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:
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
