Review of Scream 3 (2000) by Josh A — 08 Jan 2012

Scream 3 is a decided case of diminishing returns. Set during the filming of "Stab 3," the film-within-a-film premise makes for some great set pieces and a clever meta-moments, but the film too often succumbs to rather than subverts the genre conventions that the first two films parodied.

This is the only Scream film not written by Kevin Williamson, and it shows. The third act is a monumentally ridiculous mimicry of a party in a mansion-style "whodunnit?," with one particular red herring that makes no narrative sense and exists only as a means to throw the audience off the trail, and the villain reveal is hammier than the one in Scream 2, which was that film's weakest element.

There is enough here to make Scream 3 worth watching, but there is no question as to its being the worst film in this franchise. The concept of "trilogy" just doesn't parody as well as "genre" or "sequel" does.