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Scream 3
Horror Comedy Mystery / English / 2000
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Scream 2 kinda sucked. Maybe this is one of those Devil May Cry style sequels.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
A dog, marriage.
Let's go over my predictions once again:
1.) Detective Kincaid, borrows Dewey’s phone, Sydney is contacted by the killer for the first time, presses Dewey for Sydney’s whereabouts, Dewey confirms he has Sydney’s number, implicated by Dewey, appears to like movies, says he “knows his way around the studios”, says “Hollywood is about death”, the killer claims to have killed Sydney’s mom so could have known her from the Hollywood scene, says “my life” is his favorite scary movie, absent during a Ghostface attack, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, VICTIM
2.) Angelina (Sydney’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, shade thrown by Dewey, found hiding in the bathroom with a Ghostface costume and cell phone, Sydney immediately grants her credibility and is attacked immediately after separating from her, questioned by Detective Wallace, unsettling acting, implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, aware of secret passages in Milton’s Mansion, DIES???
3.) John Milton, Lance Henrickson!, produced the Stab series as well as movies featuring Sydney’s mom, implicated by suspicious promotional photos, admits to keeping the connection a secret, implicated by the killer pretending to be Sydney on the phone, has secret passages in his Mansion which the killer is aware of, DIES
4.) Dewey, “if I thought like a homocidal maniac…”, fires shots at Ghostface who rolls out of view and claims Ghostface is gone after checking alone, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, Dewey still has a noticeable limp, present during a Ghostface attack, BYSTANDER
5.) Jennifer (Gale’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, implicated by suspicious promotional photos, implicated by Dewey again, Roman dies when the two of them are in a group, present during a Ghostface attack, DIES
6.) Roman (Stab 3 Director), implicated by suspicious promotional photos, implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, DIES, KILLER
7.) Detective Wallace, probably shares access to information Kincaid has, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, BYSTANDER
8.) Tyson (Randy’s Actor), implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, DIES
9.) Bianca, Carrie Fisher!, implicated by Dewey, Sydney’s Mom was secretly an actress, BYSTANDER
10.) Sarah (Candy’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, DIES
11.) Scream 1 Killers, take credit for killing Sydney’s mom like the Scream 3 killer, DO NOT APPEAR
12.) Stone (Jennifer’s Bodyguard), Patrick Warburton!, DIES
13.) Gale, present during a Ghostface attack, VICTIM
14.) Tom (Dewey’s Actor), DIES
15.) Martha (Randy’s Sister), BYSTANDER
16.) Sydney’s Dad, BYSTANDER
17.) Cotton, DIES
18.) Jay & Silent Bob, BYSTANDERS
My Theory: There would be one killer this time, to undermine the consistency of the previous movies each featuring two killers. Randy's post-mortem suggestion that the killer would be "unkillable" would hold true because Ghostface survived multiple gunshot wounds. This is possible with a bulletproof vest which would strongly implicate anyone affiliated with the police. PARTIALLY TRUE
While this movie was quick to get back into the thick of things it felt like it took a while for it to really turn into a whodunnit. I think maybe a third of the movie passes with multiple casualties before the characters start seriously dropping hints about who the killer(s) could be.
This movie, unlike Scream 2, does a much better job at dispersing doubt amongst the cast, and there are far more characters to consider suspects this time since all major characters in the series have in-universe actors performing their roles in the fictional Stab 3 movie.
And this time they really drum this one up as the finale of a trilogy. The first time around we had two killers who took credit for Sydney's mom's death because they're psychos. The second time around we had a dumbass who wanted a censorious lawsuit and a mother of one of the previous killers wanting revenge. This time we have Sydney's surprise half-brother revealing themselves as Stab 3's director as part of a master plan to kill Sydney's mom and her, all because Sydney's mom ****ed around to get into Hollywood and he... somehow was born and abandoned and now wants to take away what was taken from him.
Flimsy though it sounds, it feels like a very appropriate villain motivation for once. Not just being psychotic, not just wanting revenge, but a little of both in a way that actually ties into the themes of moviemaking and Hollywood tropes.
I am disappointed though, this time, that I was once again wrong about who the killers were, because not only was Roman shown to be dead, and apparently confirmed to be dead, but there was extremely little circumstantial evidence to implicate him.
And AGAIN, this movie does not live up to the standards Case Closed has set for whodunnit mysteries, because all we get are suggestive camera shots, whataboutism, and rarely hard evidence.
In fact, looking it up now, I realize there's actually been a Case Closed film series from the late 90s up to now which probably puts this mystery writing to shame. I should check those out.
The hardest evidence we get is against Angelina who Sydney finds plainly hiding in a bathroom stall, in killer boots, with the Ghostface costume, and a cell phone... and when she appears to be killed later the knife is parallel to her body and she's dragged out of shot so nobody can confirm she's dead.
She HAS to be at least one of the killers, but no, she's just a casualty. And in fact, this movie makes a point multiple times of confirming different characters are dead, and one of them turns out to be the killer!
I'm also frustrated because Detective Kincaid would have been a perfect killer if they just eased up a little bit.
It's nice of them to bring back Randy because he really was important to previous movies. It seemed kinda crappy that he didn't implicate anybody on the spot in the video he recorded before his death, but if you consider the points characters make about trilogies wherein "anything goes" and "the killer is supernatural" because "he can't be stopped by knives or bullets", that low-key suggests that he's wearing a bulletproof vest which is a HUGE point against Detective Kincaid!
Another huge point against him is that he borrows Dewey's cell phone. Only after this is Sydney contacted by the killer for the first time, and it's only LATER shown that Dewey does have Sydney's number despite claiming to not know where she is. This detail goes largely under the radar by most of the cast, but it makes such a relatively strong case against Kincaid that I wanted it to be him! I wanted the movie to validate my attention to detail!
Good whodunnits do this, but Scream 3 doesn't!
Where the **** did Roman get a bulletproof vest? Not that he can't buy one, but I wanted the killer's first use of a bulletproof vest to carry some indication of who it was!
Thankfully, there is one scene in which the camera pans to a rack of vests before cutting to Sydney stealing a gun out of the detective office (which seems to be an awfully dangerous place to leave an unsecured handgun alone with an unstable civilian), but of course the literal one time Sydney brings a gun to an encounter Ghostface forces her to discard it with a metal detector.
BUT THEN SHE HAS A SECOND GUN! ON THE SAME ANKLE.
When the **** did Sydney get a second gun?
Has she always had a gun?
Why'd she bring two?
In case Ghostface screens her with a metal detector for the first time in history?
For the first time he's ever wearing body armor in history?
So that he can steal it and shoot her revealing her ALSO wearing body armor for the first time in history?
Talk about a roller coaster, holy shit.
I am glad she actually took the vest. If she didn't I would be forced to compare this to the painful chainsaw scene in the Evil Dead remake.
Sydney stabbing the killer twice in the back and then finishing with "Stab 3, right?" was honestly a great line and in tradition with the movies so far he gets cartoonishly turned into cheddar when he jumps back up and screams bloody murder.
Other times though, the lines were just terrible. Ghostface starts faxing the characters a script as he's stalking them and one of the girls goes "I wanna know what happens, I wanna know what happens!" as though this was Unfriended. Part of the script he sends says he "will grant mercy to whoever smells the gas" the literal moment the entire house explodes.
First off, you evidently killed the only person who noticed the gas, secondly, to blow up the entire house that gas has to be so thick in the air that the characters would be coughing.
Other lines seem poorly delivered, which is weird because this movie seemed to have significantly more star power behind it, but they had such minor roles. I mean you put Kronk in the movie and he wasn't given a single funny line of dialog. That is a bigger travesty than every other sin this series has committed combined.
And that includes the return, for the third time, of Dewey and Gale's romantic subplot which I never cared about, still don't care about, and won't care about when I see the fourth movie either. SHUT UP, Dewey's a cringey idiot and Gale's a perma-bitch. Let it go!
OVERALL THOUGH...
...despite my own bitching...
...I agree with Gideon, this movie was better than Scream 2. It takes longer to get me invested in trying to figure out who the killer is, but when it does it does a much better job at distributing suspicion across the suspects. The movie's dialog is also significantly less annoying this time around.
My biggest gripe is just that this series has failed to do any justice to whodunnit mysteries.
You subverted my expectations, good job.
As a parody of slasher films that's the MINIMUM I expect from you. But as a whodunnit mystery in addition to a slasher parody, I would like my efforts to be rewarded or at least met with "you were wrong, but because of this evidence, this is why".
It's been 3 movies in a row and each time the killer(s) have been picked off of a dartboard and I feel like I've been scammed.
I'm coming to this movie, as I would any whodunnit, hoping to be given the means to figure out who the killer is so I can feel like an awesome genre savvy moviegoing genius, but when you go "THE BEDROOM LAMP WAS THE KILLER ALL ALONG! AND THE REFRIGERATOR WAS IN ON IT!" then I just want to throw up my hands and give up.
And for that reason I will not be taking the same amount of effort to keep track of characters' names and the cases against them for Scream 4, however I will offer a prediction:
...that's my guess.
Final Verdict: [Good]
Scream 3
Horror Comedy Mystery / English / 2000
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Scream 2 kinda sucked. Maybe this is one of those Devil May Cry style sequels.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
"I'm not happy that I'm 35 playing a 21-year-old. I'm not happy that I have to die naked. And I'm not happy that my character is too stupid to have a gun in the house after her boyfriend's been cut up into fish sticks."
A dog, marriage.
Let's go over my predictions once again:
1.) Detective Kincaid, borrows Dewey’s phone, Sydney is contacted by the killer for the first time, presses Dewey for Sydney’s whereabouts, Dewey confirms he has Sydney’s number, implicated by Dewey, appears to like movies, says he “knows his way around the studios”, says “Hollywood is about death”, the killer claims to have killed Sydney’s mom so could have known her from the Hollywood scene, says “my life” is his favorite scary movie, absent during a Ghostface attack, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, VICTIM
2.) Angelina (Sydney’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, shade thrown by Dewey, found hiding in the bathroom with a Ghostface costume and cell phone, Sydney immediately grants her credibility and is attacked immediately after separating from her, questioned by Detective Wallace, unsettling acting, implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, aware of secret passages in Milton’s Mansion, DIES???
3.) John Milton, Lance Henrickson!, produced the Stab series as well as movies featuring Sydney’s mom, implicated by suspicious promotional photos, admits to keeping the connection a secret, implicated by the killer pretending to be Sydney on the phone, has secret passages in his Mansion which the killer is aware of, DIES
4.) Dewey, “if I thought like a homocidal maniac…”, fires shots at Ghostface who rolls out of view and claims Ghostface is gone after checking alone, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, Dewey still has a noticeable limp, present during a Ghostface attack, BYSTANDER
5.) Jennifer (Gale’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, implicated by suspicious promotional photos, implicated by Dewey again, Roman dies when the two of them are in a group, present during a Ghostface attack, DIES
6.) Roman (Stab 3 Director), implicated by suspicious promotional photos, implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, DIES, KILLER
7.) Detective Wallace, probably shares access to information Kincaid has, the killer survives gunshots to the chest w/ bulletproof vest x2, BYSTANDER
8.) Tyson (Randy’s Actor), implicated by found Ghostface costume/cell phone/voice changer, DIES
9.) Bianca, Carrie Fisher!, implicated by Dewey, Sydney’s Mom was secretly an actress, BYSTANDER
10.) Sarah (Candy’s Actress), implicated by Dewey, DIES
11.) Scream 1 Killers, take credit for killing Sydney’s mom like the Scream 3 killer, DO NOT APPEAR
12.) Stone (Jennifer’s Bodyguard), Patrick Warburton!, DIES
13.) Gale, present during a Ghostface attack, VICTIM
14.) Tom (Dewey’s Actor), DIES
15.) Martha (Randy’s Sister), BYSTANDER
16.) Sydney’s Dad, BYSTANDER
17.) Cotton, DIES
18.) Jay & Silent Bob, BYSTANDERS
My Theory: There would be one killer this time, to undermine the consistency of the previous movies each featuring two killers. Randy's post-mortem suggestion that the killer would be "unkillable" would hold true because Ghostface survived multiple gunshot wounds. This is possible with a bulletproof vest which would strongly implicate anyone affiliated with the police. PARTIALLY TRUE
While this movie was quick to get back into the thick of things it felt like it took a while for it to really turn into a whodunnit. I think maybe a third of the movie passes with multiple casualties before the characters start seriously dropping hints about who the killer(s) could be.
This movie, unlike Scream 2, does a much better job at dispersing doubt amongst the cast, and there are far more characters to consider suspects this time since all major characters in the series have in-universe actors performing their roles in the fictional Stab 3 movie.
And this time they really drum this one up as the finale of a trilogy. The first time around we had two killers who took credit for Sydney's mom's death because they're psychos. The second time around we had a dumbass who wanted a censorious lawsuit and a mother of one of the previous killers wanting revenge. This time we have Sydney's surprise half-brother revealing themselves as Stab 3's director as part of a master plan to kill Sydney's mom and her, all because Sydney's mom ****ed around to get into Hollywood and he... somehow was born and abandoned and now wants to take away what was taken from him.
Flimsy though it sounds, it feels like a very appropriate villain motivation for once. Not just being psychotic, not just wanting revenge, but a little of both in a way that actually ties into the themes of moviemaking and Hollywood tropes.
I am disappointed though, this time, that I was once again wrong about who the killers were, because not only was Roman shown to be dead, and apparently confirmed to be dead, but there was extremely little circumstantial evidence to implicate him.
And AGAIN, this movie does not live up to the standards Case Closed has set for whodunnit mysteries, because all we get are suggestive camera shots, whataboutism, and rarely hard evidence.
In fact, looking it up now, I realize there's actually been a Case Closed film series from the late 90s up to now which probably puts this mystery writing to shame. I should check those out.
The hardest evidence we get is against Angelina who Sydney finds plainly hiding in a bathroom stall, in killer boots, with the Ghostface costume, and a cell phone... and when she appears to be killed later the knife is parallel to her body and she's dragged out of shot so nobody can confirm she's dead.
She HAS to be at least one of the killers, but no, she's just a casualty. And in fact, this movie makes a point multiple times of confirming different characters are dead, and one of them turns out to be the killer!
I'm also frustrated because Detective Kincaid would have been a perfect killer if they just eased up a little bit.
It's nice of them to bring back Randy because he really was important to previous movies. It seemed kinda crappy that he didn't implicate anybody on the spot in the video he recorded before his death, but if you consider the points characters make about trilogies wherein "anything goes" and "the killer is supernatural" because "he can't be stopped by knives or bullets", that low-key suggests that he's wearing a bulletproof vest which is a HUGE point against Detective Kincaid!
Another huge point against him is that he borrows Dewey's cell phone. Only after this is Sydney contacted by the killer for the first time, and it's only LATER shown that Dewey does have Sydney's number despite claiming to not know where she is. This detail goes largely under the radar by most of the cast, but it makes such a relatively strong case against Kincaid that I wanted it to be him! I wanted the movie to validate my attention to detail!
Good whodunnits do this, but Scream 3 doesn't!
Where the **** did Roman get a bulletproof vest? Not that he can't buy one, but I wanted the killer's first use of a bulletproof vest to carry some indication of who it was!
Thankfully, there is one scene in which the camera pans to a rack of vests before cutting to Sydney stealing a gun out of the detective office (which seems to be an awfully dangerous place to leave an unsecured handgun alone with an unstable civilian), but of course the literal one time Sydney brings a gun to an encounter Ghostface forces her to discard it with a metal detector.
BUT THEN SHE HAS A SECOND GUN! ON THE SAME ANKLE.
When the **** did Sydney get a second gun?
Has she always had a gun?
Why'd she bring two?
In case Ghostface screens her with a metal detector for the first time in history?
For the first time he's ever wearing body armor in history?
So that he can steal it and shoot her revealing her ALSO wearing body armor for the first time in history?
Talk about a roller coaster, holy shit.
I am glad she actually took the vest. If she didn't I would be forced to compare this to the painful chainsaw scene in the Evil Dead remake.
Sydney stabbing the killer twice in the back and then finishing with "Stab 3, right?" was honestly a great line and in tradition with the movies so far he gets cartoonishly turned into cheddar when he jumps back up and screams bloody murder.
Other times though, the lines were just terrible. Ghostface starts faxing the characters a script as he's stalking them and one of the girls goes "I wanna know what happens, I wanna know what happens!" as though this was Unfriended. Part of the script he sends says he "will grant mercy to whoever smells the gas" the literal moment the entire house explodes.
First off, you evidently killed the only person who noticed the gas, secondly, to blow up the entire house that gas has to be so thick in the air that the characters would be coughing.
Other lines seem poorly delivered, which is weird because this movie seemed to have significantly more star power behind it, but they had such minor roles. I mean you put Kronk in the movie and he wasn't given a single funny line of dialog. That is a bigger travesty than every other sin this series has committed combined.
And that includes the return, for the third time, of Dewey and Gale's romantic subplot which I never cared about, still don't care about, and won't care about when I see the fourth movie either. SHUT UP, Dewey's a cringey idiot and Gale's a perma-bitch. Let it go!
OVERALL THOUGH...
...despite my own bitching...
...I agree with Gideon, this movie was better than Scream 2. It takes longer to get me invested in trying to figure out who the killer is, but when it does it does a much better job at distributing suspicion across the suspects. The movie's dialog is also significantly less annoying this time around.
My biggest gripe is just that this series has failed to do any justice to whodunnit mysteries.
You subverted my expectations, good job.
As a parody of slasher films that's the MINIMUM I expect from you. But as a whodunnit mystery in addition to a slasher parody, I would like my efforts to be rewarded or at least met with "you were wrong, but because of this evidence, this is why".
It's been 3 movies in a row and each time the killer(s) have been picked off of a dartboard and I feel like I've been scammed.
I'm coming to this movie, as I would any whodunnit, hoping to be given the means to figure out who the killer is so I can feel like an awesome genre savvy moviegoing genius, but when you go "THE BEDROOM LAMP WAS THE KILLER ALL ALONG! AND THE REFRIGERATOR WAS IN ON IT!" then I just want to throw up my hands and give up.
And for that reason I will not be taking the same amount of effort to keep track of characters' names and the cases against them for Scream 4, however I will offer a prediction:
The killer will be someone we already know, perhaps a recurring cast member or somebody who's died in a previous movie???
...that's my guess.
Final Verdict: [Good]