Scream 3
Scream 3 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Wes Craven |
Written by | Ehren Kruger |
Based on | Characters by Kevin Williamson |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Deming |
Edited by | Patrick Lussier |
Music by | Marco Beltrami |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Dimension Films[1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 117 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $40 million[3] |
Box office | $161.8 million[4] |
Scream 3 is a 2000 American
Scream (1996) screenwriter Kevin Williamson provided a five-page outline for two sequels to Scream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise. Williamson's commitments to other projects meant he was unable to develop a complete script for Scream 3, so writing duties were undertaken by Kruger, who discarded many of Williamson's notes. Craven and Marco Beltrami returned to direct and score the film, respectively. Production was troubled, including script rewrites, occasions when pages were only ready on the day of filming, and scheduling difficulties with the main cast. Principal photography took place from July to September 1999, and the ending was re-filmed in January 2000.
Scream 3 premiered on February 3, 2000, in Westwood, Los Angeles, and was theatrically released the following day, grossing $162 million worldwide on a budget of $40 million. The film received mixed reviews but has been reappraised in recent years in the wake of the MeToo movement.[5][6][7][8] Scream 3 was originally intended to be the final installment of the series until the franchise was revived in 2011 with a sequel, Scream 4.
Plot
Detective Mark Kincaid contacts Gale Weathers to discuss the recent murders, prompting her to travel to Hollywood, where she finds Dewey Riley working as an adviser on the set of Stab 3, the third film in the series based on the Ghostface murders. Ghostface kills Stab 3 actress Sarah Darling, causing production of the film to be halted. The remaining cast, along with Dewey and Gale, gather at the home of Jennifer Jolie, the actress playing Gale in Stab 3. Ghostface murders her bodyguard and uses a gas leak to cause an explosion, which kills actor Tom Prinze.
Sidney is living in seclusion as a crisis counselor for an abused women's hotline, fearing another killer may strike. Having uncovered Sidney's location, the killer begins taunting her by phone using a voice changer to sound like her deceased mother Maureen Prescott, forcing Sidney out of hiding and drawing her to Hollywood. Martha Meeks, the sister of Sidney's murdered friend Randy,[a] visits Sidney and the others to deliver a videotape that Randy made before his death, posthumously warning them the rules of a horror film do not apply to anyone in the third and final film of a trilogy and that any of them, including Sidney, could die. Sidney is later attacked by Ghostface at a movie set, forcing the police to withhold her at their station.
Dewey, Gale, Jennifer, and the remaining cast, Angelina[b] and Tyson, attend a birthday party for Stab 3's director, Roman Bridger. After Gale discovers Roman's body in the basement, Ghostface attacks the group, killing Angelina, Tyson and Jennifer. The killer then orders Sidney to the mansion to save Gale and Dewey. When Sidney arrives, Ghostface lures her inside to where Gale and Dewey are bound and gagged. As Sidney is freeing them, Ghostface appears, though Sidney gains the upper hand using a hidden gun to fight him off. Kincaid shows up but is knocked unconscious by Ghostface. Sidney flees and hides in a secret screening room where she is discovered by Ghostface, who reveals himself as Roman, having faked his death and survived being shot by wearing a bulletproof vest.
Roman admits to being Sidney's half-brother, born to their mother Maureen when she was an actress in Hollywood. Four years prior, he had tried reuniting with her, only for her to reject him due to him being the product of rape. Bitter over the rejection, Roman began stalking her, filming all the men she philandered with and showing
Later at Sidney's house, Dewey proposes to Gale, who accepts. Sidney returns from a walk and leaves her gates, which were previously shown to be alarmed, open. She enters her home and is invited to join Dewey, Gale, and Kincaid to watch a movie. As she goes to join the others, her front door blows open behind her, but she walks away, leaving it as is.
Cast
- David Arquette as Dewey Riley
- Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
- Courteney Cox Arquette as Gale Weathers
- Patrick Dempsey as Mark Kincaid
- Scott Foley as Roman Bridger
- Lance Henriksen as John Milton
- Matt Keeslar as Tom Prinze
- Jenny McCarthy as Sarah Darling
- Emily Mortimer as Angelina Tyler
- Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie
- Deon Richmond as Tyson Fox
- Kelly Rutherford as Christine
- Cotton Weary
- Patrick Warburton as Steven Stone
- Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Ghostface
- Lynn McRee as Maureen Prescott
- Josh Pais as Wallace
- Heather Matarazzo as Martha Meeks
- Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks
- Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob
- Carrie Fisher as Bianca Burnette
Production
Development
Scream 3 was released just over two years after
Writing
The environment for Scream 3's development had become more complicated than with previous films. There was an increased scrutiny on the effects of violence in media and the effect it could have on the public in the aftermath of the
Kruger agreed to develop the script for Scream 3 primarily to work with Craven and the executives under Miramax; he said of his decision to take on writing duties on the film:
When you're doing a rewrite script, it's never totally coming from you. It's never the same as writing an original. So often, what you look for is, "Well who am I going to be working with?" and "Who am I going to be learning from?" The [answers to those] questions give you a lot of motivation for pursuing a project like this.[14]
To help in developing the script, Kruger read copies of Williamson's scripts for Scream and Scream 2, as well as watched the earlier films to better understand the characters and tone.[14] In an interview, Kruger admitted that his lack of involvement with the development of the principal cast of Scream hampered his ability to portray them true to their previous characterization. Early scripts for Scream 3 had the character of Sidney Prescott much like "Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day" – a more action-orientated heroine – at which point Craven would intervene and correct the script to bring the characters closer to their previous appearances.[14] Kruger admitted that despite not receiving any writing credit, Craven had a significant hand in developing the script for Scream 3.[14] Like Scream 2, the script for Scream 3 was subject to repeated alterations with pages sometimes completed only on the day on which they were to be filmed.[17] Multiple scenes were rewritten to include previously absent characters or change elements of the plot when it was decided that they were not connecting with other scenes.[17] In a 2013 interview, Williamson further detailed his original script, which would have seen the killers be a "Stab" fan club of Woodsboro kids. All the members of the club would have been involved in the killings and the final twist "of the movie was when Sidney walked into the house after Ghostface had killed everyone ... and they all rose up. None of them were actually dead and they'd planned the whole thing." Williamson later adapted this story for his 2013 TV series The Following.[18]
Casting
Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Liev Schreiber all returned to their roles as Sidney Prescott and news reporter Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, and Cotton Weary, now host of a TV show, respectively for Scream 3, their characters being the only central roles to survive the events of the previous two films. In an interview, Craven stated that convincing the central cast to return to film a new Scream film was not difficult but as with Scream 2, their burgeoning fame and busy schedules made arranging their availability with the film's production period difficult.[19] The consequence of Campbell's commitments in particular meant she was only available to film her role for 20 days, forcing the script to reduce the series' main character to a smaller role while focusing on the other characters played by Cox and Arquette.[17] Lynn McRee finally makes a physical appearance in the series as Maureen Prescott (though only through an hallucination of Sidney), and Sidney now is a crisis counselor. Roger L. Jackson again returned to voice the antagonist Ghostface and Jamie Kennedy reprised his role as Randy Meeks in spite of the character's death in Scream 2. Negative feedback following the death of Randy had the production consider methods to have had his character survive to appear in Scream 3 including having the character's family hide him away for safety while recuperating from his injuries, but it was deemed too unbelievable and the idea was replaced with the character appearing in a minor role via a pre-recorded video message.[17]
Many of the supporting cast played fictitious actors taking part in the
Lawrence Hecht and C.W. Morgan appeared in minor roles reprising their characters of Sidney's father
In a 2009 interview, Matthew Lillard, who played Stu Macher in Scream, said that he had been contracted to reprise his role in Scream 3 as the primary antagonist, having survived his apparent death, orchestrating new Ghostface attacks from prison on high school students and ultimately targeting Sidney.[20][21] Following the Columbine High School massacre shortly before production began, the script was scrapped and re-written without his character and this plot to avoid development of a film which associated violence and murder with a high school setting.[13]
Filming
A scene in the film involved Campbell being pursued by Ghostface through filmset replicas of locations from the original Scream including her character's home. The scene was not present in the script itself, but Craven paid to have the sets constructed, knowing he wanted to revisit the original film in some manner. After the construction of the sets, the scene was then written around the resulting areas producing the scene in the final film.[17] The script underwent changes repeatedly as filming was conducted with pages regularly only available on the day of filming.[17] Additionally, if the production decided to change a scene this sometimes meant refilming other scenes to maintain continuity requiring further rewrites. The production team purposely filmed large amounts of footage containing different variations of each scene based on the different script developments in order that, should the script further change, they would ideally have a scene they could use without having to film new ones at a later date, requiring them to obtain access to locations or build sets. Additionally, a three-minute scene featuring the character of Randy Meeks had over two hours of footage filmed.[17] The script for the film was so in flux that the epilogue scene was filmed with three variants of Patrick Dempsey's character – one with him absent, one where his arm is bandaged and one with him in a normal condition – as the production were not certain what his ultimate fate would be following the finalization of the film.[17]
Post-production
In January 2000, three months after completing principal photography for Scream 3, the ending was refilmed when it was decided to be an inadequate conclusion.[17] Originally the ending consisted of Sidney (Campbell) easily defeating Roman (Scott Foley) which led into an early morning scene of police arriving and then into the final scene of Sidney in her home.[17] The production considered that this amounted to essentially three endings, damaging the pacing of the film and there was also consideration that, being the concluding chapter of the trilogy, the audience needed to believe that Sidney could lose and die, something her easy victory did not achieve.[23][24] To create the alternate ending, the fight scene between Sidney and Roman was extended and an addition involved Roman shooting Sidney, seemingly to death where previously she had simply hidden from the character. A major addition was the presence of the character Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), who had previously been completely absent from the finale, after the production realized that his character simply disappeared from the plot and his story arc went nowhere.[17]
As with production of Scream, Craven encountered repeated conflicts over censorship with the
Music
Reception
Scream 3 held its
Box office
The film set a record for the widest opening ever in the United States and Canada, being released on 3,467 screens.[29]
The film grossed $34.7 million during its opening weekend, ranking number one at the US box office. It broke The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition's record for the highest weekend debut in February. It also beat Scream 2's record for highest weekend debut for a horror film and also for a Miramax film.[30] It went on to gross $89.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $72.7 million in other territories, for a world lifetime gross of $161.8 million.[31][32]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 41% based on 125 reviews and an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite some surprising twists, Scream 3 sees the franchise falling back on the same old horror formulas and cliches it once hacked and slashed with postmodern abandon."[33] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[34] On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[35]
Time Out London was particularly critical of the film, calling the film's metafiction commentary a poor imitation of Craven's own horror film Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994).[36] Of the characters, Roger Ebert said "[the characters] are so thin, they're transparent" but praised Campbell's appearance saying, "The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tribute."[37]
In a positive review, the Los Angeles Times called the film, "Genuinely scary and also highly amusing",[38] and the BBC stated that "as the conclusion to the trilogy it works more effectively than anyone had a right to expect".[39] Variety also praised the film as the end of the Scream trilogy, saying "Aficionados will be the best able to appreciate how wittily Craven has brought down the curtain on his much-imitated, genre-reviving series"[40] while Empire called it "satisfying" though believed the premise of the series had worn thin.[41]
Post-2017 re-evaluation
In the wake of the scandal involving the Scream films' executive producer Harvey Weinstein, several publications noted the parallels between Weinstein's behavior and the themes of abuse featured in the film, particularly those involving Maureen Prescott, the late mother of the film series' protagonist, Sidney. In 2017, Kristen Yoonsoo Kim noted the scene in which John Milton, portrayed by Lance Henriksen, discusses taking advantage of aspiring actresses.[42] In 2019, the film's editor, Patrick Lussier, discussed those particular themes and Wes Craven's approach to them, saying of Henriksen's character: "Wes, I think, was very interested in that character as not necessarily the villain—he certainly is a villain—but as a catalyst for the villain's motivation. He's really the spark for the events, or retconned that he is the spark for the events, in the entire series."[8]
In 2020, Adam White wrote that the film was "an angry indictment of sexual misconduct in Hollywood, predatory men and the casting couch".[43] He noted several instances of "transactional sex" within the film, including the characters Jennifer and Angelina both making references to having sex with filmmakers in order to secure roles in the fictional Stab film, and Carrie Fisher in a cameo role (as a lookalike of Fisher herself) who claims that the role of Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise was won by "the one who [slept] with George Lucas". White also noted that Rose McGowan, who appeared in the first Scream film, later accused Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room a year after the film was released.[43] McGowan revealed in 2017 that she received a $100,000 settlement as a result of this attack.[44]
Writing for
Home media
Scream 3 was released in US territories on
Scream 3 remained unreleased in foreign territories including Europe and Japan until 2001 where it was simultaneously released with Scream and Scream 2 on February 26 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Each film contained the additional content found in the Collector's Edition version of their US release including deleted scenes, outtakes, theatrical trailers, music videos and commentary from each respective film's crew.[50][51][52] Additionally, the three films were collected together in a single pack, again released on February 26 and released as "Scream Trilogy".[53]
Scream 3 was released on the
Notes
- ^ a b As depicted in Scream 2 (1997)
- ^ In the filmed script, Angelina was a second Ghostface, Roman's lover and accomplice, the original draft elaborating that she was a former classmate of Sidney's from Woodsboro whose real name was Angie Crick. Her motivation was stated as her idolizing Sidney and wanting her fame and attention, thus her having taken on the role of Sidney in the Stab film, and giving Roman's and Sidney's relationship incestuous vibes. The idea was later scrapped, and the scenes of this reveal being deleted, with Craven mentioning in the film's director's commentary that they could not get the studio on board with the idea. Editor Patrick Lussier and producer Marianne Maddalena left it ambiguous as to whether Angelina was actually dead due to being dragged off, discussing the idea in the film's commentary and calling her death scene "dubious". In a subsequent Scream Trilogy DVD boxset booklet, Angelina is not listed as a deceased character from Scream 3. Scream VI subsequently listed Roman Bridger as the only Ghostface in the Hollywood killings, implying Angelina was either not involved at all – or that if she was, that information never came to light.[9]
- ^ As depicted in Scream (1996)
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External links
- Scream 3 at IMDb
- Scream 3 at AllMovie
- Scream 3 at Box Office Mojo
- Scream 3 at Rotten Tomatoes