Review: Scream 3 (2000)

Cast: Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell

Budget: $40 million


Directed By: Wes Craven

The third in the franchise and the last one for a little while. Very varied views on this one it's like the Marmite of the Scream series, though it is still generally liked it's most peoples worst of the 4 films.

For me i kind of like the first half, then it seems to go one step beyond the meta of satirizing itself, in my views at least. It kind of comes full circle with it which in the eyes of many who've watched this was it's downfall .
Though if you didn't know it you can't blame it realky especially for the many weird direction changes. You see the script was incomplete at the time of shooting, not only that it also suffered from many rewrites. Many on the same day of filming.
Some of the cast didn't see the script until the time of filming due to these last minute changes.
For this i commend the actors for such a well done job, it was also still directed by the legendary Wes Craven too which also probably helped.

As with the last film they are still doing the in universe film series based on the killings called Stab, the are on to making Stab 3. Sidney has gone into hiding no one knows where she is, so when a supposed 'ghost face' rings in Cotton Weary's new show 100% Cotton asking for her whereabouts.
He refuses to help the possible killer, this leads to him and his girlfriend being murdered in their home later that night. A detective Mark Kincaid contacts Gale to help with the investigation. She travels to Hollywood where in her investigations she finds her old partner Dewey is working on the set of the new movie.

The lead actress is killed which causes a cascade of things to happen, Sidney with a combination of the killings and receiving threatening phone calls decides to get involved. Some of the cast members of the film along with Dewey and Gale stay over the home of Jennifer Jolie, her bodyguard is killed then ghost face causes a gas explosion that kills another actor Tom.
Sidney is contacted by the sister of Randy the horror movie nerd from the first two films (murdered in the last one). She has a video tape that Randy made posthumously, watching it he explains that in horror movies by the third installment all the rules are off. Any one can die even the main star, which he explains is Sidney.

More of the cast attend a birthday for the director where he is also killed off, Gale discovers his body. Then Angelina is also killed after she refuses to join the others. Tyson one of the other actors tries to fight ghost face but loses and is stabbed and thrown to his death.
Jennifer is also killed when she's trying to escape too. The Killer orders Sidney to go to a mansion to save Dewey and Gale. Sidney tries to go prepared with a gun but the killer guesses and makes her drop it. She finds both her old friends and tries to free them but gets attacked, Sidney actually starts to get the upper-hand.
Revealing she had a second fire arm in case something happened she shoots ghost face scaring him off. The detective Mark shows up but is knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile Sidney gets cornered after hiding in a secret screening room, here she learns that this ghost face is actually Roman. He faked his death earlier, also survived the gunshot due to a bullet proof vest, he also reveals that he is Sidney's half brother. He reveals a bunch of things that he was the reason Billy went mad in scream one after showing him footage of his father with Sidney's mother. All over him feeling left out because Maureen wanted nothing to do with him. Sidney and Roman fight again when Sidney gets angry that he's been behind everything.
Roman however this time get the upper-hand and seemingly shoots and kills Sidney in the chest.

I won't spoil any more here as this is near the end but as with all scream films there's still a few small twists and turns before the end credits roll. Whats my overall thoughts on part 3?
It's decent enough for a third film in the franchise, most films tend to try something new around this time in their cycle. this kind of sticks to tried and tested formula which is probably why people think it became a satire of itself. At least it never went into space, even with the later 4th part.

THN awards Scream 3 a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars, don't watch it alone but as part of the full series.