Alice Oscura, Featured Writer
Disclaimer: The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this month is Wes Craven’s third installment of the meta-horror Scream franchise. Craven’s directing style of blurring the lines between reality and fantasy while simultaneously making the main characters self-aware and adding a dash of dark humor has ensured the survival of this particular franchise even after his death in 2015. With the Scream films, the audience has been conditioned to expect the unexpected and that Ghostface can be anyone or multiple people.
Although Scream 3 is largely considered to be the weakest film entry of the franchise, it doesn’t fail to offer the audience something new. The film was initially marketed as the conclusion of the film series as a trilogy. The strongest elements of the film are its returning key players, Sidney (Neve Campbell), Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courtney Cox). Throughout these films they’ve always shown up as a supportive link to each other, regardless of if they live in different cities. Once Ghostface reappears, Sidney’s safety takes precedence above all else. The premise for Scream 3 begins with the murder of Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), who was set to make a cameo appearance in, coincidentally, the third Stab film. For those of us who are already familiar with the Scream franchise, you’ll know that Stab films are inspired by the Woodsboro massacre of the first film.
At the first crime scene, a photo of a young Maureen Prescott (Sidney’s mother) is left behind. Cotton Weary’s murder prompts the investigating Detective Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) to consult with Gale Weathers (Cox). Meanwhile, Sidney (Campbell) is currently living in a remote location in seclusion and works as a telephone crisis counselor for an abused women’s hotline. However, her fear and anxiety over the killer’s return, as well as unrequited feelings regarding her mother, still haunt her dreams. An unexpected call from the Ghostface killer motivates her to travel to Hollywood to the set of where the current Stab movie is being filmed and where Dewey (Arquette) works as a consultant/assistant to the Stab film’s satirical version of Gale Weathers, an actress named Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey).
Now that the trio are back together again, Ghostface’s real plan goes into action as the bodies begin to pile up and the Scooby gang race against the clock to figure out who among the film’s cast is the killer, and what part does Sidney’s dead mother have to play in all of this? Scream 3 is a movie within a movie where all the Stab 3 cast has to do is read the script in order to find out who will become Ghostface’s next victim.
The unique and memorable aspect of the film would have to be the plot deviation of having the usual formula of there being two Ghostface killers down to only one. This was meant to put more emphasis on the underlying mystery of the connection between the killer, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), and Maureen Prescott. However, by the early 2000s, horror fans were getting tired of the wash, rinse and repeat slasher films, which greatly affected Scream 3’s performance at the box office. Despite this, the film has garnered its own niche in the totem pole, not only because of the self-awareness of the Scream film franchise but also in the slasher horror genre.
Fun Fact: If you are like me and wondering, why did they do actress Courtney Cox dirty and give her such a terrible hairstyle in Scream 3? Well, here’s your answer. Cox’s husband at the time and co-star David Arquette suggested the baby fringe hairstyle after being inspired by pin-up model Betti Page. Arquette has admitted his error and taken full responsibility for his wife’s hair fiasco in the film. I’ll be the first to admit that the fringe, or lack thereof, is very distracting. Let this be a lesson to you ladies: don’t let your man choose your hairstyle, please!
Dark Alice Score: 5.5 out of 10
How would you rate Scream 3? And you can check out more Ghostface-related content below:
Alice has an old soul and a curious mind. I believe that anyone can be a hero and that the good guys should always win! I dislike cruelty to animals and think that they have far superior qualities to humans. My motto is there is no future without the past. I also have a weird penchant for Paranormal TV shows even though the slightest sound makes me jump. I enjoy writing reviews and throwing in fun facts to pique the readers’ curiosity. My ultimate goal in life would be to become a published writer one day. Read More