Scream 3 is a slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger. The film was premiered on February 3, 2000, in Westwood, Los Angeles, and was theatrically released the following day, grossing $162 million worldwide on a budget of $40 million.
It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette, Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Matt Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Deon Richmond, and Patrick Warburton.
It is a sequel to Scream 2 (1997) and the third installment in the Scream film series. The film’s story takes place three years after the previous film’s events and follows Sidney Prescott (Campbell), who has gone into self-imposed isolation following the events of the previous two films but is drawn to Hollywood after a new Ghostface begins killing the cast of the film within a film Stab 3.
Scream 3 combines the violence of the slasher genre with comedy and “whodunit” mystery, while satirizing the cliché of film trilogies. Unlike the previous Scream films, there was an increased emphasis on comedic elements in this installment; the violence and horror were reduced in response to increased public scrutiny about violence in media, following the Columbine High School massacre.
Scream (1996) screenwriter Kevin Williamson provided a five-page outline for two sequels to Scream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise. Williamson‘s commitments to other projects meant he was unable to develop a complete script for Scream 3, so writing duties were undertaken by Kruger, who discarded many of Williamson‘s notes. Craven and Marco Beltrami returned to direct and score the film, respectively. Production was troubled, including script rewrites, occasions when pages were only ready on the day of filming, and scheduling difficulties with the main cast. Principal photography took place from July to September 1999, and the ending was re-filmed in January 2000.
The film received mixed reviews and is often cited as the weakest film in the series, though it has been reappraised in recent years. Scream 3 was originally intended to be the final installment of the series until the franchise was revived in 2011 with a sequel, Scream 4.
The music to the 2000 slasher film Scream 3, featured two albums to promote the film. The first one, consisted of an original soundtrack, released as Scream 3: The Album by Wind-up Records on January 25, 2000. It features 18 songs consisted largely of the metal genre by artists such as System of a Down, Slipknot, Powerman 5000, Full Devil Jacket, Godsmack, Sevendust, Incubus, Static-X and Coal Chamber, some of which are represented in the film. It was commercially successful, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 charts, and also certified gold by the (RIAA), signifying that the album achieved sales in excess of 500,000 units. The album was released on iTunes on February 1, 2012.
Marco Beltrami who scored the previous instalments had returned to score Scream 3. To complete the score within the deadline, he employed seven orchestrators and experimented with the recording of instruments in unusual circumstances such as physically and electronically altering the traditional sound of a piano while continuing to include a heavy vocal orchestra in his tracks. Scream 3: The Score is the original score album released by Varèse Sarabande on February 29, 2000.
Apart from the metal genre songs, Nick Cave wrote a sequel to the song Red Right Hand, being heard in all three films as well as the 2022 reboot, which was playing in the closing credits, but was not included in the soundtrack. Beltrami also derived few notes from the song in his score. The metal band Creed also recorded Is This the End played in the end credits. The band’s song What If was used in the film, and was promoted with a music video, resembling the events of the film and includes a cameo by David Arquette, which was used in the film’s home media release.
Tracklist:
- What If (Creed)
- Wait and Bleed (Slipknot)
- Suffocate (Finger Eleven)
- Spiders (System of a Down)
- Automatic (American Pearl)
- Fall (Sevendust)
- Time Bomb (Godsmack)
- Tyler’s Song (Coal Chamber)
- So Real (Static-X)
- Crowded Elevator (Incubus)
- Debonaire (Dope)
- Sunburn (Fuel)
- Get On, Get Off (Powerman 5000)
- Wanna’ Be Martyr (Full Devil Jacket)
- Dissention (Orgy)
- Crawl (Staind)
- Click Click (Ear2000)
- Is This the End (Creed)
