Sidney Prescott now lives out in the middle of nowhere, spending as little time with other people as possible. Even her work (crisis hotline) is remote, and she doesn't use her real name with her coworkers. Meanwhile, Cotton Weary is milking his 15 minutes of fame as much as possible and now has his own talk show. He also has a cameo appearance in the newest Stab movie. When he gets a "wrong number" call from a random woman who says she recognizes his voice and is a fan of his, he initially soaks up the attention and ego boost, until the caller reveals themselves to be a new killer using voice changing technology. Whoever it is wants to know where Sidney Prescott is, or they'll kill Cotton's girlfriend.

So yeah, the newest twist on the Scream franchise is that the killer is using voice changing technology to make themselves sound like other people. Phone calls can't be trusted, although lots of people don't find that out until it's too late. Sidney is eventually drawn out of hiding and into the race to find and stop the killer, who is now targeting people involved in the newest Stab movie.

I enjoyed this a lot, more than the second movie. It felt like a return to the fun and ridiculousness of the first movie, although big slasher fans might be disappointed that this entry in the series is probably the least bloody (the body count is high, but most of the deaths happen pretty quickly and aren't lingered over, if that makes any sense).

This wasn't the sort of movie that viewers could take very seriously, and it was definitely written that way. Despite being dead, Randy Meeks managed to appear once again (with some help from the sister of his who'd never previously been mentioned) in order to let everyone know the horror movie rules they were playing by. Hollywood weirdness (and occasional grossness) was on full display, with Stab cast members who looked like what you might get if you ordered Scream off Wish, and movie sets guaranteed to give poor Sidney all kinds of horrible flashbacks.

I loved Parker Posey as Jennifer, aka Stab's Gale Weathers. Also, the scene with the faxed script was great, both suspenseful and morbidly funny. Gale and Dewey's continued relationship issues, for essentially the same reasons as in the previous movie, were kind of annoying, but I suppose spending time with familiar characters was better than too much time with the Stab cast members.

Multiple characters behaved in suspicious ways throughout the movie, and I can honestly say I didn't manage to correctly identify who was behind it all. To be fair, it would probably have been impossible for a real person to do everything the Ghostface killer did. Whatever, I was willing to roll with it.

This was very much written as the final entry in a horror trilogy, so it's going to be interesting to see what Scream 4 is like. I hope that viewers are at least given a break from Dewey and Gale's relationship roller coaster.

Extras:

Outtakes, a "behind the scenes" montage covering all three movies, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and more. Neve Campbell's ability to allow her eyes to fill with unshed tears for minutes on end really is impressive.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )