After a couple of mundane death scenes (Hasta la vista, Cotton), we learn that Sidney’s paranoia has taken over her life and she has now completely isolated herself up in the mountains and is now living her life under an assumed name.

Seriously? This is your choice for guard dog? Get a doberman.

As with the last two films, as the story unfolds the true history of the series is revealed and characters get knocked off one by one.

Like I said before, I like this third film more than the second. It’s treated like the red-headed stepchild of the series, but personally I’ve always enjoyed it more. Out of the three I think it’s the wittiest, most self referential of the films. It acknowledges what came before and is constantly ribbing the movie business in general. I think it works as horror, but also as a satire as well. This chapter is more ‘movie within a movie’ than it’s predecessors so it’s very similar to New Nightmare in that effect.

But the part I really appreciate? You get to spend a bit more time with most of the new characters this time around, which makes me feel a little more attached to them than I did in the last film.

Except for Jenny here and her whopping two scenes. Get it? In the script she had two scenes…in the movie she complains about only having two scenes before she’s killed off…..Nevermind.

I’ve heard some people complain that the plot got to complicated the third time around, what with all the look-alikes for everyone walking about. I personally never had a problem with that and actually really enjoyed the, quote-unquote, “real-life”/”actor” interactions. For the most part, I thought it was a hoot.

Seriously. I love these two. I could watch the Hardy Girls here all day. They crack me up.

I’ve also heard people complain about the back story, but I love back story, so I ignore them.

You get to see more of the effect on Sidney this time around, too. In the last movie, yeah, the events from the first one have clearly affected her, but she’s starting to pick up the pieces. But here you can really see the effect all the fear and guilt that all the killings surrounding her have caused her. She’s completely isolated herself, works from home so she doesn’t have to leave the house, and is still constantly looking over her shoulder.

Poor girl can’t catch a break.

And she’s not so much doing it for herself, but more for the sake of others. Just about every friend she’s had since the first film has been killed, including her last boyfriend, who even she didn’t believe was innocent until the last possible second, and by then it was far too late to do anything to help. I can’t imagine that kind of guilt.

She’s even still wearing his greek letters

So yes. There are a lot of things I like about this movie. It has one of my favorite cameos via the ever entertaining Carrie Fisher….

“I was up for Princess Leia. I was this close. So, who gets it? The one who sleeps with George Lucas.”

And I love the entire ending at Milton’s house. Is it a bit more campy than the other films? Oh, hell yes. How else were they going to conveniently bring back a character that they’d already killed off one sequel prior?

Sage advise for movies and life

But this installment hits all the right emotional buttons for me that the last one seemed to have missed. It makes me jump, it make me nod, and it makes me laugh. That’s a good movie watching experience in my book.

Scream 3 is available on a variety of streaming services.

It is also available on DVD and Bluray.