- Directed by Wes Craven
- Written by Kevin Williamson, Ehren Kruger
- Stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53l0f5LwfdQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s another bit of a step down on this one. It’s still decent and entertaining, but the sequels aren’t getting stronger as they go along. It’s a whodunit again of course, with a clever script that leaves you guessing until the big reveal. You’ll enjoy this one much more if you see the first two beforehand.
Synopsis
Cotton Weary is stuck in a traffic jam. He gets a call from a woman who recognizes him from his TV show. The voice changes to that of Ghostface, who claims to be in the house with Cotton’s girlfriend. He wants to know where Sidney Prescott is. Cotton rushes home to Christine, who is currently being chased all over the house by Ghostface. This time, Ghostface threatens her in Cotton’s own voice, so she thinks it’s him. The real Cotton arrives home, and Christine tries to kill him in self-defense. Ghostface is still there and kills them both. Credits roll.
We cut to Sidney, who now lives on a farm with high security. She works for a crisis counseling place answering calls remotely. Detective Mark Kincaid informs Gale Weathers about Cotton’s murder. Sidney also hears about the murder from TV.
Meanwhile, the “Stab 3” movie is in production. The actors for the film discuss meta stuff about movie making and acting. Gale shows up on set and runs into Dewey, who is a consultant for the film. Jay and Silent Bob do a quick walk-on cameo.
Sidney and her father talk. He complains about her secretive lifestyle. That night, she dreams about her dead mother, who then turns into Ghostface. One of the actresses, Sarah, goes to the production studio and runs into Ghostface. She tries to fight him with plastic stage prop knives and machetes. She doesn’t last long.
Dewey tells Gale that he thinks someone working on the film is hunting for the real Sidney. They soon hear about Sarah’s death and come to the conclusion that people are being killed in the same order as they are in the new movie; Gale, or the actress who plays her, should be next– except there are three versions of script; which one did the killer read? The two cops discuss the fates of cops in horror films, and it’s not a good outlook.
Dewey loans his cell phone to Detective Kincaid. Almost immediately after that, the killer finally calls Sidney and lets her know he’s back. Gale does research on Sidney’s long-dead mother, Maureen Prescott, and can’t find any record of her before coming to town way back in the day. The killer murders the security guard inside Dewey’s trailer. The killer next starts faxing them pages of a script. Then the house explodes.
Kincaid interrogates Gale and Dewey; he wants to know where Sidney is, as the killer is now taking credit for Sidney’s mother’s murder. Sidney comes to see Dewey. They meet Martha, dead-Randy’s sister, who works there as well. She has a videotape of dead-Randy, who explains the rules of a third sequel and unexpected backstories. Could it be … a trilogy?
Gale and Jennifer, the actress who plays her in the movie, investigate. They talk to Carrie Fisher, in another cameo. They find out that Maureen Prescott’s stage name was Rena Reynolds, and she used to be an actress in low-budget horror films.
Sidney meets Angelina, the actress who plays her, and then ends up on the set of Stab 3, which looks just like her old house. The killer attacks her, and she runs away.
Gale, Dewey, and Jennifer confront John Milton, the producer of the film. He also worked with Sidney’s mother many years ago. He hosted a party back in the day, and Maureen attended one of them.
Sidney talks to Detective Kincaid about her mother. Dewey gets a call from Sidney, who says she’s going to go to John Milton’s house. Some of the other actors are there as well. They find a mask, a voice-changer, and a cell phone. Gale finds a body in the basement. The killer shows up, and the actors start dying. Things go badly for Dewey and Gale as well.
Meanwhile, Sidney looks at her own file from Detective Kincaid’s desk. It’s very thorough. She gets a call from the killer, who claims to have Dewey and Gale as prisoners. She drives over to Milton’s house and finds several bodies. Sidney pulls out a gun and shoots him several times, but he gets away again somehow. Kincaid shows up, and he and Ghostface fight.
Sidney finds herself in a screening room with the ghost of her dead mother. No, it’s Ghostface. Ghostface says he’s been searching for his own mother, Rena Reynolds. Maureen abandoned him, Sidney’s unknown brother. He pulls off his mask, and it’s Roman, the director of Stab 3. He has John Milton tied up in a closet. Roman wants to frame Sidney for all the murders. They fight.
Roman gets a gun from Kincaid’s unconscious body and shoots Sidney twice. He turns around, and her body is gone. She’s wearing a bulletproof vest just like he was; she stabs him in the back. And the front. She is thorough. He still gets up, until Dewey shoots him in the head.
Afterwards, Dewey proposes to Gale.
Commentary
With this film, we’ve completely run out of horror movie tropes and have moved into the realm of filmmaking tropes. As Randy explained in his post-mortem video, a bunch of unknown things are revealed about Sidney’s mother which leads to all the drama.
It was a fun touch having action happen on a set recreation of Sidney’s house out of the first movie. Kind of a movie within a movie thing.
It’s fine, but nowhere near as good as the previous films.