Laugh Your Guts Out
by Jansen MusicoScream 3 (2000)
D: Wes Craven
S: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Patrick Dempsey, Parker Posey, Jenny McCarthy, Liev Schreiber, Scott Foley, Emily MortimerScream 3 could’ve been a completely different movie if the original screenplay draft was used. It could’ve been even better if Kevin Williamson stuck around to write it. But thanks to pesky online leaks and creative differences, the finale to the original trilogy ends up becoming one of the funniest slasher films to date. Perhaps that’s what makes it such a horrific guilty pleasure?
The film starts from where the franchise left off. Our Woodsboro heroes have moved on with their lives. Sidney (Neve Campbell) has secluded herself from humanity, Gale (Courtney Cox) has become a second-rate gossip show host, and Dewey (David Arquette) got hired as a consultant for Stab 3, the movie version of the Woodsboro murders that started in Scream. Talk about meta. Not only is Scream 3 a slasher film inspired by old-school slasher films, it’s a slasher film centered on the production of a slasher film about the murders inspired by old-school slasher films. If you find that confusing, take a break then read that sentence again. Even I had to.
Scream 3 is the tip of the hat not only to the slasher flicks it pays homage to, but also to the series it has become. The movie is very self-aware, in fact too self-aware that it’s impossible for the audience to feel disengaged in parts. This is probably the reason why a lot of blood-thirsty horror fans panned it as a fluke. The way the filmmakers break the third wall in this film isn’t fit to maintain the thrills and chills its predecessors promised.
Though it fails to be scary, the entire movie still ends up becoming a quirky satire with in-your-face absurdity. It manages to exude the franchise’s spirit through doses of self-referential scenes that beg for smirks all throughout. The laughs are all intentional; it’s not as if the filmmakers were clueless about the twisted sense of humor infused into the meta-laced gags scattered all over the script.
In one of the film’s earlier scenes, for example, the actress Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy) complains about her role: “What character? I’m Candy, the chick who gets killed second. I’m only in two scenes!” Guess which Stab 3 cast member dies second after her second scene in Scream 3?
As if that’s not enough, the movie also features brief cameos from stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, and Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, who dryly talks about the hardships of making it big in Hollywood.
But what about the gore? Fans still fixated on the image of a disemboweled Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) hanging from a tree are left scratching their heads. Sure, there is a bloodbath at the end of the film, but the murders there are tame and slightly laughable. With characters named Angelina Tyler and Jennifer Jolie, respectively played by a ditzy Emily Mortimer and a hilarious Parker Posey, who wouldn’t end up giggling while they’re being hacked to bits?
Scream 3 is on a league of its own. It might not be the best slasher flick made, nor is it the scariest, but it does manage to give horror fans a reason to laugh at how absurd their addiction to violence really is.
“Boo! Be scared! I’m a ghost in a bloody sheet!”
