429: Scream 3

[00:00:00] 136, let's get to Scream 3. Came out in 2000. It's once again directed by Wes Craven. Stars basically the same cast as the last one, you know David Arquette but also Jenny McCarthy's in there for a little bit, Kelly Rutherford, Patrick

[00:00:17] Dempsey, few others. And the synopsis is, while Sydney and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another ghost-faced killer rises to terrorize them.

[00:00:31] So this one, when I first saw it, I've seen it two or three times now. I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know much of the overall critic and audience ratings or anything like that so I just went in fairly blank. And I think that

[00:00:47] it is the weakest, you know, just to put it right out there. I still like it and I think talking about other slasher franchises that are six plus movies in, this movie, spoiler, is a three and a half out of five. And I think if the weakest

[00:01:02] movie, I know some people might rate it much lower, I don't know, but for me I don't think there's another slasher franchise out there that has the lowest movie being a three and a half out of five. Like there are usually really low

[00:01:14] lows for these types of films but all six of these are all fairly solid. Like there's not really huge issues or things I find truly offensive or think oh man that one was horrible, that was embarrassing. I hope they do better on

[00:01:28] the next one. I've never felt that once with Scream so that's a pretty big accomplishment in my opinion. But starting off with the movie, you know, it begins with Liev Schreiber's character, spoilers here, he ends up dying because

[00:01:42] there's that whole chase cat-and-mouse sequence with his girlfriend, I think it is, in the house and where she thinks he's ghost-faced and then ghost-faced actually comes in and kills her and then him. So I love all that sleight of hand

[00:01:55] and misdirection that Wes Craven does really, really well. And this one also, even though it doesn't save the movie, I really like when films take place on movie sets. You know, there's that meta aspect to it of a movie being made

[00:02:10] while you're watching a movie. So I like the Hollywood moviemaking world in this movie and the stab three meta meta aspect to it where they're also making a stab or like a quote-unquote scream stab movie while you're watching scream.

[00:02:23] I think all that's pretty clever and something that scream really owns that in terms of the meta commentary and perspective so I think they can get away with doing as much as they want with that. But getting into some of the issues

[00:02:37] with the movie, while I've said before I don't mind scream films being two-ish hours long, whereas most slashers are typically about 90 minutes, I don't mind for the most part that they are a little bit longer than normal. However, this one to me uses the longer runtime the least

[00:02:59] effectively. There's not as much going on, I think there's a little bit too much filler, a few too many twists where, for example, there only being one killer instead of two or more. I think while I guess I can say yes that's new in terms

[00:03:15] of you not expecting that, but going back and re-watching all of them together that immediately makes this one stick out and not really in a good way because that allows... because really Ghostface isn't even really in this that much

[00:03:28] because if he's the killer is in a scene there's not gonna be a Ghostface appearance and so that immediately limits the amount of screen time Ghostface can have because you need to have that character to build up the story and so

[00:03:42] then you can't have really the shock factors of the others where you think this guy's the killer or he might be a killer and then suddenly another Ghostface appears or two more whatever. And so I think that's not great in

[00:03:54] retrospect and I see what they're going for but I don't think it really works. I like the reveal of that character and with him and Sidney I think that's effective on a character emotional level, but the concept overall I don't like

[00:04:08] of just the one killer because Scream really that's what makes it iconic is the two or more killers you know. And so the movie is a little too long for what's there but the third act is still great as I say with all these movies and

[00:04:22] everything in the house with the cat-and-mouse very you know classic Scream play out I really really enjoy that. The sequence with Jenny McCarthy and Ghostface I think that's one of the best parts of the movie and that's a

[00:04:36] very classic Scream kill sequence. The death of the bodyguard in the trailer with Ghostface stabbing him in the back is good and then another self-aware meta conversation is with the guy from the past movie explaining the rules of a

[00:04:53] trilogy. I don't really mind that stuff when I first saw it as I've talked about I didn't love that but now all that stuff works for me I enjoy it I kind of enjoy thinking about that idea and how they actually incorporate that into the

[00:05:04] actual movie it's not just fluff they actually make a point of either pointing fun at themselves or trying to create something new so I appreciate all that. Also Carrie Fisher shows up trying to not be Carrie Fisher because she says I

[00:05:18] lost the role of Leia to somebody else and you know all that so that's a little weird but it's also meta so I guess it works. The house explosion I think towards the middle of the movie is very good it looks pretty practical I don't

[00:05:33] know maybe that's CG but it looks pretty good and pretty real so that's something considering when it came out. But really other than that I feel like the movie is sort of forgettable in some ways aside from some of those scenes I

[00:05:45] just mentioned there's just not a lot going on underneath I feel like they are at a point where they're not really sure where to go like alright well basically the only thing we can change is making it one killer not two you know so I

[00:05:59] don't think the movies bad as I said I so if you haven't seen it I would give it a look you know I think it'll always be the weakest of at least the six that we

[00:06:07] have at this point but if you're a scream fan if you're a horror fan you could do a whole heck of a lot worse than scream 3 but I am glad that they did find their footing once again with four as we'll get to so that one is a

[00:06:24] heavy three and a half out of five