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Scream 3 Movie Review

Scream 3 is a 2000 slasher film directed by Wes Craven and starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox. It’s the weakest entry in the entire franchise.

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“Oh, you know, the usual small talk.

What’s new? How you been? How do you wanna die?“

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As bodies begin dropping around the set of STAB 3, a movie sequel based on the gruesome Woodsboro killings, Sidney and other survivors are once again drawn into a game of horror movie mayhem. While the first and even the second movie were surprisingly sophisticated in their meta elements, this one fails rather hard in the script department.

It attempts to be meta through all of its movie within a movie narrative, but unfortunately gone are the smart takes on the horror genre, even if it tries to deal with movie trilogies, but doesn’t do it effectively. The only truly interesting element in its story was its tackling of sexual harassment of women in Hollywood, which came before the whole Weinstein scandal, so the movie was actually quite ahead of its time.

But my main issue here is the tone. Coming off of its very gruesome predecessor, this flick was significantly reduced in horror elements and gore, resulting in a film that could be considered more as a comedy than a pure slasher flick. And that bothered me. This series has always been a comedy but also a slasher gory horror first and foremost, but this sequel unfortunately got rid of the latter aspects.

David Arquette and Courteney Cox are back and they are as lovely as ever. This is the time when the two actors actually got together in real life and it shows. Their chemistry is terrific. I also liked seeing Neve Campbell in another proactive, badass role and she is radiant and so good here, again reminding everybody how underrated of an actress she is.

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But the villain in Scream 3 was very annoying and just bad. The dialogue was just okay and far from great and the villain twist could be seen coming a mile away. The film’s set pieces are also inferior. It’s a fun movie, don’t get me wrong, and it’s not bad by any stretch of imagination, but it’s so far below the first two movies that it represented a serious dip in quality.

Scream 3 was a serious dip in quality from its predecessors, resulting in the worst entry in the franchise. It’s still fun and the cast was game. It has its solid humorous and entertaining moments too. But the film’s emphasis on comedy alone with no significant slasher elements was problematic and the villain was just mediocre. The meta commentary was also inferior this time around.

My Rating – 3