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Scream 3

reviewed by Brenda Aske

This movie’s a bland performance of a group of pretty actors trapped in Wes Craven’s semi-erotic, anti-feminist daydream. (Although I have to admit, Parker Posey gives her best performance yet as a self-absorbed, over-dramatic actor. Excellent casting job, really.) There’s plenty of Jenny McCarthy’s T and Courtney Cox Arquette’s A to entertain the baser elements of the audience. But it’s all a tease, for in this film promiscuity always results in death, while those who practice celibacy or traditional, no-sex-until-marriage relationships survive.

So on the surface, Scream 3 is just another simplistic film with a moral message. It’s clearly targeted to teens, who have recently seemed to take over the world with their stupid Britney Spears and iMac-colored scooters. But in bored, sleepy speculation during the movie, I realized that it actually provided interesting insight into horror movie history.

Continuing the action from the previous 2 Scream movies, Sidney (Neve Cambell) is the tough-but-sweet good-girl survivor suffering for her mother’s sexual transgressions. But this time, there’s a poorly-written, out-of-the-blue plot twist–Sidney’s mother was an actor in early horror films. Sound familiar? The obvious parallel is horror’s androgynous darling, Jamie Lee Curtis and her ultrafemme mother Janet Leigh of Psycho fame. But what’s old Wes saying about real life? That Janet Leigh was a little slut in her heyday? That Tony Curtis was an angry cuckold? That poor Jamie Lee is a sensitive soul who has suffered immensely for her mother’s careerism?

In another rehash-of-the-past plot twist, the mastermind behind all this murder turns out to be Sidney’s long-lost half-brother. Ahhh, the old "good-and-evil are closely related" message that’s been trotted out many a time before. Frankly, it’s a little disappointing. The only difference between Scream 3 and the "Jason" films is that the bro-sis combo is better-looking this time.

Overall, I give Courtney Cox Arquette’s ass a 10. The rest of the movie gets a 3.

Scream 3

reviewed by Brenda's boyfriend, Mark Prindle

It’s ridiculously unbelievable (the killer is ALWAYS in the right place at the right time), but I was scared when things jumped out at me and I laughed when they made self-referential jokes. I’m easily amused and I thought the set-ups were spooky, even if I had to suspend my disbelief to the point where it was about fifty feet away from my body.

Hey!

The set-up situations were pretty clever, I thought — especially with the ingenious bullshit device of having the killer be able to imitate ANYBODY’s voice over the phone, so the other characters never knew whether it was the "real person" or "killer" on the other end of the phone.

Oh heck, did I mention the plot yet? The plot is that somebody is killing people on the set of "Stab III," so Sidney comes out of hiding to help hunt him down. And she hears her mother’s voice and the past is conjured up and blah blah blah blah blah blah.

This is the kind of movie that will entertain you or annoy you based almost solely on your mood at the time of viewing. I was in a good mood, so I liked it. But, like many slasher movies, it really has no reason to exist. It possesses no artistic quality. And once again, by the time you find out who the killer is, you don’t really care, so it’s bound to be a letdown. Still, I enjoyed it! Is what I did!

You? Did you enjoy the hilarious antics of the "Stab III" cast interacting with their "real life" counterparts? Parker Posey as the movie Gail Weathers, attracting the attention of that guy with the mustache, who is separated from his old girlfriend, the real Gail Weathers, who in real life is married to the real life guy with the mustache? And the way they quibbled! So very whimsifuckingcal!