Scream 3 (2000)

2 out of 4

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Patrick Dempsey, Lance Henriksen, Parker Posey, Jenny McCarthy

Director: Wes Craven

Time: 102 mins

The first Scream was that rarity in the slasher/horror genre: an intelligent, sometimes scary film that parodied its predecessors (the likes of Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street) and added some much-needed humour and movie buff jokes. Scream 2 upped the ante by playing on sequels, in effect taking a self-deprecating poke at itself. With the arrival of Scream 3, the movie buff jokes are still there, and so is the body count, but much of the freshness has disappeared. While this is to be expected, given that the lack of actual movie trilogies (and hence Part 3s) meant they had little to play with (this is lazily explained away by saying that in the third film of a trilogy, almost anything goes), the replacement of the first 2 films' scriptwriter, the movie-savvy Kevin Williamson, with newcomer Ehren Kruger (who wrote Arlington Road), also has something to do with the lack of originality. The film on its own is not bad, but is marred totally by a sequence in a house where all the characters keep on splitting up, even though the killer is nearby. Hello? Hasn't anybody heard of strength in numbers?

But let's get back to the story. During the production of Stab 3, a film based on the characters from the first 2 Screams, a masked murderer is killing off the stars one by one, all the while leaving pictures of a young Maureen Prescott next to the victims. Maureen is the mother of Sidney (Campbell), the girl who survived all the previous murders and is now in hiding. Fellow survivors Dewey Riley (Arquette) and journalist Gale Weathers (Cox) also return, Dewey as Stab 3's technical consultant and Gale as an assistant in the investigation. With the actors who are playing Dewey (Matthew Keeslar), Sidney (Emily Mortimer) and Gale (independent film regular Posey) in Stab 3, as well as Detective Kincaid (Dempsey), the three of them must unmask the murderer before they themselves are killed.

Director Craven is one of the more innovative horror film directors today, what with A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Nightmare (a very clever if eventually unsatisfying film) and now the Scream series. Here it seems his heart is not in it, saddled with a script that includes the very events the original Scream made fun of - situations that scream, "Why?" For example, there are too many occasions where a character would walk into a darkened room or area by him/herself. One of these is when Sidney herself stumbles onto the set of Stab 3, knowing the killer is nearby, and hangs around more than is necessary. I don't know, but if I had been as traumatised as Sidney was, I certainly would have dashed outside to the relative safety of daylight. And just when everyone should be sticking together, they all find reasons to split up to look for one another. For the new characters, maybe this could be forgiven, but when you have Gale and Dewey also separating in a perilous situation, even though they're veterans of all of this by now, well, one just has to shake their head in disbelief.

The actors, with the exception of real-life husband and wife Arquette and Cox, seem to be going through the motions. Campbell reprises her teary, victimised role from Scream 2, Posey screams a bit too much, and Dempsey deserves better. The newcomers try hard, but their characters are fairly one-dimensional. Arquette and Cox play it for fun and provide humour through their on-again, off-again relationship, which is amusing because of their recent marriage. There is also a very funny appearance by a certain cast member from Star Wars, which is almost worth the price of admission (but not quite), as well as an odd cameo from the duo of Jay and Silent Bob (from Kevin Smith films) that, while not unwelcome, is totally out of place and has no rhyme or reason.

While there are rumours of yet another entry in the Scream franchise, let's hope that Scream 3 is the last. This third instalment is not without humour, but looks and feels tired, falling prey to the same cliches the original exposed. The series should be looked at as a relative high point in the slasher/horror genre, and be honorably retired.

(c) Joe Wong