Movie Review: Scream 3 2 ½ Stars

The third and final (?) installment of director Wes Craven’s Scream series, Scream 3 continues the tradition of conventional slasher film mixed with postmodern horror parody started in the first two Screams (based, of course, on characters and situations created by writer, Kevin Williamson). Self-consciously self-aware and self-reflexive, Wes Craven’s Screams seems to be poking fun at the director, himself, and the conceit he was attempting with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, his schizophrenic de-construction of the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

In Scream 3, the gang’s all here, except the ones who were murdered by the Stab copycatter in the first two movies. Neve Campbell reprises the role of Sidney Prescott, the unfortunate stalking victim who somehow manages to escape unharmed while, one-by-one, her friends are slaughtered. This time around, Sidney attempts to shed the past by moving to Hollywood where she pursues an acting career, gets cast in a movie, and--surprise, gasp, shock and horror!--discovers that the film is shooting in Woodsboro.

David Arquette, Courtney Cox and Liev Schreiber return as well, and, naturally, there’s a supporting cast of young victims, er, actors: Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Mathew Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy and indie queen, Parker Posey.

Scream 3 contains the requisite amount of bloodbaths and breasts and an overabundance of inside jokes, as well as some surprising plot twists and turns. Unfortunately, whereas the Freddy mythology continued to grow, and expand and evolve throughout the Nightmare series--even in the really lame ones--the Scream universe remains the same, each movie merely a re-slash of the first. Scream 3 is the perfect swan song. Or at least perfect timing for one.