‘SCREAM 3’ : Banging More Than Ever 25 Years Later!

Note: There are Scream 3 spoilers ahead, Sidney!

It’s Saturday afternoon in the year 2000. Life is good. You just got done watching your two favorite movies of all time, Scream and Scream 2. Overcome with excitement because the night before on February 4th the third installment has just dropped into theaters and today is the day you get to go see it! You have a little bit of time to kill before your showing, so you hop onto AIM to mark as your away message that you are off to see Scream 3! Being 12 years old you feel you have bragging rights that the parental units are taking you to see it!

After updating the away message, you get an incoming chat from your ex best friend. She’s jealous you think to yourself. You open the message, your jaw drops in horror. The message reads, “The Killer in Scream 3 is Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)’s Brother.” After a moment of shock you laugh to yourself of how wrong they are. Sidney Prescott doesn’t have a brother! Feverishly, you type just that. They retort with, “I already seen the film last night, It’s her brother have fun!”

They immediately sign off. No way! She doesn’t even like these movies! You aren’t buying it. You log off and are still excited to see the film and can’t wait to tell her how WRONG she was! Fast forward two hours later, you are walking out of the theater and have never been so angry in your life. It was Roman Bridger (Scott Foley)…Sidney Prescott’s brother. You think to yourself, “I hate Scream 3.” You would continue to feel this way for many years. I couldn’t help but think, do I only hate it because it was spoiled for me?

Scream 3 is a Pariah!

Scream 3 is 100% the black sheep of the franchise, which is kind of fitting considering Roman was tossed out by his and Sid’s Mother, Maureen Prescott. For at least a decade, I personally filled my heart with hate for this film. The tone felt wrong. Cotton being the opening kill was NOT ok! Gale’s bangs were definitely NOT ok! The LACK of bloodshed was underwhelming. How dare they take away credit from our beloved characters Billy Loomis and Still Maucher and give it all to this Roman, a person who we just met!

I would go on to the message boards on IMDB, would see nothing but hate for this installment. After all, this was the concluding chapter of the trilogy right? This is how it all ends? It can’t be!

Thankfully it wasn’t.

Taking More Stabs

Having spawned three more sequels since the release of Scream 3, with a fourth on its way, I have gained so much more appreciation for this film. With each new installment, I grow to love this one more and more. The voice changer in this one is dope with the stealing of their voices. The social commentary in Hollywood is more relevant then ever, I actually quote this sequel more then any other, and then there is the actual fact Roman was the one who did it all by himself. (I have a theory he didn’t, but as of now he is.)

Parker Posey delivers the goods as well. The Carrie Fisher and Jamie Kennedy cameos were mint. What really makes me love this one is there is so much they left that can be implemented into the future. (Looking at you Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey). Yes, I know he’s said not to be in 7. A girl can have theories right? Who is returning? Why none other then Scott Foley! Things are about to get interesting and I think Scream 7 is going to have a lot of back story from the Original film and this one.

NO PRESS ON SET!

After deciding to do this anniversary article, it got me curious if other’s felt like me. Had they gained more appreciation for the film over the years? Did they always love it? Or have they never gotten over their hatred for it. Depending on where your own thoughts lie, the results might be surprising. I took to the interwebs and created a poll asking those very questions. 15% of those who voted said they never liked it and still don’t, 32% said they have grown more appreciation for it, and 51% said they have always liked it. Where was this 51% when IMDB still had message boards?!

All jokes aside I was happy to see the response was actually really positive toward Scream 3!

The Sounds of Scream 3

The soundtrack to this one is at the bottom for me. However, I don’t want to stop this positivity train to stop rolling, so I asked my boyfriend who is a self-proclaimed Scream Soundtrack expert his thoughts on this one.

Ask anybody and they will tell you this album slams. As a metalhead growing up, it was pure bliss. Mixing some of the best names in metal while playing hits off of a lot of debut albums, it was a juggernaut. Much like Scream 3, people have really come around on Creed. It’s 2025 and they are selling out shows again like they never left. This album gives us 2 of Creeds greatest songs they’ve ever written. Absolute gold. Come at me.

Then you go right into what may be one of the most important songs for the genre, Wait And Bleed Slipknot. This album came out during a huge turning point in music, and this song lays it all out there as to why it’s a trailblazer and to this day, not to be fucked with. Let’s jump to an equally important band, System Of A Down. Spiders. An equally important piece of music and really showed the softer side and vocal range of Serj and the band. Debut album included this song, and it propelled them to incredible heights shortly after. Staind is on here with Crawl? Are you kidding me? This was sad angry Aaron Lewis and every lyric shows that in this song. One of my favorites.

This cd also had Timebomb from Godsmack?! I forgot all about that one. Absolute banger! And then throw in some Coal Chamber, Sevendust and Fuel? These were bands that were my world, so to see them all on one album was blissful and still kind of hard to believe to this day. Add in Orgy and Powerman 5000 because that was a prerequisite for any metal compilation album in 2000. Overall the soundtrack is a snapshot in time. A damn good time!”

There you have it!

Lose Something? Found Something!

Whichever way you land on this installment, I think it’s going to be very important to Scream 7. I could be wrong. I just feel it gives us to much potential with the characters more then any other sequel. Still holding out hope that Dempsey not returning is all a big ruse and will be the killer revealed by the end of it all.

I actually just rewatched this film last night and his character is literally so sketchy. I have serious questions Kincaid! Why and how do you have pictures of Sidney as a child? When the hell did you talk to Tyson about Roman’s birthday party to just randomly showing up after leaving Sid at the police station. Sketch!

If this doesn’t happen, I’ll be fine and Scream 3 will still never be my favorite but I can appreciate what they did here. I bet if I turn on TBS right now they are airing it. I love rewatching this one now as I find something different I didn’t notice before! I cannot wait to see how Roman comes into play into the next one! Oh and for those wondering, My ex best friend actually never went and saw the film. She read who the killer was on a message board! Damn internet.

Happy 25th Anniversary Scream 3!

 

About Lacylou1122

Lacy Lou has had a love for horror movies pretty much since birth! If you ever need a horror trivia question answered she's your girl!!! She is obsessed with the movie Scream and even has a Ghostface tattoo to prove it! She loves to write and make new friends that share the same interest.

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