Sep 07, 2015
One of the things that bothered me about this series, and that I just realized as I was watching the film, is the fact that every film in the trilogy features completely different villains under the Ghostface mask. Yet, and despite the sequels' connectivity with the original film, everyone of those villains somehow managed to buy the same exact voice changer to mask their voice. I mean the voice for Ghostface is exactly the same in all three films. And don't even get me started on the incredibly liberal use of the voice changer in THIS film. Somehow this voice changer has all of the characters' voices stored in it. How? Why? For a film that was all about making fun of horror cliches, they're starting to play into the very thing that they were making fun of. They don't even bother to explain how this voice changer is able to capture the voices of every character in the film despite the villain him/herself not being in contact with some of the characters that he/she has stored in the voice changer. Talk about stupid. With that said, it's not like I found this film to be terrible or anything of the sort. It is an obvious step down from the first two films. This is the problem with both sequels, it's that it felt like they lacked what made the first Scream so unique. Scream 2 had some of what made it special, but this one played right into everything that the movie chose to mock. You know how I said the first two deaths of Scream were more gruesome than everything in Scream 2. Well, I'd like to modify that a bit, the first two deaths in Scream are more gruesome than anything in Scream 2 and 3 combined. Think about that. I don't mean to say more violent because the death count, between 2 and 3, is obviously higher than the original film. But as far as deaths that were gruesome, 2 and 3 are like watching a Disney film when compared to the first film. With the exception of Randy's video tape where he explains the rules of a trilogy, this is really a straightforward slasher through and through. There's a lot of talk about trilogies in the narrative, but only the Randy scene feels like something that feels true to the original concepts of the first film. I did like the addition of Parker Posey as Jennifer, or Gale in the film-within-a-film, Stab 3. Parker is really damn entertaining in this film and if they were heading towards a more comedic style while toning down on the violence, to avoid criticism or controversy, then they did a good enough at choosing a cast to make the transition a little easier. Posey might, honestly, be the best part of this entire film. The horror itself is definitely more mixed than the comedic aspects of the film. I don't know, I just don't think that Ghostface, as a villain, was never really that terrifying. I mean, he/she is a homicidal maniac going around knifing people. It's something that's closer to reality than the usual slashers, but he just doesn't inspire much fear. Again, part of it is due to the fact that you're thinking about who's behind the mask this time and not his actions. That takes away some of that effectiveness that the character might've had otherwise. But that's just me. The horror is definitely average in this film, it's nothing special. It's a perfectly fine way to close off this trilogy, but there's no denying that it's an obvious step down from the two previous films. Whether knowingly or not, Scream 3 became exactly the same thing it once mocked. It's never a terrible film, and it's a decent sendoff to the trilogy, but it's not that I would exactly recommend it or that you would be missing out on anything if you chose to skip this film. Average at best.
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