- 2 months ago
With the release of the new Scream 7 trailer, let's take a look at why Scream 3 isn't as bad as you might think.
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00:00Every horror franchise has its black sheep. Not a demonic lamb in the vein of the 2006
00:06New Zealand cult horror movie of the same name, Black Sheep, but an outlier entry whose gifts
00:12either weren't immediately recognised or that continues to be a divisive part of a given series.
00:20For Halloween, it was Halloween 3, Season of the Witch. For Nightmare on Elm Street,
00:25I'd go for the first sequel, Freddy's Revenge. Both films have more or less developed into cult
00:31favourites in the decades following their releases, albeit with the caveat that franchise
00:35diehards may still subscribe to the idea that they're anomalies, films that shirk the conventions
00:42of their respective predecessors and are therefore more of a curio or outright not good than a true
00:48component of the canon. But I'm a bit of a freak, and there's nothing more appealing to me than a
00:54controversial horror movie sequel. There's the aforementioned duo, The Exorcist 3 which is
01:00legitimately one of my favourite films of all time, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and the list goes on.
01:06But if there's one horror sequel I'll go to bat for more than any other, and one that I was
01:12genuinely surprised by how much I ended up loving and making like a core pillar of my personality,
01:18then it would have to be Wes Craven's Scream 3.
01:22Hey everyone, happy spooky season, I'm Ewan, this is Wild Culture Horror, and it shouldn't have been
01:27that much of a surprise that I ended up really liking the third Scream film, given my favourite
01:33of the series for the longest time has been Scream 2, which I think is just a generally scarier,
01:39more confident and emotionally raw entry than its predecessor, but Scream 3's reputation does precede
01:46itself and going in for that first watch a few years ago, I was fearful, like there was genuine
01:51in peril, people were telling me to just skip it and go straight to four. And I get why,
01:57like it's the first Kevin Williamson-less entry in the series, being written instead by Aaron Kruger,
02:05it was blighted by production issues and is more comedic and less violent than the first two films.
02:11And to that, oh boy, a pretty notorious retcon in its finale, which is genuinely bad and ironically
02:19succumbs to a three-equal trope in its attempts to satirize them, and yeah, it's no wonder that Scream
02:253 hasn't gotten its flowers for as long as it has. But this is very much a case of the pros outweighing
02:32the cons for me, both for Scream 3's technical and narrative merits and my own genre preferences too,
02:39and also the fact that it has a secret weapon and her name is Parker Posey, genuinely the best Scream
02:46character ever. The bit where she's taken up smoking again and then just casually climbs into Patrick
02:51Wilburton's arms in a moment of pure sadness. Relatable. Iconic. That, to me, is cinema.
02:59Look what they did to me, do we? I mean, I love it. It's just, it's the best. It's the peak of the
03:04franchise. I'm saying that right now. But first, a bit more context. Scream 3 picks up a few years
03:11after the events of Scream 2, the doy, with Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott living a life of
03:16isolation but also resilience. She's wisened to her unwanted celebrity and has attempted to take
03:23back some control of her life, working at a crisis hotline for women in peril until that safety net
03:29is shattered by a new ghostface killer who kills Cotton Weary and essentially forces Sid to head to
03:35LA and search for answers. There, we catch up with Dewey, now a consultant for the STAB franchise,
03:43and Gale, the latter of whom is still cashing in her checks, exploiting the Woodsboro drama,
03:48and whose relationship with Dewey has once again fallen apart. They're joined by STAB 3 actress Jennifer
03:55Jo Lee, a lord and savior Parker Posey, and her bodyguard Patrick Warburton and Stephen Stone,
04:01plus other cast members of STAB 3, its director Roman, played by Scott Foley, and Detective Mark
04:07Kincaid, played by Patrick Dempsey. Murder and mayhem ensue in typical Scream fashion,
04:12with the real and fake Woodsboro contingent having to work together to uncover this new ghostface,
04:19and figure out their ties to Sid's mother Maureen, who the film reveals was an actress in Hollywood three
04:24decades prior, and whose story is intertwined with the industry's history of abuse and misogyny.
04:30From this setup, Craven's film comments on multiple compelling themes, including the disposability
04:36of victims of crime and how they're often twistedly absorbed into the entertainment business,
04:41the difficulty of carrying trauma and figuring out how to accept it and live with it, and most
04:47presciently, Hollywood skeletons and its history of abuse and exploitation, which led to Scream 3
04:54experiencing something of a reappraisal in the wake of the Me Too movement.
04:59In fact, on that note, there's a really great article from Emma Fraser published by Syfy in 2020 that I
05:05want to signpost here. In it, she describes Scream 3's storyline as being quote,
05:10steeped in Hollywood shame. And while stopping short of describing the film as actually good,
05:16there's a valid extensive critique about how it approaches the topic and the messiest structure of
05:21the plot, it's a fantastic comment on the film's intertwining legacy with Hollywood's own troubling
05:27off-screen context, of which the Scream franchise is sadly inextricably linked on account of the
05:33involvement of the Weinsteins as producers from the first film through to the fourth.
05:38Now, I would be lying if I said that this prescience is what makes Scream 3 so great to me. While it is a
05:45core part of its legacy, I do think its actual filmic qualities, despite again that humdinger
05:51of a finale, are what cemented as a worthwhile addition and perhaps rightful conclusion to the
05:57franchise. The neo-noir stylings really work for me here, as does the humour and character drama
06:04involving Gale and Dewey, and also Sid herself. There are also some really great set pieces.
06:11Nothing on the level of the recording studio in Scream 2, but one highlight is where Sid gets chased
06:17through the set of Stab 3 and it's like she's running through an artificial nightmare. A monument
06:22to her own trauma filled with facades and veneers. A perfect visual metaphor for how the film
06:28recontextualizes her past, but also the paranoia and deception she's had to deal with since that
06:34first film. And again, on just a pure fun vibes level, we have Parker Posey's Jennifer Jolie,
06:42who is an absolute joy from the minute she shows up to her unfortunate exit towards the end of the film.
06:48Posey brings all her indie charm and comedic timing to the part, but Jolie's vapid pettiness playing off
06:54excellently with Courtney Cox's Gale. And yeah, also the hair bun cigarette look is burned into my
07:00brain. I'm genuinely in love. She's like, smoking. Literally. Which, actually, while we're on this
07:07topic, if we can get Kirby back for Scream 6, then why the hell can't we have Jennifer back for Scream 7?
07:14Explain that, will you, with all your science. Yeah, that final shot does show that she's, um,
07:21extremely dead, but be audacious. Posey has said herself she'd love to come back,
07:26and if you Scream 4 freaks get to have your Kirby moment, then god damn it, me and the 5 people
07:32who also love Scream 3 should get to have this. It's only fair. In fact, I'm gonna form a Parker
07:38Posey collective movement right now. We'll bring in the Josie and the Pussycat fans, the Party Girl fans,
07:44and also the White Lotus crowd too. We'll make it happen. Just leave it with me.
07:51I'm probably gonna fail in this endeavor, but you know, there's always hope. There's always hope.
07:56We can just hope and pray. Is my love for Scream 3 some kind of Parker Posey-induced mania,
08:04you might be asking? Maybe. Potentially. There's a distinct possibility it could be.
08:10But also, if you'll permit me for a moment, I do think that this third film is a great trilogy
08:15capper, and if not for the sequels that came after, which have ranged from okay to pretty good,
08:22it's also a perfect sendoff for Sydney. Yes, again, the third act, twist, involving long-lost
08:28relatives and scheming and retcons is eye-rollingly bad, but at least for Sydney,
08:34Craven does find a way to end the story on a really high note. We return back to her house in the daytime,
08:41surrounded by friends and loved ones, before she looks anxiously at her open door and then,
08:46after one pensive moment, she leaves it open and goes to join them. It's genuinely such a great way
08:53of showing that Sid has been able to put all this horror behind her and also that she'll be able to
08:58approach the future even with the potential of further tragedy. It's empowering, uplifting,
09:04and after all that Sid and the gang have been through, a well-earned moment of peace and happiness.
09:10So, is Scream 3 a perfect movie? Nah, not at all. Is it as good as the first two? No,
09:17not really either, but it is far from the disaster it's been made out to be, and,
09:22dare I say, one that's aged far better than Scream 4. Not to yuck anyone's yum,
09:28because I know a lot of people really liked that film too, but if I was going to choose between them,
09:33it's Scream 3 all the way. If you could also, like, maybe give it Scream 4's finale instead,
09:39because that does go extremely hard, but otherwise, yeah, you come up against Parker Posey in a
09:45straight shootout, you lose that battle. You lose that battle every time. Just a little
09:51The Other Guys reference for you there, um, where am I going with this?
09:55Right, yeah, no, Scream 3, good. Messy, but good. And a film I really do think people
10:02should give a second chance. Let me know your thoughts on Scream 3 down in the comments below,
10:06are you pro Jennifer Jolie propaganda, or do you think that I'm just saying a lot of guff?
10:14Let us know down there, drop the video a like if you enjoyed it, and subscribe to Walk Culture Horror
10:18so you don't miss more fun, hot takes like this every single week. Either way, I've been Ewan,
10:24thanks for watching again, and I'll hopefully catch you next time. Bye.
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