Scream 3 [2000] cont.

[Previous] Screenwriter Ehren Kruger and director Craven have a lot of fun taking the "meta movie" concept of the first sequel to the next level, using the making of the fictitious follow-up "Stab 3" to ridicule the dubious nature of the "second sequel", and hence, their own motivations (no one working on "Stab 3" seems terribly proud of it, and every frame of "Scream 3" reeks of "obligation"). The ghost-faced killer, once again sporting his trusty cell phone and a nifty new device that allows him to mimic several voices, is "copycat-ting" the screenplay of "Stab 3" for his murders on-set and off, and of course, "Stab 3" is more or less the film we, the audience, are watching. But which draft is Ghosty following? With daily rewrites and disappearing cast members, how does anyone know where they reside on the hit list?

Longtime fans of the director will recognize a similar conceit from the sadly neglected semi-sequel Wes Craven's New Nightmare, in which Freddy Krueger's reign of terror over returning Elm Street stemmed directly from a screenplay Craven himself was writing for New Line Cinema exec Bob Shaye. A scary chiller in its own right, "New Nightmare" managed to succeed as a sequel, a commentary on Hollywood ala The Player, and, yes, as an intellectual treatise on the craft and power of storytelling.

Scream 3 isn't quite so ambitious. After unveiling Lance Henriksen as a controversial horror-movie icon ala Roger Corman during the AIP/New World heyday, the filmmakers drop the satirical schtick and instead dish out the requisite teen-horror movie cliches: a chase through a big scary house, lots of trap doors, killers that won't stay down, and an unmasking/revelation of the killer that's surely one of the biggest rug-pulls in genre film history (I doubt that even Johnny Smith of "The Dead Zone" could've seen this one coming!).

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I won't blow it for you, but regardless of whether you buy the killer's identity and rather convoluted motivation/backstory or not, you'll have a good time spotting various cameos from Carrie Fisher, Jay and Silent Bob, and Roger Corman. Indie darling Parker Posey is a lot of fun as a temperamental actress aping Courtney Cox; ditto a suprisingly funny Jenny McCarthy, who delivers an extremely convincing impersonation of a dreadful actress who fumes for being "thirty five year playing a twenty one year old". As with the first two installments, the pre-credit sequence is a nerve-wracking mini-movie all of its own, with the twist here being that the latest phone stalker chooses freed-suspect-turned-trash-TV-host Cotton Weary (Lieve Schreiber), stuck in an LA traffic jam, as his inaugural victim.

Some of the negative reviews have lamented that series creator Kevin Williamson chose not to return and feel the script (from Williamson's outline) suffers for it. But Kruger penned the excellent chiller Arlington Road, and besides, did anyone see Killing Mrs. Tingle? A new voice might have been exactly what the series needed at this point, but like so many other sagas, Scream 3 succumbs to part three anemia. Gotta give 'em points for almost making it, though. It may not be quite up to the level of serious horror storytelling ala The Sixth Sense, but like Stephen King says, "you don't criticize Norman Rockwell for NOT being Cezanne".

Bottom line: it's a "part three" and they weren't desperate enough to spring for 3-D. Good enough for me. Then again, I'm one of the few in the universe who liked Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch.

- Robert L

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