"Hollywood is full of criminals whose careers are flourishing."

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
HARVEY WEINSTEIN

The film-shoot backdrop lets Craven go a little wild on the meta stuff to the point where a lot of it pivots into outright self parody, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it isn't properly balanced with simple scary movie mechanics, which twist themselves into knots trying to both maintain a mystery and shoehorn in backstory and returning characters. That said it does have a series high-point sequence, Sid being chased through the set of her childhood home, deliberately drawing attention to artifice to deliver an almost BEING JOHN MALKOVICH-y tour through memory and trauma that might be an emotional peak for the franchise. Certainly not running on fumes but a little low on gas for sure. The always glorious Parker Posey absolutely walks off with it while nobody else is looking.

Less of a spoof than its predecessors and more of a cleverly executed slasher film!

I found it to be highly entertaining and a helluva lot better than the countless equally mindless slasher films out there today!

so when sidney says "its your turn to scream, asshole!" ..........what is she referring to

“Hollywood is full of criminals whose careers are flourishing.”
Wes Craven’s poison pen letter to Hollywood. Very underrated, maybe because it abandons the more grounded surface of the early moves for full on DePalmian artifice. It’s a rather mean spirited horror comedy predicted in as many doubling variations as Craven can find. And it has the best casting in the series from Parker Posey/Courtney Cox double team to Dempsey as hunk Hollywood detective. And it comes full circle to Craven’s New Nightmare and probably even more angry than that movie.

83% 🍅

Scream 3 is probably the weakest in the trilogy.

Again, it's cool that they reunite the cast. I like that they mixed things up with the beginning. Some of the new faces are super entertaining - see Parker Posey. And there's a couple of cool cameos, but one great one from the one and only Bianca.

Other than that, the story is super convoluted and it gets really annoying how they continuously try to make McDreamy look like the killer and then the reveal is a little bit naff after all the build up.

It goes on quite a bit longer than it should, most of the new faces are just red shirts and it bogs everything down. The music choices end up being completely bizarre, particularly towards the end.

So, overall, it's the weakest, but despite that, it's still OK and would have been a perfectly fine end to a trilogy.

One really great thing about all these movies is how they make you think anyone could be the killer, and just when you think you've come up with their motivation, that character ends up dead. Love Randy the movie nerd and his meta guides to surviving, but even that acknowledgement can't make up for the limp ending and bland victims.

53%⚠️

Easily the weakest and most far-fetched of the sequels, but still fun and worth it for Parker Posey. Also I appreciate this series' commitment to continuity and keeping it's internal mythology consistent, like how Gale Weathers always has the most terrible haircuts.

but here's the critical thing: if you find yourself dealing with an unexpected back story and a preponderance of exposition, then the sequel rules DO NOT apply. because you are not dealing with a sequel—you are dealing with the concluding chapter of a trilogy.

Feels more like scooby doo then scream.

The fact that a different screenwriter wrote this was so painfully obvious. It felt like a parody of the first movie, which is even worse because the first movie essentially is a soft parody of the horror genre. This wasn’t terrible, though, Wes Craven is a great horror director and at least knows where to put the camera to manufacture some tension, even if the script is an embarrassment. Seriously if Dewey and Gale are in scream 4 I’m going to *scream* I’ve had ENOUGH of their bullshit.