Mouth wide open

>> The fun remains intact with Scream 3

by MATTHEW HAYS

It was 1996's Scream that put screenwriter Kevin Williamson on the map. His pumped-up screenplay was awash in pop culture references, gleefully self-reflexive--a veritable house of mirrors, in fact--and perhaps the best recent bit of proof of Hitchcock's old adage, that comedy and suspense are Siamese twins.

 By the third time around, one might expect that the Scream crew--director Wes Craven, stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox--would appear less cutting-edge. But Scream 3 remains good fun; there are ample plot twists with Freudian overtones (it is Mom's fault, after all), new heights of media navel-gazing and the obligatory buckets of gore.

 While the first two Screams made abundant references to movies, the movie-within-a-movie concept introduced in the second film becomes central to the plot in this chapter. Stab 3, based on the "actual" events in the Scream movies, is being shot, and members of the cast of the film-within-the-film start getting knocked off by the masked invincible wonder himself--who's somehow back for more blood. Campbell, as his long-suffering target, is now hiding out in a mountain retreat. But soon enough, she's getting those nagging phone calls again.

 Though Williamson didn't write this screenplay, the third in the series uses his blueprint well, tweaking the plot ever-so-slightly to keep us entertained. Setting the film on a Hollywood soundstage where the original setting of the first two movies has been recreated, allows for lots of additional self-referential layering. Parker Posey, in particular, is brilliant as the actress hired to recreate Cox's Scream role in Stab 3. While the first two movies cannibalized the slasher movies, this film devours the entire Hollywood dream factory. (Jean Beaudrillard would be proud.)

 Some saw Scream as an indication that the slasher movie had expired. Once something's moved into the realm of parody, it has been convincingly argued, it's a sign that things are pretty much over. But part of the brilliance of the Scream cycle is that, while poking fun, the films also offer up some genuine fright. Thus Scream 1-3 feel less like a final notice than an indication that the genre has only one foot in the grave. I vote for intensive care for the genre--and Scream 4. :

 

Scream 3 opens Friday, February 4