Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 15 of Scream 3 (0:55:34-0:59:15)

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



SCENE 15 of Scream 3
Length: 3mins 41secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers, Jennifer Jolie, Bianca Burnette (Carrie Fisher).
Pop Culture References:

• Star Wars and George Lucas

Thank god that's over! Now we can move on to what Scream 3 does best: Gale & Gale Investigations. It's like Scooby Doo, but with two narcissistic Hollywood types. Of course, even though the worst scene in Scream franchise history is over, doesn't mean the national nightmare that is Scream 3's costume design is also over. No sir, Courteney Cox's unflattering ensembles are still here to stay.



This movie really did overdo the "boo machine" scare tactic. Like, way way overboard with that. These characters are out in broad daylight surrounded by hundreds of people... I mean, Roman's a dumb serial killer, but he's not that dumb.

"What the hell are you doing?"
"Being Gale Weathers! What the hell are you doing?"
"I am Gale Weathers."

Gale weathers is such a complex character, after all.

"Here's how I see it. I've got no house, no bodyguard, no movie, and I'm being stalked. 'Cause somebody wants to kill me? No. Because somebody wants to kill you. So now, starting now, I go where you go. That way, if somebody wants to kill me, I'll be with you, so if they really want to kill you they won't kill me. They'll kill you. Make sense?"
"None."
"You know, in the movies I play as you being much smarter."
"And as a sane person. For you that must be quite a stretch."

You know, Jennifer's reasoning actually makes a lot of sense in a general way, although it also doesn't make sense because if the killer was simply trying to kill off people from the original killings then why kill Sarah after Cotton?

"Need to get in that building?"
"Yeah."
"There a story in that building?"
"Maybe."
"Gale Weathers would find a way."

"Bitch!"

I could watch these two all day.

Flawless. And I kinda love that Marco Beltrami's score takes a turn for the Angelo Badalamenti-meets-Clue in this moment all but completing the film's swerve from slasher to old-fashioned whodunnit mystery. Sherlock Holmesy, even.

"Basements give me the creeps!"
"You'd make a fascinating interview."

Ooh, burn!

And, yes, I am very much aware that somewhere along the line I've stopped even attempting to provide thoughtful, probing insights, and have instead resorted simply to quoting Gale and Jennifer, letting you swim through Courteney Cox and Parker Posey's sublime divinity.

Of all the times to not try and give audiences a fake scare, they go for the scene in the studio basement? That makes no sense. They may Heather Matarazzo's entrance into a boo machine testing suite and yet here all we get is a noise off in the distance. No threatening music cues or prolonged sequence of terror? Sigh. But, then again, maybe they thought Randy's sister was enough to terrify people for days on end and that they didn't need any more? (I'll get over that scene eventually, you guys!)

"Hey, are you-"
"No."
"But you look just li-"
"Like her? I've been hearing it all my life."
"It's uncanny!"
"I was up for Princess Leia, I was this close. So who gets it? The one who sleeps with George Lucas."

Ignoring the fact that the thought of sleeping with George Lucas is now in my brain and can never be erased, the story flies in the face of history, which tells a story of Carrie Fisher and Sissy Spacek being cast in Carrie and Star Wars respectively. They then swapped for some reason and history played out the way it did. Can you imagine Spacek in Star Wars? No, neither can I? Can you imagine Carrie Fisher having the career that Spacek did? No, neither can I. Funny, that. Although, I think there's a story in the Scream 3 audio commentary about this scene (or at least parts of it) being written by Fisher herself, so who knows...

"I don't work for the cops, I work for the studio."
"Really, well, would you work for... the President?"
"The President... of the studio."

"Fifty dollars? What are you, a reporter for Woodsboro High?"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm grateful Scream 3 exists. Parker Posey just tears through this part, doesn't she? I would have placed her in my top five supporting actresses of 2000, for sure (alongside this and Best in Show she was quite prolofic at the time, although I'm not quite sure where she's gone too after Superman Returns in 2006). Anyway, I know we give Ehren Kruger a lot of flack for many of the film's biggest faults, but I can't deny that he came up with some zingers and in this instant didn't even fall back on a Nancy Drew joke like he so easily could have. Amazing.

Of course Sidney's mom never made it big in Hollywood if her stage name was Rena Reynolds!

"Rena Reynolds... stage name."
"You should talk, Judy Jergenstern!"

JUDY JERGENSTERN! I want this frame printed and hung on my wall. It fills me with so much joy.



FLAW-LESS.

I could quote the expository dialogue that links Sidney mother with Stab producer John Milton and his early horror films like Creatures from the San Andreas Fault, Amazombies, and Space Psycho, but let's just bathe in how incredible those fake movie titles are and imagine how wonderful it'd be if they really existed. Preferably starring Parker Posey. Because you know she'd be aces in them. Also: Maureen (nee Rena) was in a stage play called I Want to Scream. Well, that certainly proved prophetic, no?

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, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 12 of Scream 3 (0:36:54-0:47:26)

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



SCENE 12 of Scream 3
Length: 10mins 32secs
Primary Characters: Dewey Riley, Gale Weathers, Jennifer Jolie, Steven Stone, Angelina Tyler, Tom Prinze, and Ghostface
Pop Culture References:

• None so overtly, but I'm sure there are plenty!

Weird double feature idea: Peter Deming Lensed Hollywood Flicks from the Early 2000s! There's Scream 3 and there's also Mulholland Drive. The nighttime shots of Los Angeles certainly look the same.


"Is this a wrap party of this a wrap party? Scene 34, Maureen's murder flashback."
"I never liked that scene."
"That's because you weren't in it."
Not for nothing, a lesser franchise would have done a scene like that by now, and thank gawd they never did. Obviously they couldn't have given the reveal of the climax being facts about Maureen death, but they still could have done one at some point. I shudder to think. I do like that the next joke is about "the Prescott house flashback", as if the entirely of Stab 4 is just made up of Sidney returning to Woodsboro and having flashback after flashback.

I think we all remember where we were when we first caught a glimpse of Matt Keeslar, don't we? Mine was Waiting for Guffman and boy that was a sight! He had a great run, actually, with Guffman, Urbania, and The Last Days of Disco. Sadly, I think he expected Scream 3 to be a breakout role for him. A look at his IMDb profile shows a lot of television one. One suspects many of them are pilots that never got picked up. Sad. He's such a good looking man. Such a good looking man.

Some time ago when I sat my friend Suze down to watch all three Scream films (so, "some time ago" was before Scream 4 came out at least) because she'd never seen any of them, and by the third film came around we just spent most of the time mocking the clothes because MY GAWD WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THAT WARDROBE DEPARTMENT. It's actually very amusing on Jennifer Jolie because her character so flamboyant and over the time that you can totally see her wearing clothes like that, even if they are horrendous most of the time (She'd be on Go Fug Yourself daily). Gale, though?

Yikes!

I seem to remember when this scene happened we both burst into tears of laughter. Look at her! Consider for a moment what she is wearing and I dare you not to laugh. I mean, despite the fact that they're just heinously ugly to look at, are those red leather pants not the most inappropriate attire one could wear when there's a killer on the loose? And that bag. Oh my lordy, that bag! As if her hair wasn't bad enough...

I know Scream 3 is about Hollywood, but I'm surprised they put in so much smoking. I have nothing to say about it per se other than I think it's curious and somewhat uncomfortable.



I have nothing to say about these shots either. Except maybe "has Parker Posey ever played a mid-century vampire?"

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 10 of Scream 3 (0:32:46-0:35:31)

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



SCENE 10 of Scream 3
Length: 3mins 15secs
Primary Characters: Detective Kincaid, Detective Wallace, Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Roman Bridger and Jennifer Jolie
Pop Culture References:

• Hannibal Lector and Se7en (examples of similar scenarios given)
• Jane Pauley (Dt Wallace jokes about her)

More of the whodunnit aspect of Scream 3, here. The other two definitely had this aspect, but in line with Scream 3 being a riff on older horror films rather than the slashers of the first two entries, the mystery angle is far more prominent here. The franchise was always a bit better because of this angle, but if they were going to do that then I wish they'd made the mystery solving scenes a bit more punchier, like the Randy death scene in Scream 2 or better integrated into the horror genre like all of Gale's snooping throughout Scream.

"The old killer playing with the cops routine. Very Hannibal Lecter, very Se7en."
"Doesn't the killer come after the cops in those movies?"
"Usually one cop makes it... and one cop doesn't. Usually."
Another reason to dislike the Adam Brody/Anthony Anderson characters in Scream 4 is that the very reason for their existence was already actually utilised in Scream 3. They were there to provide the comic dialogue about cops who are one week away from retirement dying and all that, but did everyone just forget that they were in Scream 3 doing the same? Maybe Kevin Williamson wrote that scene of Scream 4 and hadn't actually even watched Scream 3 because he felt bitter about how it all went? Just like he apparently did with Scream 4. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, more blood in this long shot of Sarah Darling's crime scene that there actually was in the scene itself. I guess she fell on a lot of glass?

I love that Dewey and Gale just show up at a crime scene and somehow get inside when not even Detective Wallace is aware that they (well, Gale Weathers, at least) is working with Detective Kincaid. Whoever let them in is doing some sloppy security detail!

"The produces told us that there are three different versions of the script. Something about wanting to keep the ending off of the internet."
I definitely think Scream 3 (and later Scream 4) went too far into the self-referential territory. At least for less obsessive fans. Like I've noted already, the films that Scream 3 appears to be referencing most are its own franchise with far less nods to Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and so forth. A line like this one only works for people who have followed the Scream franchise well enough to know the stories about how the Scream 2 screenplay was leaked online and that the film had to be rejiggered as a result. So, while lines like this amuse people like myself, most viewers were probably like "haha! the internet! :/"

Peter Deming is the director of photography on Scream. According to this shot he is also the director of photography of Stab. He likes his Ghosty slasher flicks! Plus, further on from what I was saying up above about Scream 3 taking after older, less slasher-bred horror films, the font used is like some Creature from the Black Lagoon style typeface. Which seems odd for the movie within the movie, but makes sense for Craven and his crew having a bit of fun on the set of Scream 3.

Meanwhile, how amazing is Parker Posey's expression here. Gawd, she's amazing in this movie.

She renders me speechless (er, wordless? typeless?) sometimes, honestly.

In a moment of accidental actorly goofiness, I somehow managed to inadvertently catch Scott Foley looking directing into the camera during this speech about how innocent he is that he didn't really call Sarah Darling before she was killed. I'm going to take this is a subliminal way of clueing the audience in on who the killer is (er, Roman Bridger) and not just Scott Foley being a big dumb dummy.

Have I mentioned I don't like Scott Foley in this movie and think he's a dope? Yeah. Like, all the killers have their own way of masking the fact that they are indeed the killer. Roman Bridger's is to whine himself into looking innocent, apparently. Where everyone else seems to be having a bit of fun with the whole thing, Roman just sits around moping and whingeing. Even the reveal sequence is more of his crying, but we'll get to that later, obviously.

Wow. I didn't realise I felt so harshly about this topic until I typed it down just now. The more you know...

"God, Roman. Remind me not to sleep with him again."
She is a goddess.

GODDESS!

She deserves a Las Vegas show starring Cristal Connors, that's how much of a goddess she is!

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, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 9 of Scream 3 (0:29:57-0:32:45)

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



SCENE 9 of Scream 3
Length: 2mins 48secs
Primary Characters: Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Jennifer Jolie and Steven Stone (Patrick Warburton)
Pop Culture References:

• Nancy Drew (Jennifer calls Gale this)
• Julia Roberts, Salmon Rushdie and Posh Spice (all former clients of Steven Stone)

It's like an establishing shot out of The Closer. Wes was getting a bit lazy, wasn't he? I do like that they brought back Marco Beltrami's excellent score from the original. It's so distinctive for this kind of movie, don't you think?

The great thing about Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie is that within minutes of her first appearing on screen - it's 30 minutes in and she's barely had more than a couple of minutes - she is such a full character. We know her everything. Despite the fact that she's costumed to look so utterly trashy, you can sense that's her character. I can picture Jennifer Jolie on red carpets and being mercilessly fugged, while also coming off as somewhat charming. I actually think her character is modeled a little bit on Drew Barrymore, which just adds to the fun.

"You see this Dewey? I haven't had one of these in a year and a half. Someone's gonna pay for this!"
I certainly hope that wasn't Ehren Kruger's attempt at making Jennifer Jolie a viable red herring! Like, 'see how mean she can get! grrr!' of course, the whole smoking thing would have then been her fault, so...

"You! Like I'm ever gonna win an award playing you!"
I love the way Parker Posey does these weird movements and body contortions. Like I said just up there, it's all part of the character, it's so lived in and fresh. You don't have a character like this in a slasher movie unless they're a big obnoxious idiot, but Jennifer is just so endearing and playful I can't help but love her. I love the way Gale can't even hide the fact that she think's Jennifer is a big ol' loon. But, speaking of Gale and Jennifer... as I've been writing up this scene, I've had this song stuck in my head! I think it's apt, don't you?


Amazing.

"Cotton Weary, Sarah Darling... don't you get it?"
"Someone's killing them in the order that they die in the movie!"
I like that in the ensuing conversation, Gale ask's "who dies third?", which continues on with Sarah Darling's "girl that gets killed second" stuff and it's like everybody just forgets that there are two opening victims. Christine was just collateral damage, I suppose.

It's for scenes like this that I love the Scream franchise. Other films would cut this more character building sequence out, but these films have always been more about the characters so that you feel a bit more about them when they bite the dust. Sure, sometimes we don't feel a thing (hello Tyson and Tom), but more times than not, it works.

"I get killed in Stab 3?"
To be honest, getting killed third does seem like an very un-glamourous way to go. Very unfitting of one of the franchise's defining characters. You'd think, even in the fake world of Stab 3, that she would make it to the end. Or, like a later Stab 3 script change infers, she's the killer. Wow, this is all getting a bit confusing!

I kinda love this big, goofy grin on Dewey's face as he talks about how he's Jennifer's "rock". Reminds me of the "She's with me!" grin from the original that was so adorable.

He calls him "Dew Drop"! Meanwhile, I suggest you read the comments of this Scream to Scream entry for a bit of backstory regarding the character of Warburton's "Steven Stone" and who was originally meant to play him.

"Your resume reads like the obituaries."

This is so very true. Why would Woodsboro hire him again in Scream 4?

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, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: SCENE 5 of Scream 3 (0:12:28-0:19:24)

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



SCENE 5 of Scream 3
Length: 6mins 54secs
Primary Characters: Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), John Milton (Lance Henrikson), "Studio Executive" (Roger Corman), (Detective?) Wallace (Josh Pais), Tyson Fox (Deon Richmond), Tom Prinze (Matt Keeslar), Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy), Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer), Gale Weathers, Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey), Dewey Riley (David Arquette),
Pop Culture References:

• Tori Spelling and David Schwimmer (Named as former Stab cast-members)
• LL Cool J/William Shakespeare and Usher/Pinter (Weird combo's for black actors mentioned by Tyson)
• Freddy Prinze Jr, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Michelle Gellar, etc (All the Stab cast have names made up of other famous actors)
• 60 Minutes 2 (Gale was a reporter for this show)
• Brad Pitt (Jennifer Jolie used to date him)
• Roger Corman (Cameo)
• Jay & Silent Bob (Cameo)
• Connie Chung (Jay and Silent Bob mention her)

There was a brief rumour during the production of Scream 4 that it was going to have the subtitle of "Return to Woodsboro", but I never believed that because Stab 3 had that name and that'd just be silly.

Why hello there big burly security man on the left. Clearly this extra should've been cast in Patrick Warburton's role as Jennifer Jolie's security guard.

"Violence in cinema's a big deal right now, Roman. This is not the kind of news this studio is after."
"So if we stop making scary movies all the psychos in the world will retire? Come on."
I love that they got Roger freakin' Corman for a cameo as a movie executive telling a director that he's worried about violent content. Oh the irony. Of course, Corman's line right there is an obvious reference to Scream 3's own behind the scenes dramas, which had the original idea of a "return to Woodsboro" being scrapped due to the media's recent fascination with violence in media after the Columbine school shootings. Roman's line, however, is almost a direct lift from Billy Loomis in the original Scream, which is just the first instance of Roman Bridger being lame. The second instance are his clothes. Gawd, he wears ugly clothes. But, then, this was 2000 and Scream 3's costume designer, Abigail Murray, was clearly on drugs so not entirely her fault I guess.

Lame.

"Detectives, there's no reason to presume Cotton's death had anything to do with this movie, is there?"
"He was making a movie called Stab; he was stabbed."
Oh Wallace!

From left to right we have Deon Richmond as Tyson Fox as Rick, the video store employee clearly a "Randy substitute/homage"; Jenny McCarthy as Sarah Darling as Candy, the hot chick who dies third who does indeed die third; Matt Keeslar as Tommy Prinze as Deputy Dewey, no longer played by David Schwimmer; Emily Mortimer as Angelina Tyler as Sidney Prescott, longer played by Tori Spelling. Phew, make sense?

"I'm starting to see why Tori Spelling and David Schwimmer didn't want to come back."
I guess you know your low-rent horror franchise is in bad shape when Tori Spelling and David Schwimmer think they have better stuff to do with their time! Oh hai there Emily Mortimer. I love that the Scream franchise really does have quite a few actors who went on to become quote unquote legitimate like here Emily Mortimer. Now's she's in films by Scorsese and Pixar. Of course, Mortimer as Angelina Tyler would have obviously been so much better if they'd gone through with the original plan of having her as the second killer Oh man, what a wasted opportunity! And it's quite obvious, too, that they were setting that storyline up to occur and then they just... ugh. Yet another misjudged aspect of Scream 3, unfortunately.