Scream 3 [Blu-ray]
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
Onto the third movie in the series now, and it has been a bit of a change. Scream 3 has an almost genre-shift, with less blood and gore than the previous two titles, and a little bit more of a focus on the comedy aspect - whilst still retaining the overall horror theme. Sidney has grown wary of everyone, losing the strong ‘I’m done with this shit’ style attitude she had in the beginning of 2, instead opting to live alone in the middle of nowhere under an assumed name. No longer taking any chances, with a secure fence surrounding her secure house, and has taken on a telephony role for the women’s crisis helpline. But someone is desperate to know where Sidney Prescott is, ready to start the cycle once more.
With ‘Stab 3’ in production, we’ve got a quirky cast of characters this time around, with the ‘Stab’ actors to coincide with the ‘real’ versions. Actors are being killed off in order of their deaths in the script, so this forces many of the duos to work together in some way, in order to preserve themselves as best as they can. Seeing the two Gales interact is a hilarious inclusion, with Dewey now seemingly dating Jennifer, who plays Gale in Stab 3 - seems like somebody isn’t over their ex… Gale and Jennifer really struggle to get along, but find that working together is for the best - and might help them to uncover more than they would alone.
Randy’s sister drops by the set with a tape that Randy filmed prior to his demise in the second film, detailing the ‘trilogy rules’ - such as how the killer will now appear to be almost supernatural, with bullets not having any effect on them. He also mentions of how a trilogy should always hark back to some form of shocking revelation from the past, which conveniently ties in well with Sidney’s recent PTSD-induced nightmares of her mother, which is a strange otherworldly shift to the otherwise fairly grounded in reality story. The tagline of Stab 3 is ‘Return to Woodsboro’, with many of the sets being identical replicas of key locations from the original Scream, including Sidney’s bedroom and Stu’s house, which causes problems for Sidney, whose PTSD is already giving her a hard time. Seeing the locations revisited in this way worked out to be very unique, and tied a lot of the story together, giving it a real sense of finality.
The final reveal this time turns out to have only a single killer, which ended up being slightly unexpected, after the previous two entries having a duo behind the mask. However a lot of evidence points to Angelina, the Stab 3 “Sidney” actress, as being the second killer - and this seems to have been confirmed via director commentary tracks. Roman, played by Scott Foley, turns out to be Sidney’s half brother, and a child born from the rape of Maureen Prescott at the hands of movie producer John Milton. The context of the whole ‘sexual predator film producer’ becomes far, far darker when you remember that Harvey Weinstein is involved in the film’s production, and as with other media (the Kevin Spacey comment in Family Guy being an often highlighted one), it makes you really think about just how much of this type of behaviour is an open secret in these circles.
Another dark thing we noticed is that so many people are downright nasty about the deceased, both here and in the previous movies - with Steven Stone (Patrick Warburton) making a horrible comment to (who he believes to be) Dewey about the death of his sister, Tatum. This is a recurring theme through the movies, with the frequent callbacks to how Sidney’s mother ‘deserved’ what happened to her for being ‘a whore’; people laughing and mocking the dead in Scream - and the teens bailing from the party to go and see their principal’s body down at the school; as well as people being excited by the sight of all of the police on campus after Cici’s death in 2, with them all heading down to try and catch a glimpse. I suppose it’s looking at the darker side of the human psyche, the part that causes us to rubberneck when you pass the scene of a car crash, but it really does come as a bit of a shock as to how blasé and almost entertained these people are by ‘real’ violence and murder.
There are thankfully a few lighter moments to keep things humorous; we’ve got a couple of little cameos here that gave us a chuckle, from Jay and Silent Bob making an appearance (and likewise, the reverse is true for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) to Carrie Fisher playing a character that acknowledges how similar she resembles Princess Leia, and how she missed out on the role as she wasn’t the one to sleep with George Lucas. There were also some funny scenes that made things more campy, such as when Dewey informs everyone not to panic, and they immediately all start screaming. Overall, we both really enjoyed Scream 3, despite it somehow being the lowest rated in the series.
In the end, we decided to give Scream 3 the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Have you seen Scream 3? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
