This third installment of the hugely popular Scream trilogy doesn't have the moxie and smarts of its two predecessors, but it's still a great thrill ride. Scripted by Ehren Kruger (from an outline by Scream writer Kevin Williamson), Scream 3 takes the three surviving characters from the first two films--beleagured heroine Sidney (Neve Campbell), ruthless TV journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox Arquette), and hapless deputy Dewey (David Arquette)--and transplants them to the environs of Hollywood. Turns out a familiarly masked killer is stalking the cast of Stab 3, the third installment of the movies within the Scream movies. (Following all this? Don't worry, it's not entirely vital to the plot.) It's supposed to be a fun house of mirrors, with each character encountering the actor playing themselves and visiting reconstructed sets of the murder scenes, but it doesn't have the same snap and crackle of the first two films. Rather than parodying the teen horror genre, Scream 3 seems to be playing by the rules instead of breaking them gleefully, and its postmodern plotting is a little too fast and loose. Williamson's presence is sorely missed--it's the difference between hitting one out of the park and scoring a solid triple. Director Wes Craven, though, still brings his die-hard energy to the proceedings, from the requisite heart-pumping prologue to the go-for-broke (but somewhat predictable) ending. Kudos to Campbell, Cox, and especially Arquette for bringing spirit to characters who should be justifiably tired of being corpse magnets; Campbell is remarkably graceful considering she's saddled with plot twists involving heretofore undisclosed family baggage. And in the film's one inspired stroke of brilliance, Cox's Gale is trailed by a hilarious Parker Posey as the actress playing Gale in Stab 3, who astutely realizes that if they're caught by the killer together, it'll be the real Gale who gets it. If Scream 3 had stuck to such ingenious parody throughout, it would have been a real winner; as it is, it's an energetic shadow of itself. With Scream alums Liev Schreiber and Jamie Kennedy in brief but winning cameos. --Mark Englehart
(15 votes)
2.
Desperate to escape the demons of her past, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) discretely cocoons herself in a remote, high-security ranch house in the woods of Northern California, where she works as a phone counselor for a crisis hotline. She's content to remain in quiet seclusion, but finds herself once again facing mortal danger when the masked killer Ghostface (named for the Munch-inspired costume) begins cutting into the cast of STAB 3--the schlocky series of slasher films based upon the Woodsboro and Windsor College murders. One by one STAB 3's stars meet grisly deaths at the hands of the psychopath, who--armed with a cell phone, a copy of the film's screenplay, and an arsenal of B-movie cliches--gleefully hunts down and eviscerates his victims. The killer's modus operandi adheres to the "rules" of engagement codified by the great film trilogies STAR WARS and THE GODFATHER, which dictate that in the third chapter, anything goes. Now Sidney must return to "Woodsboro"--recreated as the set of STAB 3--and team-up with cut-throat reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), small-town deputy Dwight "Dewey" Riley (David Arquette), Hollywood detective Marc Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), and the remaining cast of STAB 3 in order to stop the killer before he makes his final cut.
(15 votes)
3.
The most terrifying scream is always the last.
Stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette are back for more in the chilling final chapter of this phenomenally popular and frightfully entertaining trilogy! While Sidney Prescott (Campbell) lives in safely guarded seclusion, bodies begins dropping around the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the latest movie sequel based on the gruesome Greensboro killings! And when the escalating terror finally brings her out of hiding, Sidney and other Greensboro survivors are once again drawn into an insidious game of horror movie mayhem! But just when they thought they knew how to play by the rules, they discover that all the rules have been broken! Featuring hot newcomers Parker Posey (The House Of Yes) and Jenny McCarthy (Diamonds) in another stellar ensemble cast, Scream 3 offers an unmatched mix of thrills, laughter and suspense that brings this spine-tingling saga to an unforgettable conclusion.
(15 votes)
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