“He was making a movie called ‘Stab’. 
He was stabbed.”

The premise behind Scream and partially behind Scream 2 that makes these movies so rewatchable is not because there’s a killer on the loose and the screenplay is perfectly structured to keep you eyeing on the red herrings that make the killer’s reveal seem stronger than it actually is, but that the whole setup and existence of the serial crime is to self-awarely engage in these structures as cliches and tropes that have become a tiresome blueprint weighing down any novel creativity for the slasher subgenre. If Scream 2 engages in its violence/sequel commentary for half of its runtime, then Scream 3 engages in its Hollywood/trilogy commentary no more than ten percent. Lacking any effort for ingenuity, it becomes a basic murdery mystery at that point — almost as if its success is depending on the very own blueprint it promised to destroy. I’m amazed at how little I can remember from this chapter of the franchise, despite seeing it multiple times by now. Yet, even though it has little reason to exist, Wes Craven knows how to direct one hell of a slasher flick; therefore, I keep coming back.