FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS LIVEBLOG: Scream 3 (2000):”What’s Your MORE Favorite-er Scary Movie?”
Scream 3 was the first movie I ever watched illegally. Well, let me clarify that because I’d theater hopped and snuck into movies for years by that point. No, this one has the distinction of being the first movie I ever watched over something called the internet (while it was still in theaters no less). It was the year 2000 and I was 20 years old when a friend of mine asked if I had any desire to see the new Scream movie and I told her that I didn’t really feel like going out. It was then when she pointed at her computer screen and said that we didn’t need to because it was already downloading. My. Mind. Was. Blown. Now, I haven’t seen this movie since then but I do remember really liking it quite a bit. Even more so than the first one if I recall correctly. In any case, it can’t be any worse than part 2 right?
Right!?
- And we’re opening on the Hollywood sign. Cotton Underwear is stuck in traffic. OK I CLEARLY remember this opening sequence. Y'know I didn’t at the time but now I think Liev Schrieber (however you spell his damn name) is a pretty cool dude. No great roles come to mind but he seems alright.
- Of the three movies so far, this might be my favorite opening kill. There’s enough weight and history behind the character that bites it at this point that you get the sense anyone can go. It was being sold as the final chapter in the series and even moreso than seeing someone famous get wacked in the first 15 minutes of the original, seeing a major player in this story get taken out right off the bat is the right way to go.
- Who is this actress playing Cotton’s old lady? Is her middle name HAWT? Because boy howdy.
- And he’s dead. The first ten minutes of this movie have already erased my memory of how shitty the second one was. Let’s keep this up Scream 3!
- In an odd narrative choice, Sid is now working as a tele-marketer. Wait, no she’s a volunteer for a crisis support hotline. It’s a thin line people.
- Here’s Gale giving some kind of speech and the good news is that she’s changed her hair style…the bad is that it’s just a different flavor of Godawful. Oh and who’s this? Why none other than Loverboy himself, Patrick Dempsey! Ugh too much hair!
- Now we’re on the set of Stab 3. I guess this movie is just skipping over Stab 2 which we can assume was probably based on the events of Scream 2. Good idea!
- Is that? Why yes it IS Lance “BISHOP” Henriksen. Oooh, I’m digging this movie.
- Oh and praise be, Parker Posey! She’s playing the Stab version of Gale (Cox) and they do NOT like each other. Posey’s delivery of “…you’re such a complex character” is gold Jerry, gold!
- 20 minutes in and I’m calling it: This is easily the most clever entry of the entire series.
- WHOA. That was a hard right swing with the Jay and Silent Bob cameo to try and make me instantly change my mind there, movie.
- Sid is having a weird dream sequence about her dead mother and it’s actually kind of spooky. Who knew Wes Craven could direct a decent nightmare?
- Here comes Jenny McCarthy, because why the hell not. I know that she bugs most, but for whatever reason she’s never really bothered me. I honestly kinda like her shitty attitude. What was that show she was on on MTV? Singled Out? I can’t believe how much I used to love watching that.
- The character’s dialogue is mirroring exactly what’s going on with the actor’s playing the parts in real life. OUR LIFE. Entertaini-*BURP*entertaining stuff.
- Ok, I’m really having a hard time wrapping my head around how much fun this script must have been to write let alone how easy it makes such a complex setup look. All of the characters in this Scream 3 script are being murdered in the order as the characters of the Stab 3 screenplay. When a cop tells a potential suspect in the Scream 3 “real” world: “This is the scene where you come with us.” This is the scene where he goes with them!
- All of the characters are freaked out and reading pages from the script for Stab 3 to find out what’s about to happen to them here in Scream 3. I…I just…yeah, that is good.
- I dig that the whodunnit element is still present in the script but not the motivating aspect of the story. I’m not even really trying to figure it out because the characters are all so fun to watch and there’s some real wit in the writing “My. Lawyer. Liked. That.” Unlike the last couple of movies, you actually don’t want to see these people die.
- "Was that a threat, Detective?“
"When it’s a threat, you’ll know it.”
“Was THAT a threat?”
- Oh right, I’d forgotten that they worked out a way to make JFK (movie kid) appear in this movie via videotape. It feels a little shoehorned in to be honest but it provides a nice sense of continuity. And as usual, his schpiel about movie trilogies and third entries is pretty great. I’m going to try and restrain myself from quoting this movie nonstop.
- This is awesome seeing two actresses playing the same character hate each other but forced to snoop around together because they have the same ideas. I said this is awesome.
- Carrie Fisher R.I.P.
- We’re now on a fully reconstructed set of the house that hosted the murder party at the end of the first movie. Sidney is on her bed in her “room” remembering the night she gave it up to that guy who tried to kill her.
- And here’s Ghost Face chasing her through the set that was actually a real movie set in our world the first time around. Only now there are doors leading to nowhere because the house is actually fake in this movie. It’s hard for me to stop gushing here.
- Goddamn, Sidney’s Mom got around.
- I cannot emphasize enough how hysterical Parker Posey is in this. She’s worth watching it all by herself.
- I love that the concept of this movie is deconstructing its own series. Beautifully executed.
- I don’t know how we got here but now everyone is now wandering around in some empty old mansion. But it’s giving off a strong Scooby Doo vibe going on that I’m really into. Why not go there? The series lost all “horror” movie credibility with the last installment so I like that this one’s going all in on the fun.
- Ohhhh…we’re going to find out who really killed her Mother? I don’t know why it never even occurred to me that we’d find out who it actually was once Cotton was in the clear. I’m an idiot!
- Sidney’s shooting people again.
- And she’s out of bullets now.
- The Ghost Face of this movie has an awfully elaborate setup and he’s monologuing pretty hard.
- I REMEMBER. It’s the Director of Stab 3 running around killing everyone as it turns out he’s Sid’s long lost brother. He kicked off this whole chain of events going all the way back to the first one. Can you spell S.T.R.E.T.C.H.?
- Welp, Dewey gets the bad guy head shot this time instead of Sid and there’s no snappy one-liner afterward. That’s too bad but I guess she did already say “It’s your turn to scream” earlier. And If she didn’t add “bitch” at the end, then my imagination totally made that up.
- Everyone is back at the ranch and all is well. In another reality blur, Dewey proposes to Gale and I like to think that this was also Arquette proposing to Cox in real life too but they may have already been married at that point. Dunno, still cool. Sid comes walking into the house ready to watch a movie with everyone, turns back and sees the door open in the breeze. Clearly leaving the franchise open to more installments regardless of this entry being sold as “the final act.”
Roll Credits
So, as you can see I really loved this movie. Even if it kind of falls apart at the very end with who the villain turns out to be, enough good will was built up for 2 hours that they could have torn the mask off and revealed Don Knotts and I wouldn’t complain. Actually, Jesus Christ that would have been great. I know that I complained about the the ending of the second movie being too closely tethered to the first and this one repeats that mistake but I don’t mind it so much here. It really does feel like the end of the whole story and is such a step up in every way from part 2 that it’s easy to let a lot slide. Scream 3 is a smart, entertaining and hysterical little watch that is hands down my favorite of the entire series. It’s a real “movie” movie and criminally underrated.
