Review of Scream 3 (2000) by Filipeneto — 12 Feb 2018

The ultimate scream...

Two years after the deaths of the second film, and during the filming of a new movie based on the life of Sidney Prescott (who lives at large under another name), a new wave of mysterious murders shakes the film crew and all suspects a new return of the masked psycho. Sidney, suspecting that the killings have some connection with the mysterious past of his deceased mother, decides to go to Hollywood and help the authorities to face the killer. Directed by Wes Craven, has a main cast equal to that of other films.

If the other films could be considered parodies, this film only has a few scenes that point in that direction. The whole film is a small crime thriller where the scary scenes don't scare enough to be a horror movie, but manage to put us in the expectation to follow the investigations and see who will be the next victim. This time, we didn't feel any sympathy for the killer because the main characters (Sidney, Dewey, Gale and even Detective Kincaid) evolved dramatically and now shown to be more mature, complex and able to reach the audience in a more effective manner. The only one with which we don't sympathize is Cotton Weary, a guy more interested in their own fame than anything else. The end of the film is remarkable, and it's surprising enough to make us wonder if it really existed, in real life, more cases similar to those of Maureen Prescott.