where her mother turns into the killer, comes closer to Wes Craven’s early work than anything he’s done in the past 10 years.
Even the humour comes closer to the first movie – an early line reflecting fans’ regret that Randy had to die in part two (coupled with a later appeasing cameo); a poke at how horror sequels whose originals were based on truth tend to deviate from reality, with Courtney Cox’s character oddly scheduled to die in Stab 3; cameos by Carrie Fisher, Heather Matarazzo, heck, even the Jay and Silent Bob cameo makes me laugh more than I should. But the scene that really approaches the degree to which the original makes me belly laugh, for me, is when a bunch of the cast get holed up in an apartment with pages of the script being faxed to them, telling them what’s gonna happen next. “Don’t panic!” Dewey tells everyone, before the lights go out and everyone screams. It doesn’t sound so funny put in words, but to me, it’s every bit as funny as the very first scene in the original when Drew Barrymore yells, “I’m calling the cops!” only to have the phone ring in her hand scaring the everliving hell out of her. And Gale asking Dewey, “Do you have her number stored in your memory?” – Dewey cocking his head to one side in deep thought – “Your phone memory!” Priceless.
Sometimes it’s overkill, often it’s stupid, it’s trying to hard, like so many productions do more by the day so desperate to keep the ADD audience from looking away – but at least that’s a lot more than the dull as dishwater part 2 did. I recommend anyone who didn’t like this so much the first time round give it another try, it’s really not a bad movie at all.