Scream 3

REVIEW:

Scream 3 arrives as the first entry in the franchise not written by Kevin Williamson, and honestly, you can feel the absence immediately. The sharp meta edge, the clever structure, the natural rhythm of the characters, it is all softened here, replaced with a script that feels like it is searching for the voice that made this series so special. The movie tries to move things in a different direction, but not every swing lands.

This sequel was made in the shadow of the Columbine tragedy, and the effects are crystal clear on the finished product. Violence is toned down, the gore almost completely removed, and the result is a film that feels hesitant about its own identity. Scream has always been brutal and self aware in equal measure, but here the brutality is gone, leaving a sense that we are watching a version of Scream that has been stripped of its teeth.

To be fair, there are glimmers of creativity. I really enjoy the way Ghostface plays with vocal manipulation in the opening scene, speaking in a female voice to Cotton before using Cotton’s own voice to trick his girlfriend. It is a fresh twist in a franchise that prides itself on misdirection. It briefly hints at the wicked cleverness the movie could have embraced more often.

Sidney, Dewey and Gale remain some of my favourite horror survivors because their stories do not reset, they carry every scar with them. Neve Campbell continues to be a phenomenal anchor, portraying Sidney as someone who has endured unimaginable trauma yet refuses to break. At the same time, she has isolated herself from the world, and the emotional damage is more visible here than ever before. She is a fighter, but one who now trembles before she swings.

Unfortunately, Sidney’s limited screentime becomes a major flaw. Due to Neve Campbell’s scheduling conflicts, the film is forced to sideline its heart and soul. You feel the narrative bending awkwardly to accommodate her absence, and it weakens everything. They should have delayed production until both Campbell and Williamson were available because their influence is the franchise.

That weakness is only made more noticeable by the new cast of characters, who are loud, irritating and mostly forgettable. They are so over the top at times that you are almost rooting for Ghostface simply to bring some intensity and fear back into the movie.

The film tries to cover that lack of suspense with extra dialogue and comedic banter, but it backfires. While the humour is similar to the earlier movies, the sudden decline in violence makes the tone sway too far into comedy territory. There are long stretches where you almost forget this is supposed to be a horror movie. The tension never lingers, it evaporates the moment a character cracks a joke.

All of that would be forgivable if the finale stuck the landing, but the killer reveal does not deliver the punch the story needs. The motivation feels uninspired and the decision to tie this new villain to the events of the first movie completely undermines Billy and Stu. Their crazed, self driven urge to kill was terrifying and iconic, and retroactively blaming someone else cheapens everything that made them effective villains. Scream 3 definitely tries to act like the concluding chapter but it is not a satisfying one. I still enjoy revisiting it as part of the journey, seeing how far these characters have come, but it remains easily the weakest of the original trilogy, a film that forgot how scary Scream can be when it is not afraid of its own shadow.