Plot: What’s it about?
If there was ever a movie to make fun of a trilogy, it would have to be the “Scream” series (trilogy). The movies, while original or not so original depending on how you look at them, do have a point. The original “Scream” was vastly successful (as were its predecessors) due to the fact that they actually made fun of the movie that they were. Crappy horror movies (some even directed by the same guy who directed the Scream trilogy). Scream movies took all that we had learned by watching these low-budget movies in the 80’s and applied different rules that all of them had in common. Scream made a franchise of telling us what we already knew, but we still flocked to the theaters to see who bought it next. It’s this last movie that we’re talking about this time, to see if the rules still apply. To quote a character from the movie, “It’s the trilogy that all rules are off and anyone can get it!”. It’s a SCREAM baby!
The film opens with Cotton Weary (Liev Schrieber) who has now become a syndicated talk show host and is popular for more reasons than being known as a murderer (attempted). In much the same way that the trilogy opened, with Drew Barrymore wielding a phone, we see that our hero from Part II buys it in much the same way. The cast members have gone their separate ways, with Dewey being a “technical consultant” on the third installment of the “Stab” movie series (how convenient) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) is lecturing at colleges and telling promising Journalism students how to make it in the real world, and be successful! What arises is the perfect opportunity for the movie to mock itself once again. We see that there are only three surviving members of the original cast (Cox, Arquette and Campbell) and we see where they are a mere four years later. As the murders start turning up again, we see that Sidney (Neve Campbell) is somewhat of a recluse in Northern California and is now an anonymous operator for a battered women’s help line.
As per the advice of a certain “video guru”, we see that the rules are indeed being broken. Murders are happening to anyone and everyone. Whereas its first thought that the masked killer (in the same garb) is following the script to “Stab 3” to make the killings, we quickly find out that with the aid of a voice disguiser that perfectly mocks our stars voices, that the killer could be anyone. Full of more surprises and more cameos (think “Snoochie Noochies” and “Seinfeld”) than you can shake a sharp knife at, “Scream 3” will leave you way more entertained than its sequel. Maybe they made the sequel to purposely be bad…who knows.
Video: How does it look?
It’s hard to believe that “Scream 3” is now over a decade old and though that’s not too aged in movie terms, this one does show a bit on the print. By and large the 2.35:1 AVC HD transfer looks nice, the colors are bright and the image looks cleaner than the standard DVD of the film (and a bit better than the first two movies on Blu-ray). Still, there’s some grain and grit associated with some of the scenes and some of the film looks like it’s a bit too sharp. While the average viewer might not really notice (or care), “Scream 3” is the best-looking of all the “Scream” movies to date, but it’s not without its faults.
Audio: How does it sound?
What really continues to baffle me is that 5.1 audio has been around for over fifteen years now. So no matter how poor an image can look, it’s much harder to tell the age of a film these days just by listening to the audio. Gone are the days of Dolby Surround. This movie has been remixed to fit in a DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack and the result isn’t half bad. As with the previous two installments, “Scream 3” has its share of fight scenes that usually result in someone’s death. We hear the whisp of the knife as is slashes in the air and the constant unsheathing sound even though a sheath doesn’t exist. Dialogue is crisp and natural, as we’d expect.
Supplements: What are the extras?
We get a bit more from the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” department with this release. “Scream 3” seems to retain all of the same supplements that were found on the original standard DVD. While it’s nice to have these, it’d have been even nicer to have something, you know, new. Still, we an audio commentary from director Wes Craven, producer Marianne Maddelena and the film’s editor as they talk about the movie. It’s informative, but nothing earth shattering. We have the same 15 minutes of deleted scenes, an alternate ending which isn’t so alternate. Also thrown in are some outtakes, a music video “What If” by Creed (back when they were relevant) and some trailers for the movie.
