Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 3 of Scream 3 (0:10:21-0:12:01)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 3 of Scream 3
Length: 1min 40secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox Arquette), Detective Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), Student (Richmond Arquette) and The Moderator (Julie Janney)
Pop Culture References:
  • None

And thus begins what will become a Gale Weathers ritual during Scream 3 in which we ruthlessly insult her horrible hair. This current version of her hair isn't even the worst of it! When he lets it out it just... well, yeah. This was the first image released, if I remember correctly, and we were all like "what has she done to her hair?!?" And it's not a Scream 3 specific wig, either, since she had the same hair on Friends. What was going on at that time? Why did she think this was good hair? And after her awesome red-streaked bob from Scream 2, too!


That young man right there rolling his eyes is Richmond Arquette, David's brother and Courtney's brother-in-law. In this franchise's ongoing desire to become the unofficial Arquette family album (remember Lewis Arquette was in Scream 3 and I fully expect Coco Arquette to be in Scream 12: Ghostface in Space!) we get another of the Arquette clan. Where was Alexis though? Could Scream 3 not fit in a hot transsexual anywhere in it's two hour runtime? What's Jenny McCarthy got that Alexis Arquette doesn't? ...Wait, don't answer that! Patricia Rosanna Arquette, on the other hand... well, she's probably still busy trying to find Debra Winger to make an appearance in this franchise. Wouldn't that be a hoot thought! Did Dewey have a secret sister he didn't know about? Ooh aah!

"Excuse me! So you're saying that we should be ready to go out and cut each other's throats because that's what you did?"

"Metaphorically, yes."

"So tell me Ms Weathers... was it worth it?"


There are so many red herrings thrown about in Scream 3 that they were even making the glorified extras into suspects! This little exchange between Arquette and Cox Arquette (...) is clearly meant to be a "ooh, who is this character? i bet they're the killer, ooh!" moment and yet this unnamed character (known only as "Student" in the cast list) never returns. Lovely.

Looking at Richmond Arquette's filmography, I'm actually quite surprised at the number of movie's he has under his belt including several David Fincher movies (Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Fight Club and as the delivery man in Se7en!) and Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween.

"That's quite an impressive resume."
"Thank you. I assume you're not here for an autograph."


I love that they make Gale Weathers' career a running gag by now. In each film she's worked for a different television news program and I'm sure when the detective says "impressive" he means "long and undistinguished."

Speaking of the detective, I love that Patrick Dempsey is in Scream 3. I like to think that if it weren't for Scream 3 then Dempsey's career revival wouldn't have panned out the way it did and without it Grey's Anatomy would've have become such the hit that it did (that show was very good for, what? two seasons?) Basically, Patrick Dempsey has Scream to thank for everything he has right now. ...okay, perhaps that's a bit of an overstatement, and he was quite good in his brief Will & Grace tenure, too, and I was certainly surprised to see him pop up in Sweet Home Alabama. I was secretly disappointed that he didn't return in Scream 4, but we'll discuss that later.

And, of course, I love the Scream 2 photo shot used on her press tour marketing. She'd never looked better!

"I'm here because Cotton Weary's been murdered."
"Someone killed Cotton?"
"And his girlfriend. Someone who left something he wanted us to see. I'll show you this because you're the Woodsboro authority and because you knew him. I promise you, if you share this with the world it's you I will be arresting."

"I swear on my Pulitzer Prize, which I plan to win one day, detective."


Oh Gale! Forgetting the lack of any sustained grief at the news that her early career pet project had been murdered (after Scream 2 I suspect they soured when his career get sky high and she had a failed gig at 60 Minutes 2), I do love her reaction here. In Scream she was going for the Pulitzer and she still is! We can never say that Gale Weathers rested on her laurels.

Also, gosh Patrick Dempsey's hair is amazing.

"This is Maureen Prescott, Sidney Prescott's mother!"


Dun-dun-duuuuuunnnnn.

The Scream films were always much more interested in being a whodunnit than traditional slice-n-dice slasher flicks, but Scream 3 really took it to a new level. I've already noted the lack of traditional slasher movie chase and kills, instead choosing less gore and more exposition. The whole Maureen Prescott story... I ultimately don't think it works as well as they wanted it to, but it was a gallant effort at making a more grandoise stand for these films being taken more seriously, even they were always considered amongst the higher class of the teen horror craze.

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14. Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, End Credits

Scream 3
Scene 1, Scene 2

4 comments:

Weathers said...

Ah, Gale's hair. So bad. I love Courteney, and I'm still puzzled as to how she thought this was a flattering look. The worst hair showcase is probably when they're at the house before it blows. But.... yeah. The scariest part of the third film, that's for sure.

I never took the random guy as a possible suspect. Just someone who maybe makes Gale think of her past and how she got to where she is. But she's probably too focused on that Pulitzer to care. :)

Also, never liked Patrick Dempsey in this. I never bought him in the role. And he has some really poor scenes later on with Neve Campbell (when discussing scary movies). He was just.... not good. I much preferred his sarcastic partner. He was more fun and had a lot more personality.

Tony said...

I don't know why, but I love the "so tell me Miss Weathers, was it worth it?" line. LOVE IT.

Notnerb said...

Gee, in the last movie Gale talked to Debbie Salt several times without realizing it was Billy's mother, in this movie she is able to identify Sidney's mother from a REALLY old photo... say what you want about that godawful haircut but her attention to detail has improved dramatically!

RJ said...

Yeah. Here's where it starts to get painful. I still like Scream 3, but it's a mess of 'could-have-been.'

Rosanna Arquette is, I believe, the one who was out looking for Debra Winger.