Review of Scream 3 (2000) by Melvin W — 22 Dec 2012

Detective Wallace: This is great! Ten more murders and we can publish a calendar. .

"Someone has taken their love for trilogies one step too far.".

Scream 3 is an obvious and sad step down from the greatness of the first two movies. Still, it's better than about 90% of slashers out there, especially when franchises get deeper into their runs. Williamson not writing the script hurt the movie most, but it's still his story, so at least he is there in some way. The film is still very tongue in cheek and relies on humor,  as a way to parody the genre. I'll admit that, even me, someone who likes this movie, can see why a lot of people don't. Especially given that the first two were instant classics. .

Describing a plot for a movie like this is kind of a waste of time, especially when it's pretty much the exact same plot as the first two. This time however the killing isn't going on in Woodsboro, but in Hollywood, where Stab 3 is being made. There's a lot of Hollywood humor thrown into the movie and in a way Craven makes some good references to what Hollywood really is, but it's still vastly inferior to his previous commentaries.

The cast is pretty good with a lot of returning faces and some new ones including Parker Posey, Emily Mortimer, Scott Foley, and Patrick Warburton. The movie has its problems, but that is normal for the genre. It's just more disappointing because the first two were so good. Had Scream and Scream 2 never been made and a movie of this quality came out, we would probably view it in a different light. That's the hardship of success though. When you do great, more is expected from you.

Overall, I still enjoy this movie every time I see it. Did I expect more from it the first time I watched it? Yeah, but I've come to respect it for what it is. It's not a genre changing film like the first two were. It's just an add on for the people that really love the Scream franchise. Scream 4 was more of the same. So in the end, this franchise is still the best slasher franchise out there from start to finish in my eyes. Although it helps that most of them suck right from the get go.