SPEAKER_04 0:04

Will the real Gale Weathers please stand up?

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Greetings and salutations and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Ten more murders and we can publish a calendar. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_05 0:29

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've all gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the super fly space guy Mac.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

You follow directions well, Sydney.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

The gore lover Alexis. Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

I walk out of the house, I turn it on, it's like perfume.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

With all the quality horror still to come this year, we thought we'd revisit a franchise that would be coming out with a new release in early 2022. Before we turn our sights to Hollywood, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Okay, tell me why I forgot that that was happening and now I'm excited all over again.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Oh, I saw a fantastic like teaser image that uh has Ghost's face sitting in front of a set of televisions with a bunch of clips from all the other movies, but there's bisexual lighting, so do with that what you will.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

Wow, I will do much with that. Anyway, let's follow up on Jaws 2 from 1978. So this is a sequel that it's not well regarded by our team, by the general public, but what did our listeners think? It actually wasn't too bad. Only 56% gave it a hack, and 44% were generous enough to give it a slash.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

What a kind people we have listening to us.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Actually, Ryan and Alexis, you both slashed it, so the ratio kind of holds up.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Exactly. We know good movies. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

We have a comment from Neil on Instagram who said, Great movie, very underrated, unfortunately a follow-up to an all-time classic.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

If Jaws 2 had come out as Jaws 1, which I mean it basically could have, really, who knows how it would have been received, but you just can't be as good as Jaws 1 if you're just doing the same stuff. This time with more children.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

That's a different timeline altogether. We have another comment from Nova Cascade, one of our favorite patrons, who said, Jaws 2, the snooze fest. Wake us up when it's over. Finally, we have one last comment from Tony, one of our patrons, who said, So I can remember watching Jaws 2 as a kid a lot. It is nowhere near as awesome, intelligent, or as interesting as the original, a film that should not be bashed, let alone hacked. Okay, I feel targeted by that, Tony. He goes on to say, but it holds some nostalgia. It's kind of like a fun version of the first, with a certain element of terror that can leave kids and preteens thinking, My favorite kill is definitely Terry, although it leads into such a silly death of Diane. And of course the terror we shared with all the teens as they desperately save Sean gets a bonus scare points. Also, Lucy's shark burn scene always terrified me. I don't know why, but I guess I thought, damn, even if he doesn't bite or pull me down, his sandpaper skin will burn me to the point where I swim weak and can't move. Jackie was definitely obnoxiously annoying every time she screamed, but by far this B movie has an A plus soundtrack from the one and only John Williams. As much as I love Chris's rendition of Baby Shark, I'm with Alexis and Ryan as I write in a soft slash for Jaws 2.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Thanks for being there with us. Thanks for adjoining my musical accolades.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Fast forwarding a few years, as Society recovered from fears Y2K would mark the end of both the 20th century and the world, Wes Craven introduced what was then considered to be the final chapter of his meta horror trilogy. Armed with a budget of $40 million in Greenlit after the success of its predecessors, this film was sent to enter production in early 1999. Tragically, in April 1999, the country was shocked by the real life horrors of the Columbine Massacre, an event which had lasting impacts on not only this film's production, but media and society as a whole. The studio paused on moving forward with this film, particularly as movies, television, and video games came under fire for their depiction of violence and the impact violent media has on youth. Ultimately, though, production moved forward, but with a number of changes like reducing the level of gore and removing a returning character from the first film. The changes to the film though, coupled with this being the first entry Kevin Williamson didn't write, resulted in a project that was largely viewed as flawed and achieved ratings far lower than the first two films. We'll see how it fares with us though, because you know the rule is about trilogies. All bets are off. This week we're talking about Scream 3. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Oh, I'll be honest, I actually can't figure out if I have or haven't seen this, and it's because one, all the scream movies feel the same, and then two, I feel like I've watched a few of them, and I don't know which ones. So I have no idea. Even as I was watching it, I was like, I have no clue if I've seen this.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Jokes on you, you saw Scream 1, Scream Two, Scream Four, and a little bit of Scream the TV show. And scary movie most importantly. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Okay, well, I'm not kidding, Chris, because I that's exactly me. I've seen one, two, four, actually, no part of the TV show. Uh, this was really the only gap in my Scream knowledge base going into this.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

If you like Pretty Little Liars, you'll like the TV show.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

And you know I do.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Very interesting because I'm not sure why people skip this one, uh, seeing as it goes in order. One, two, three, then four. Interesting enough, obviously I love this franchise, but I have not seen anything past this. I've seen one, two, and three when I binge them, and that's about it. This is where I stopped. So I've seen this one um a few times.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Oh, Alexis, I can't wait for you to watch four.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

I heard it's trash, so I think I'm good. Oh no, no, it's definitely not trash. It's not?

SPEAKER_04 5:36

It's the reason I went back into the Scream franchise because I was like, I'm not gonna watch any of the sequels, but then I heard things about four and I watched it and I was like, oh, okay, I'm I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I saw four at midnight when it came out. It's certainly not trash. It may not be your favorite in the franchise, but it is so far beyond anything you could describe as just trash.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Okay, maybe trash was a little too much, but I will have to give this one a try. Hidden Panantiers, Kirby, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 6:01

Oh, I now know that I need to keep watching the movies, or the last movie, if you will. Because that's something to look forward to. This was my first time watching Scream 3. Just like when we watched Scream 2, that was pretty much my first time watching that. So I am going in order because I like numbers too, Alexis. So this'll you're a robot.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

That's why you like numbers. Also, Mac usually only operates in ones and zeros, so the fact he even visits a sequel is really beyond all of us.

SPEAKER_05 6:27

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

I've seen Scream 3 a whole bunch. I've seen all the movies in the franchise, I've seen the TV show, have not seen the scary movies, but I had this really weird thing with Scream 3 because although I can sit back and think 100% it's not as good of like a technical movie as Scream 1 and Scream 2 because oh man, they're just such a different caliber. This one strikes me as one of the ones I loved the most growing up with it in the early 2000s. I think because it made me laugh a little bit more than the other ones did in a really silly way. And it's kind of like a whole evolved take. Like I feel like we really got what we needed from Scream One, we got what we needed from Scream 2, and then Scream 3 went a whole different direction. I was really curious to see how that would fare because I haven't seen this since like maybe 2011, right? So it's been at least 10 years since I last watched this movie. But how about you all? What were you expecting going into it?

SPEAKER_05 7:21

I was just expecting more meta, just all the meta, because this is number three, so we should be getting meta times three.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

I mean, honestly, it with Scream, I think if you've seen any of them, you go in with just the expectations of more of the same. Because I don't know, has anything ever been different in Scream? That's kind of their whole point, is to be exactly what you expect, right? Or not to be.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

I don't know, yeah. They they spoof the genre and then they kind of get to a point where they spoof themselves a little bit, but exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

My expectations for this, obviously knowing the characters, the storyline, the plot line, was that I would pick up on more little Easter eggs and appreciate it a little bit more than I had before.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Yeah, I was pretty harsh when we reviewed Scream 2, and I think that's because I love the original so much. And at the end of the year, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna redact my hack for that movie. So I went into Scream 3 with an open mind, kind of a clean slate, and I was like, whatever they're gonna bring, whatever cast members they're gonna bring back, I'm just gonna watch it and I'll see. I tried to have as little expectations as possible.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

That's totally fair, and I think that's a good way to approach it, particularly because I think the third film builds on the obvious trend of you know, the rules of a horror movie, the rules of a sequel, the rules of a trilogy, but it also goes so far into like a kind of campy direction in some ways, and really what it does in taking on the culture of Hollywood, right? It's hilarious and sickening at a lot of points, and it kind of walks a fine line all throughout it. And I found that it still felt like a fresh watch for me. I knew the plot points, you know who the killer is, you can only experience that reveal once, and I don't think it has like the same kind of wow factor if you're if if it's even a wow when you're like 10 years old watching this movie, but it still felt like an enjoyable time for me. What I really loved though, I know I've talked a lot about how Wes Craven's New Nightmare was like the pro like the proving ground before he did meta with Scream. I just completely forgot about all the parallels between Scream 3 and Wes Craven's New Nightmare because they both take place in like a filmmaking setting, right? Both with script pages that are being written, both with actors and productions and Wes Craven's cameos and both. So I found myself, you know, even aside from experiencing it just for the kills and the plot, I found myself really kind of refreshed by experiencing that with that lens of Wes Craven's whole career. In addition to that, you can't watch this movie the same without considering the Me Too movement and everything that's happened with Harvey Weinstein.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yeah, it really hits different now than it did before. You know, the themes that they hit have always been kind of like a kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke kind of thing, you know, something you just kind of say without meaning anything specific, right? Just a general idea of like the director's couch thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

And now when you're watching this, you're like, okay, it's uh it's a little too much. A little much. Yeah, absolutely. And then when you look at just obviously the Weinsteins owned the production company behind the scream franchise, and then you wonder, like, how did this get snuck in under the radar? And it almost goes to point out like this air of elitism and this confidence of like, oh, I'm untouchable. I can even make a joke about it.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That being said, Harvey Weinstein wasn't as involved in in this movie. It was mainly Bob Weinstein, but there are a couple links in the show notes that kind of go into that, especially Rose McGowan's take and what she went through and what she has advocated for in the time since. Uh, but it's it's a really sobering reality, and I think having that filter on when you're watching this movie, it it hits hard.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Yeah, that was a subject I did not expect to be breached when I sat down to watch this movie. And there were a lot of surprises for me watching this. I really didn't expect the level of camp that we got, but I definitely felt that throughout, like you were mentioning, Chris. Um, and having not seen this movie before, I also felt like they somehow got me again with the mystery. I've never been able to predict the killer of a scream movie in my first time watching it. It gets me every time. I had like several running theories. I did figure it out maybe like five minutes before it was revealed because there's a a particular omission of something we don't see, and I was like, huh. But I was along for the ride with the Who Done It, and I actually felt like pretty engaged in the the mystery of it all.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah, Paris. I feel like scream movies do this thing to me where I just kind of resolve to not knowing who the killer is gonna be. Like I give up trying to figure it out because there's always the people that they place that are like, oh, this person was missing when this happened. This person was doing something else. And it's like, okay, well, clearly you want me to think it's them, but I know it's not them. And I just give up every time I'm just like, all right, just show me who it is eventually.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah. It's like they throw you red herrings, then you get a couple blue trouts in there, and all of a sudden it really was the bear the whole time. You know what I mean? Like it's it's weird.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Very that. Every time I came up with a theory, they like emphasized that character as being suspicious, and I was like, okay, not that character. And then I was running out of characters.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:14

I, you know, I do love a good mystery, even though they're fairly easily solved most of the time. But I I did find this pretty entertaining. You know, it felt very 2000s, it felt very blockbuster, it felt like you're a teenager going to the movies to just see a horror movie, and there's just something about that nostalgia, I think, that goes a long way. I mean, not everyone was a teenager around that time, but while you're watching it, like it doesn't take itself too seriously like a lot of modern horror does. And I mean, there's plenty of jokes spread throughout in it. So it's something where you get a little bit of comedy, you get a little bit of horror, you get a little bit of drama, you know, you get a little Scooby-Doo, but you also get a little days of our lives in there. So it's it's got this nice little package all together, uh, where it it makes it kind of an easy watch, so you can be entertained, but you can also dive into deeper topics if you want to.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah, this one surprisingly, you know, while I was watching it, I was entertained. I love that mystery who done it, and I do try to figure it out during the movie, but this time around, I was entertained by how serious this movie was compared to the other one. So I like that part, and I like, you know, the mix of the pop culture references, which just held my attention this entire movie. Wait, you feel like this movie was more serious than Scream One and Scream Two? It had an edginess that was like on a more serious tone. Does do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

You think it's that one really serious subject matter that did it for you, or do you feel like it was present throughout the whole thing?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

I mean, there's tad bits. I think it was intertwined very well. So you have comedy seriousness, comedy seriousness. So which I think was just like a roller coaster for me, a good one, but I think it was intertwined throughout. I feel like it was less silly. That's what I meant, yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

I feel like it was more silly in the like the bulk of it, but the ending was more serious and edgy, like Alexis is saying.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah. The the ending, it feels like they took us on a ride, and we're just having a good time, shooting the shit. Things are real casual, and then all of a sudden something real fucking serious happens, and it kind of forces you to think about that and sit with it and feel it, and think about like how generational trauma impacts our lives, and it just gets real dark. And then you know it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah, I think for me that was apparent in the beginning too. I just know I don't know why. Maybe I was in a certain mood watching this, but Sydney's character, I always just have so much sympathy for her.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, Sydney continues to be a really relatable final girl, but let me tell you about one of the other things that surprised me of this movie, and it's not it's not something that should surprise me. And let me just start by saying I adore the core characters from the original film. And I'm so glad that in the new movie that's gonna be coming out next year, we still have some of them with us. I'm really excited for that. But I am so disappointed by how goofy Dewey continues to get every fucking movie. In this one, I think he's like peak Dewey. I think he's more tolerable in four. He's not so bad in two. But in this one, I mean, there were some moments with him that I was just like, ah, you're killing my vibe, dowdrop.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Chris, honestly, after you see Scary Movie, it's really not that bad, the Dewey portrayal in the actual movies. They changed his name to Doofy, and he's very that. But in that same train of thought, I was really surprised with how many of the original cast members signed on for a third scream movie. And I was pleasantly surprised. I was like, oh, everybody's on board to keep doing this? Okay, awesome, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

At that point, Courtney Cox Arquette, she had just gotten married to David Arquette at that point. She was the most famous one in the cast.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Yeah, and I think you can tell because she got a lot of camera time and focus in this story, which I wasn't disappointed by per se.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

We'll get into that a little bit later in characters.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

What I was disappointed by though is the the ghost element, like the actual, like supernatural, maybe hallucination, like that element. I was kind of like, uh, I don't need this. This movie was like a little bit too long, and if I needed to cut something out, it would be that storyline. Because it really didn't do much.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Well, if we're talking about additions, the thing that I was surprised by, this whole star-studded cast that we get was pretty amazing, but uh Detective McDreamy, that was a huge surprise to me.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

A pleasant surprise. I mentioned it before, but you know, I loved and was surprised by just the great balance that was able to be brought to this movie with the horror, the drama, the suspense, and especially a few of the characters from the first movie making an appearance later. Can't talk about too much of it because it's a little bit of a spoiler, but I do appreciate, you know, bringing in this like trilogy element and what that character did as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, oddly enough, my surprise is also based around characters. I spent most of this movie obsessing over like the people that I recognize that were only probably on camera for a few minutes, but there's just some like little actors and actresses that I've now seen in all these other roles, particularly like Emily Mortimer stood out to me out. And I spent, I don't know, 15 minutes trying to remember where I know her face from because I didn't want to look it up. It was intense, and there's so many in this cast where it's just like, oh, that guy. Oh, that oh, I know them.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

I can totally understand why the characters would surprise you. And I think in some ways, some elements of the character surprised me too. Looking at Nev Campbell and her role in this as Sydney, she took a back seat this film only because she had so much going on and she was filming so much at the time. She had like limited availability to be on set, which is why you get so much more of the other characters. And to Gail Weathers, I think it's a little bit of a strength, but to Dewey, I think it's a detriment.

SPEAKER_04 17:39

I feel like Dewey is a good counterpoint to Gail Weathers, you know? Yeah. They play well off of each other, which is probably why they got married.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

I hate both sides of that. And let me tell you what, Dewey's weird facial expressions are 100% the scariest part of this movie. And the idea that Gail Weathers could love him. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He's a lovable buffoon, but I don't think this movie is scary.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

No, to I mean, to add something to that though, I mean, I think Dewey does make the movie less scary. Just his presence in any of the scenes. I don't know if that's just me. There's like an like this level of goofiness that you get when he's in certain scenes. He just plays it so like he's such a good guy and he's always there to help. And let me rescue you. I'm I'm I'm willing. But I don't think he's responsible. It's just not a scary movie.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

I think for me, what makes it not scary, since that's the route we're going here, obviously this isn't a very scary movie. I love Ghost's face, and I I actually am a little creeped out by his face, you know, pop up in the shadows, I'd be scared. But these boots that he's wearing this whole time make this noise, and I don't know why this stood out to me, okay? But uh in like some of the end scenes, he's walking on hardwood floors and it just sounds like high heels. That's what made this movie not scary for me. Because he needs some quieter shoes if he's gonna be killing people.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

Listen, you can murder people in stilettos.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Not that loud.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

We can hear you coming, sir.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

True, that's not stealthy.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

I agree with you, Ryan. Um, Ghostface is very creepy. I think he still has sort of this vibe for me. I don't know if it's a generational thing or not, but the way the mask is, it's just still a little bit terrifying for me. I double-checked my lock that night. You know, I might have checked my closet. I mean, it wasn't, you know, super scary, but I know something about his mask and that look that just has held through generations with me.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

It's my favorite mask of all time. The mask is even scarier when he's a stealth killer in dead by daylight, and you can't hear that motherfucker coming, and all of a sudden he just stabbed you.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

You want to talk about a jump scare?

SPEAKER_02 19:32

It's also scarier in the ridiculously unnecessary Halloween costume store version where they have the little blood pump in your hand and you can get the little one where it like shoots the blood through the mask. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

My cousins had that.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Yes, mm we had that as well.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

I'm with you, Alexis, though. I was a little bit scared, specifically in a couple of the scenes with Sydney. I was like actually scared for her. I was like, no, we've done this so many times. Can't you get a break? Apparently not. Get the fuck out of there.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Just cut the land lines. You don't need any fucking phones. Well, despite how non-scary most of us found this. And uh, Paris, Alexis, you're both a little tickled by it. But did you find that within the Scream franchise this did enough different to really feel like its own product?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Oh my gosh, if this isn't meta of meta, I'm not sure what is. And the fact that you're able to do something different in Scream 1, something different in Scream 2, and hold that into Scream 3. I think it's great.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Yeah, I agree. At this point, each movie has set itself apart in such a way where I don't think I'll ever confuse them. Um, but this one specifically did so many things that I wasn't expecting that I was like, okay, you know what? You found a way to do even more than I thought you could scream. Well done.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

I don't know how to answer this question. I don't know. It it does something. Something happens in this movie, but I don't know. Is it different at all? Is it the same? It's not the same, but it's not different, you know?

SPEAKER_04 20:58

It's like self-referential, which I feel like is an original thing to be.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Um, yeah, well, I'll go with that.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

I'll go with that.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

It is self-referential to the point where the actual process of making the scream films is represented and expressed in this film. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the spoiler section, so not rooting anything for anyone who has yet to see this movie, but I think that approach, because I've seen this mechanic done by Wes Craven before, right? He did it in a new nightmare. But he even took meta, we're living in a world in which this is a movie, and he did that in a completely different way. Whereas this is taking the entire Scream Story, taking the movie within a movie, and then taking the horrors, the real horrors of Hollywood, and really packing that in to one complete product, which feels so unique and so much richer, I think, in some of the themes than we see in the previous movies. Those two movies, excellent, fantastic films. This one just does something a little different.

SPEAKER_05 21:58

I it kind of reminds me of of TV. Shows that I love, like, okay, it's just it reminds me of Star Trek. And the in the way that it reminds me, everything was always comes back to Star Trek, but there's a bazillion episodes, right? But certain episodes you remember and you can remember what happened in them, and they're kind of unique in that way. And and I think this one has that strength too. When you think about, I mean, I've only seen the three of them so far, but like the first one, you know, I I can remember as to me, Scream, and you know, they're back home, they're at school, whatever, right? And then part two, they're off, they're off, you know, in in college and they're living that college life. And then we make it to this one, it's like this is the movie one. And so like they each have this individual feel where it's like stages in these people's lives, and they're each separated by that. And that to me gives it some originality points because a lot of horror franchises, it's like, I know we killed some kids in the woods in the first one. Let's kill some different kids in the woods, and that can get really boring. But this is like following a progression of these people's lives in in distinct ways, which makes it interesting.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

You raise a lot of good points, Mac, and I think that's such a cool thing about this film, right? We think about how many people experience trauma, and then like we think about our obsession with true crime, and we think about our obsession with films that are based off of or inspired by true events. And this is really just saying, like, what do survivors and victims go through as their story becomes much more public, right? And when we think about this, in Scream 2, they made the stab film that was based on the original Woodsboro murders. But in Scream 3, the stab film is just completely different and made up, right? They're not like trying to follow the events of what happened in Scream 2. This is just an entirely different thing. And it kind of it it kind of shows how we in some really weird way like fetishize people's trauma in in media. And I don't know, it's a really weird thing to to consider. And when you look at this movie as a trilogy, obviously we live in a post-Scream 4 world, so we know the story doesn't really end here. But I think the end to this as a trilogy felt really complete at the time. I feel like it got the gave us the closure we needed.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

They literally left a door open.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:01

So in reality, this is kind of like inception where the top is still spinning, or is it right, right? Or is it not?

SPEAKER_00 24:08

I agree. It definitely tied it up in a nice bow for me. It has this nice conclusion. I learn some more about a different some characters, and I really appreciate that. And I think what happened needed to happen, and I like the seriousness that they had taken with the ending.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Yeah, I'll agree. All jokes aside about the literal door left open, I I do think this was fairly wrapped up in a nice little bow on top.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

Yeah, they definitely built to like a solid finale, as if this was gonna be the end of it. And even in my notes, I wrote, Great final scene, good location, not too stupid. So it was like really dancing that line, but it ended up on the side of not too stupid. Which is good.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

So stupid, but not too stupid.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

Yeah, it could have very easily gotten to be too stupid. I actually can't decide if I prefer this ending or the ending from Scream 2. I think they're fairly equal in terms of how good they are. I I will say that I mentioned earlier that it kind of reminds you of uh reminds me of Scooby-Doo and Days of Our Lives, and the ending is pretty much in order Scooby-Doo, then Days of Our Lives. And that's neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is a thing that I felt. Um, but I feel like it was still a good way to end the film. And the door being left open at the end um literally can mean any one of many things to all sorts of people.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Mostly that your AC is getting out and your mom was gonna yell at you.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

Yeah. Yeah. If you think about it when you were a kid, it's either in or out, okay? You gotta shut the door.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Well, we'll see what all these feelings translate to as we think about our scoring for this movie.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

But before we get there, Alexis, how many people died in Scream 3? Chris, I am very happy to tell you that we got your 10 kills that you wanted that you were referencing when the show started.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yep, yep. Ten more, we can make a calendar. But Ryan, were any of them animals?

SPEAKER_02 25:50

No. Our animal report is clear this week, but I do have something very important to talk about, and that is the most adorable golden retriever you've ever seen in your entire life is in this movie for like a second, and it makes the whole thing worth it. And is out of danger the whole damn time, too. Completely out of danger. It's so nice. There's a perfect little sunset. Ugh, so lovely.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Probably had a great like staycation with a dog sitter. Right. Probably lived the best life, had the most treats.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

He does a little trot, you know, on camera.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

It really does it for us. I appreciate him. Majestic beasts all around. Well, let's go ahead and dive into our ratings. Scream three from 2000. The question we pose here, brings it a hack or a slash. And I know that I usually go last, but this time I'm gonna kick things off because what I have to say is not very long. And it said this movie was ahead of its time. I think it was frowned upon because it was so different, and I think it was frowned upon because of how distant some of the characters feel, how different some of the writing feels to Kevin Williamson's original work with Wes Craven in Scream 1 and Scream Two. But I think even the pitfalls of some of the technology that's used as a plot device that really keeps the story moving along didn't seem realistic in 2000. Now it's real realistic. There's actually an application that we could use to do the podcast that can actually mimic some of our voices if we needed it to, to like fix a word, and it's really weird, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:17

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

We're living in the future. This movie was telling the story of women pre-the-me too movement before so many people had the strength to come out openly and say it and for there to be consequences for this. And aside from that, it's just a damn good blend of campiness without being too campy and horror without being too dependent on extreme violence and extreme gore. You know I like things to be a little more bloodless at times. This movie hits a really sweet spot for me. Again, it's not that it's a better movie than Scream One or Scream Two, but I do love it. And I'll give it to you this way. If Scream One and Scream Two were like intense love of your life, passionate soulmates. Scream three is your platonic soulmate that's just you feel like you're home when you're with them, right? You can stay up and say anything to like your best friend soulmate. It's a slash.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

This is why Chris doesn't go first.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

What a love letter.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

I feel like I'm gonna cry. I know.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

Like what could we possibly say?

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Chris, I agree with everything you said. My favorite part of this movie, and I think what gives it a slash for me, is the way it's able to intertwine this comedy, this meta, this suspense that I'm always looking for in these movies, and it does it so well. And like you said, it's not too campy, it's not too meta. In this one, it might have been actually a little not too meta, but it was a little out there. You know, when you have a movie within a movie, I'm like, what's real? What are they talking about? But they crafted it very well that you could see the differences, and you know, the characters were great, they were lovable. I love that they brought some from the old movies, and I'm always no matter what going to give a scream franchise movie a slash. So there you go.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Well, I gotta be honest here, my love is not as strong as the other people sitting here tonight. I always think of myself as a really big Scream fan. I love Ghostface, but also all these movies kind of run together for me. They I don't feel like this is my soulmate that I can just sleep next to or whatever lovely thing Chris said about this movie.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

No, I said like your best friend soulmate, you know? Like, not the love of your life, sleep in bed with passionate romance soulmate. This is just like we can pick up right where we left off 20 years later and be fine. This movie is me to you? Yes. I was thinking about you when I knew when I thought about that.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Um, while I am flattered, unfortunately, I feel you mean more to me than this movie, okay? I don't know why, but this movie, it just kind of like it just is there. Like it existed. Like um a movie was on. I've been more angry about movies being on my TV before. But I've also been a lot happier about movies being on my TV before. And I think it's honestly, I hate to be this person, but like scary movies starts to influence my feelings about Scream and like the goofy dewy thing becomes mixed with the intentional chaos of scary movie. I don't know. I really, really enjoyed how intentional every single thing in this movie feels. Little tiny things planted, the cops eating donuts. They're not just eating donuts, they're making a point about cops eating donuts, you know. Every single thing is a point to be meta. And I do love that. And I do love Ghostface, so it is a slash, but it's like I don't really feel anything in my heart. I feel okay about this. It's only a slash until proven otherwise because of how much I love Ghostface.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Let me just correct the record here. I had you down as a hack with that kind of language.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

I was going for a ride, okay? I had to make it clear how I felt. Get your seat, Bill, baby.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

I feel like it should come as no surprise that I too will be slashing this movie. We've said the word campy about a dozen times, and it's scream and horror, and those are all my favorite things. This movie felt like, uh, maybe one of my favorite scream movies. I haven't seen Scream 4 since it came out, so I'll have to re-watch that to decide if this is my second favorite. Obviously, Scream 1 will always be the first one. But I was like so happy to see this entire cast back again, back on their bullshit, this time in a way that was somehow like meta on meta to the nth meta degree, in a way that I did not expect or think would be successful, but it somehow was. They also added a lot of new characters to this that I really enjoyed, and usually it's like, oh, you add a new character just to do so to freshen things up, and it's not always the most successful. But a lot of the new characters I felt were really well done. There's a lot of very, very funny moments in this, and I just had to look it up because this movie and Scary Movie came out the same year, but there are literal gags, like at least two or three, that are in both movies, and one of them is a parody of the other, which is a parody of itself. So this kind of thing is absolutely up my alley. I love this a lot more than I liked Scream 2. I feel like the ending of this was a lot better than the ending of Scream 2. Mac, I have questions for you. So yeah, this is a slash for me.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

And I'm gonna round things out here with another slash. I feel like this is just generally an entertaining movie. I think it's a great installment for the Scream franchise. If if people didn't like it when it first came out, I I don't know what they were missing. I don't know what they expected and didn't receive, because I feel like this is kind of what I expected out of another Scream movie. I I feel like it fits the feel of Scream, and you know, Ghostface is always ridiculous and always hilarious to me. Even even when Ghostface just stands still, I just want to laugh. I never expected myself to be scared at all, but I am expecting the people inside the movie to feel really scared, and you get that a lot in this movie. And it makes it kind of fun to yell at them to do smart things when they do dumb things, which means you're kind of enjoying the experience. When you're yelling at the screen like, do this, don't do that, then you're you're in it. And I I felt like I was able to get involved a little bit as a as a viewer. So it's it's just overall a slash.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Well, while we broke our patron's heart last week by giving Mandy four hacks and one slash, we have turned the tides yet again and surprised the world with a universal slash for Scream 3, the least favored Scream in the entire franchise.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

All bets are off on trilogies, folks. You can find this movie streaming if you're in the US on HBO Max. Go check it out. Join us in the second half because we have so much meta to unpack. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

Being a minor celebrity is a difficult life. The imminent threat of stalkers, obsessed fans, and vengeful killers makes life even harder. Lighten the load and take that worry out of the equation with Doubledanger. Double Danger recruits the best personal security experts ready to keep you safe and secure in your mansion, whether it's worth 100 million or only 10 million. We match you with a personal security guard who's nearly identical to you in likeness, from height to hair color, and from face shape to body shape. These experts are well trained to protect you from knife attacks, short-range shooters, neighborhood dog attacks, and now online identity theft and deep fakes. Topple that stranger with Doppel Danger.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for Scream 3, which has, surprise, surprise, earned a universal slash. We have a lot to get to here, but before we get into the specifics of why this movie found so much love with us, we have the matter of gore to get to.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

And we're gonna get to that part on some of the things that went on with the production of this movie to give it that, because it was definitely done purposely. I would like to talk about everyone's favorite kill mine, Steve Stone. I was not expecting in the trailer for him to come out. Like that was not a kill I was expecting. Also, he's the annoying narrator in the one Netflix show about the kids.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

That one show about kids on Netflix?

SPEAKER_00 35:20

It is. Uh, it's uh with Jim Carrey.

SPEAKER_05 35:23

Series of unfortunate events. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Well, he's on one hand, he's Elaine's boyfriend, but on the other hand, he's Kronk, you know? Oh, he sure is. Pull the lever, Kronk. Wrong lever.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

But yeah, I loved it, especially the little comedy part where he's like, hey, I'm looking to see if the killer's in your uh trailer. And yep, the killer is in the trailer, all right. Uh so what about y'all's kills?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

I just want to say first, I more so love when he calls Dewey out on some bullshit because as he points out to Dewdrop, he is the professional, he is the one who has a background in this, he is the one who has protected esteemed clients, and he doesn't need to be told how to do his job. I betcha he's a Capricorn. I betcha.

SPEAKER_05 36:05

But in the end, who survived? Not him.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yeah, the one who had dumb luck, honestly. But I will say, in terms of my favorite death, it's I have a few that I could rank. I want to give a shout out first to Tyson Fox because it wasn't my favorite kill. I it broke my heart that he's dead. I feel like he deserved to make it. He was supposed to make it in one of the alternate endings. However, at his kill, that whole section of the film was filmed in the same building used in H2O. It's a good time. It's a great movie. Anyway, my favorite kill is going to be John Milton for having the literal final cut. It was a play on words, nice classic throat slit, and honestly, he kind of deserved it. So here we are.

SPEAKER_05 36:46

That was a very direct pun. Well, Tyson was actually my favorite kill. And the re the reasoning for me is kind of weird, but one, he had to go through hell to earn his his death. And then two, the balcony finish there was probably the goriest part of the movie. That just the corpse, I think, had the most core. And that's honestly, that's not saying much, but I feel like you know, laying on the ground, like splattered and there's blood and stuff, like that was probably the most score we got in the whole film.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

You're probably right, Mac. There wasn't a lot of blood, despite there being a lot of kills. But the kill that I have to give my favorite to is Sarah Darling, portrayed by Jenny McCarthy. Now, Jenny McCarthy's current madness aside, she's always like a very fun character to me in anything that she's a part of. And she really played like the dumb blonde bitch so well. But the thing that made me love this kill the most is like first like her attitude, like while she's on the phone, just like being herself or playing her character, but then just also like the gags that were involved in her kill, like hiding amongst the ghost face costumes. I was like, oh, this is this is something that you never see. Like you always see like hiding in a room of mannequins or like statues with sheets on them, but this is like costumes of the actual killer, you're just hiding in a room of them, knowingly. And then also like when they're in the prop room, that was so funny to me as she grabs all these like fake weapons. So that to me was like the perfect combination of like a scary movie type of kill, but like with the seriousness of a scream and like the darkness of an actual, like serious situation.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

The length of time and the different areas that were covered in that kill feels very much like an original prom night where it's not the final girl who gets like the most dramatic chase. But I also want to point out that she also at some moments isn't the dumb one, right? Because she's calling out, I'm a 35-year-old playing a 21-year-old. Uh, she's pointing out all like the all the pitfalls and shortcomings and the inefficiencies of this production process. She's constantly making jokes about was there another goddamn rewrite? She's pointing out all this because again, in Scream, they try kept trying to preserve the secrets because of the Scream 2 script being leaked on the internet and the ending being ruined. They kept writing pages like for the day, and actors wouldn't get it until they had to perform it that day. So they're really living this movie through its script and through her delivery of it.

SPEAKER_04 39:03

Yes, I love the the really great meta lines that she gave that kind of flesh that element out. Um, she also like completed the trilogy of like the blondes getting like the best, most drawn-out kills in scream movies. Like we have Drew Barrymore, and then we have Sarah Michelle Geller, and then we have Jenny McCarthy. And I was just like, this feels complete. It feels like a perfect little set.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Yeah, so in the sense of a meta movie, I'm gonna give a meta kill. My favorite kill is Roman getting his head chopped off, but it's not Roman getting his head chopped off. It's like the only one that I was surprised by, I wasn't expecting it, and I I had a literal gasp when that guillotine came down, and I loved that scene. Even though he didn't actually die there, I feel like it's a scream movie, I can do whatever I want in this part of the the questioning.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

I love that some innocent bystander prop is your favorite death. Listen, you don't think it was it uh his head? I thought it was Roman's head. I did not. It was very clearly styrofoam.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Oh, well, I understand that it was a prop and it wasn't a real, but I did feel like it was modeled after Roman. Also, he was the only other person in the room.

SPEAKER_04 40:07

It was like a prop of Roman for the movie.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

It just seemed like a generic white guy with dark hair, you know. It's Scream, it's meta, okay? No, it's good, it's good. I support you.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Even if it didn't look like Roman. It really did shock me though, I actually could have gone for a real kill there.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Did anyone else pick a second favorite because I did?

SPEAKER_02 40:26

I have four.

SPEAKER_05 40:27

Tom's death was so silly, but just blowing up in a house that supposedly had been filled with uh natural gas, but nobody smelled it, that just makes the entire thing ridiculous and also hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Yeah, he had a nose job, it was probably all stuffed up, you know? Or just like too much cocaine.

SPEAKER_04 40:43

That's true. For an explosion kill, I did note that it was like surprisingly satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

I just love how what idiots they were to just want to know what the script says. When Dewey and Gail are clearly like, no, you idiots, he wants you in there. We have to be out here. It was fantastic. It just seemed like I live my life reading from a piece of paper, so I must be told what to do and I must follow the story. I'm this invested. I think one of my other ones was Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie. Not because I enjoyed the theatrics of the death, but honestly, the creepiness of a one-way mirror and just hiding behind that. And I don't know. I at that point I was invested enough in her and really enjoying the humor that she brought to the movie. So I was a little bit bummed that she went, but I think the the crashing out of the glass was it was a good one.

SPEAKER_04 41:33

Yeah, it's sad to be murdered while you can see your friends, but know that your friends can't see you. Or maybe not knowing that your friends can't see you, and you're wondering why they're ignoring your murder.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Pretty terrifying, I'd say. That'd be Paris wondering. And I'm really happy that this week, I know the past few weeks we haven't had that much gore to talk about. So this week we actually do. So we all know that the screen franchise isn't necessarily known for being extremely gory, but I think we can all agree that it is definitely violent. In this specific film, the producers were pressured into toning down the film's violence, um, as Chris mentioned, because of the Columbine massacre. At one point, the studio even demanded that no blood be seen at all. Thank God. There was some. They needed to make it a little bit more comedic. So to meet in the middle, the film is a little bit more satirical and comedic more than the first two.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Yeah, at that point, I think Wes Craven even gave them an ultimatum. He's like, look, bro, we can either do a scream movie or we can do one without violence. And if there's no violence, we're not doing scream, right? Like he he really threw it down and I think stood up for the art, which I adored. Did you ever see Music of the Heart?

SPEAKER_04 42:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Okay. Are you familiar with Gloria Estefan and in saying song Music of the Heart?

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Yes. So that song is used in this movie, Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep, and it's a teacher teaching kids how to play like violin and you know being musicians, all that jazz. It's a really like heartfelt, soft, lovey movie. And Wes Craven really wanted to make that movie, so he had to make Scream 3 in order to get the buy-in to do that movie. So really that's what was on his mind when he's doing this.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

That was his passion project?

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

It's a good movie though.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

A film by Wes Craven, yeah. Huh. Maybe we should review it.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

I don't know how much I like Wes Craven aside from Nightmare on Elm Street, and I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

I'm sorry, Last House on the Left. Didn't you like the remake? I mean, I've seen it.

SPEAKER_04 43:31

But also you love Ghostface.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

Yeah. I do love Ghostface, but I can like scary movie. I'm just saying I'm not crazy. He's not my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

We'll just sit in our disappointment.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Here you go. There were also a lot of comments from viewers that the first two movies had a lot of blood in it. So they also consider doing less blood. And you know, there's Wes Craven um commenting saying, Come on, guys, this is a scream movie.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Yeah. Boo hoo.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Have you seen the size of his knife? Wes Craven's knife? Nope. Which literal knife? Figurative life. Ghostface.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

Have you seen the size of his knife? How are you gonna do a ghost face movie with no with no blood?

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Yeah, agree. So they had to meet in the middle pretty much. So they decided that they were gonna have the tradition of a screen film and had to have a lot of killings, but they would make a lot of them bloodless, giving it sort of this a la omen style Halloween, you know, discreet killer thriller vibes.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

Boo.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Sure, like a trilogy.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

You never know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Might be superhuman, you know.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Let me get a fan edit with more blood, please.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

So lastly, I know how he all likes talking about how the actors give it all. So the scene, you know, it's around an hour and 45 minutes in where Nev Campbell is um jumping from the back of the bar and stabs the killer in the back with an ice pick. Well, she actually missed the pad that she was supposed to plunge the pick into and actually hit flesh. So the scream that you hear, yes, from Scott Foley is very genuine.

SPEAKER_04 45:05

Ow. Oh my god. What is this, the 70s?

SPEAKER_00 45:08

When it's this wrong turn where everybody gets hurt. Yeah. And we also have Lee Schreiber who came up with the idea of having his character who is caught and weary um be killed off in the opening scene, which I think was cool. No one wanted to hear about his shit. We already heard about it in Scream 2.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Fair, true.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Honestly, really overestimated himself there. Granted, I enjoyed the scene, that's fine, but I wasn't sad to see him go, you know?

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Well, I was confused because I was like, who is this killer? You know, it's the first scene, you're like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_04 45:40

Yeah, with that Leib Schreiber kill, it kind of reminded me of like the opening scene of the original Scream movie, because we have the actress that plays the mom from Gossip Girl, which was actually weird, just hiding from Ghostface, who's making a creepy call on the phone. But the thing that I loved the most, and this was actually my favorite scene, was when Sydney is running through the set of the house that she initially ran from the killer in. I thought that that was such a creative way to bring us back to the same places that we recognized before, and like even to the details, like of the crap on her walls and like all the decorations, I was like, whoa, this is kind of trippy. I can't imagine how trippy it must be for her to absolutely be reliving this trauma in the worst type of way, because it is a like like shot for shot reenactment of something that she's already lived through. So that was really a an interesting way to to utilize the movie element of it in something that was really fresh and scary.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Absolutely. The the set design of Woodsboro, I could not agree more. It is my favorite thing visually about this movie. The level of detail there, the level of love there, but it's also crazy because it's like compounded with not only the trauma she experienced from the first film, but the trauma that preceded the first film and these unresolved feelings about her mom. And looking at, you know, the there's that familiarity with which she navigated like her fake house in the movie, opens the door and almost falls because it's like you can tell she's living in this moment, right? Like, okay, I gotta go back to my room.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

It was almost like supernatural.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Exactly. I absolutely love that. And what's crazy is that that whole element wasn't even in the script. West Craven had it built because he knew he wanted to use it in some way. And I believe there's an audio commentary of this movie that Wes Craven is a part of where they discussed originally wanting that set to be the more prominent, like, finale of the movie.

SPEAKER_05 47:29

I definitely could have seen that. I think it's kind of tragic that it wasn't the finale of the movie because that would have been pretty epic.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Oh, but I like that like library secret passageway clue setup at the end.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Yeah, I I think the emotional impacts and payoffs that we get from like just and again, I hate it. I hate it, but I think seeing the place where that shit happens, it I think it did more for me as like its own movie, its own standalone product than just reliving the first film and reliving that trauma. So I love that it was there. I love that the ending is where it is. I'm totally happy with both.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

I'm gonna have to give it up for a visual that I did not like. Wow. Which I typically don't do. It's usually something I like, but you guys have mentioned it already. The visual element that I hated the most was when the house blows up.

unknown 48:20

What?

SPEAKER_04 48:21

Really?

SPEAKER_00 48:21

To me, it's a very action movie sort of vibe that I get, which to me isn't uh what the scream franchise is about. I don't get these huge explosions, these, you know, like I don't know, it's just very action-oriented. Like if I was watching some movie my ex wanted me to watch. Like I hate movies like that. So the fact that that that theme or that, you know, approaches in this movie just didn't seem like a scream thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 48:49

Yeah, it feels like outside of the scream universe.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

But see, I feel like this movie is all about just doing everything that could be done. Like, I feel that every single moment in this movie was as much as possible without being like over the top, if that makes sense. They couldn't just have like an explosion. The whole entire house had to explode. Because somehow that's meta. Somehow that's something.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

And then everyone has to run like fall down the hill while saying, stop brawling down the hill.

SPEAKER_02 49:19

Yeah, I love that part. Well, uh, that was one of my favorite visual elements. My bad. Mostly because honestly, there wasn't a ton else that really excited me visually in this movie. I have another favorite visual element, and that is Patrick Dempsey's hair, this entire movie.

SPEAKER_04 49:37

Gorgeous.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

And another least favorite visual element to add on here, and that is Courtney Cox with those ridiculous bangs every single time. Why are we still doing this? Thank you so much. Did they grow out from the last movie?

SPEAKER_04 49:50

No. If they did, they cut them again.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

No, actually, I have a link in the show notes for this. David Arquette actually recommended that she go for a particular style, and he encouraged her to get short bangs, but it wasn't well executed by the stylist, but he has absolutely taken the blame for that. And she also keeps clowning it, like for the promo, like when they were filming the next scream movie. I think there's a picture of like Ghostface with scissors up to her bangs. She said, Not the bangs.

SPEAKER_04 50:19

Oh my god, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

She is just so goofy as a person in this entire series. One, I cannot figure out how she fell into the success of friends after doing this movie. And then two, it's just when you have the outfits and the behaviors and all of the chaos that is Gale Weathers all at once, and then you add the bangs on top. I've I just there's I've never been able to take her seriously in anything that she said or done at all. It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

The bangs made it camp, they brought it to the the next level of camp.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Oh, bless our hearts.

SPEAKER_05 50:55

I'm glad that's basically all the good visual parts have been taken. Just kidding. I mean, my my favorite was also the set of of the like the fake movie within the movie. I also think the explosion looked super cheesy and ridiculous. But I didn't mind it. I didn't think it didn't fit in. I thought it like worked as part of the movie. It just also happens to be absolutely ridiculous. I think my favorite thing to look at, and this is gonna be such a small, random, stupid thing, is Carrie Fisher in the basement.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Yes. Not being Carrie Fisher. Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Damn it. Saved it for characters, but ooh, Carrie Fisher in the basement. May you rest in peace, you angel.

SPEAKER_05 51:32

I know. And just like sitting behind the desk, like them walking down and like doing that like double take, like, are you oh you're and then she's like, no. And just like walking into that scene, you could just put that in, like, just steal that clip for me and put it on the internet, and that would be hilarious. But I just love it, everything about it.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

I have such bad news.

SPEAKER_05 51:51

What's that?

SPEAKER_02 51:52

I didn't recognize, I didn't know what they were talking about. Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

Ryan, you've gone too far.

SPEAKER_05 52:01

Have you heard of there's this little fantasy movie that's out there? Um, it's like Lord of the Rings, but in space. It's called Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

They fight. They fight. I've seen almost all the Star Wars movies. I understand so much, and yet for whatever reason, I think I missed like the beginning of what they started saying, and then I understood we were talking about like a you know, look-alike small actress type of thing, and then I was like, I don't know who that is. Oh my gosh. Oh, rest in peace. I was looking at the cast earlier and I was like, Carrie Fisher, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_04 52:34

She wasn't in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Google's dumb.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

Oh, oh, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, you wound me. So I that was actually my favorite scene in conjunction. Like it was a tie between that and Sydney walking through the sets of Woodsboro. But that moment, any anything that Carrie Fisher touched just absolutely turned to gold. She made things so much better. And there's so much more to her career when you look at how she influenced the industry as a writer, right? And and the consultation that she did and the partnership that she took with making so many scripts better. Even in that moment, she rewrote a lot of her own lines for that scene. Just a comedic genius, that one.

SPEAKER_05 53:20

I also love that they're they're trying to find, you know, uh Maureen Prescott's like file or whatever, and she's like, No, it's Rena Reynolds when her mom is Debbie Reynolds. And just again, meta upon meta. Ah. I didn't even pick up on that.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

Well, my favorite scene is actually our opening scene with Cotton. One, I enjoy that ridiculous idea of getting an accidental phone call and trying to hit on them, uh, because Cotton is that person. And I just miss the days of no caller ID, and you just answer the phone and you just talk to a person. Because I I haven't answered my phone in decades. Yep. But yeah, I really enjoy when he gets to the house and you really don't know what's going on at the beginning. I think it's the perfect amount of like mystery, of course, being unsure if it's him. It's before we found out about the voice changer and everything like that. For me, that's my favorite scene, and also I'd say maybe like the scariest scene in the movie. But it's just lovely. And of course, she hits the person that can save her over the head with a golf club. Because why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_00 54:25

Both of my favorite scenes are just maybe like just my favorite parts of the movie. Um, definitely on the quotes and the meta of everything and the comedy, but it's definitely when Cotton's girlfriend is in the shower and the way the camera is panning, it just reminds me very much of like psycho vibes. Um the second one, and Chris has referenced this before, but is when Sarah's complaining, you know, about the different script changes and she's reading over her lines with Roman, and then you know, he just turns and says, You're Sarah. And it was just, I just love that interaction, especially when she, you know, they she says she's I'm 35 playing a 26-year-old, and you know, goes and talks about a little bit deeper on, you know, why do I always have to be naked, you know, in a movie, or why you know, the shower scene is overdone, like we've done it before, you know. So I love how she's just picking apart all of those things. And I was like, you know what? I really like her. But that was definitely my favorite scene. I just laughed out loud, but then I was also like, but she's so on the nose. Such good points were made because it has been done.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

It still does feel like you gotta pull your titties out to get paid in Hollywood, you know? Just saying.

SPEAKER_01 55:31

And we all know Ryan is uh the resident titty expert.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Just because I'm here appreciating doesn't mean I don't think that women should have better treatment in their work environment.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Okay, exactly. And that's the content you're here for.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Truly.

SPEAKER_05 55:45

And the strength of women reminds me of my favorite scene, and that's the two gales going into the producer's office.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 55:52

Okay, so I I love the scene, and character-wise, I like it because we have the two gales like working together and like playing off of each other, and and that's just what I enjoyed about it. I just like the fact that at this point they're not annoyed by each other, but now they're a team together.

SPEAKER_04 56:07

See, I liked it because they were still annoyed by each other, but reluctantly working together as a team. Like, Gail has such a huge ego that like seeing a hotter, younger person playing her in a movie just like will never sit right with her. But knowing that like she is her best chance of staying alive was just a really fun dynamic. I literally wrote down at one point I was like, this is fun.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

What I loved was busting into the producer's office and she's screaming at him, you're obsessed with her, and you're obsessed with her daughter. And then Gail just calms her down. Alright, easy Geraldo. It's like you just went a little bit too far. Took it too far, bring it back down.

SPEAKER_05 56:43

Also, she's only five years younger, so not not that much younger.

SPEAKER_01 56:47

That's like 20 in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_04 56:49

Yeah, young enough to threaten the real Gail.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

That's like you're young enough to still play a 16-year-old in high school. Kind of true.

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Will the real Gail Weathers please stand up?

SPEAKER_02 56:59

Speaking of Gail and her ridiculous haircut, she is actually my least favorite part of Scream.

SPEAKER_04 57:05

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

What?

SPEAKER_04 57:07

Blasphemy.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

I'm sorry. I between her and Dewey, but the thing is, we get some like redeeming moments for Dewey. Gail just like really doesn't do it for me. And then in this movie, when we got two Gales, I was ready to go. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie. I needed I needed to be out of this. For me, some of these characters are cool. Obviously, Sidney, we love. Like, does Sid ever do wrong? Not really. She is the main character, clearly. But Gail. Oh Gail.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

I love Gail so much because she's a woman who knows what she wants. And sure, there's some things that she could probably stand to soften up about. Like in terms of just like, you know, vulnerability and affection. But also she has her priorities, and I don't think she has to apologize for that, you know? And it's like, I feel like the reaction there when you said Gail is your least favorite part of Scream, it's like a franchise, and the reactions you got to that is a classic example of that phrase, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Because for some she is Scream and for some she isn't, but I absolutely love her. I think what kills me is we get a little bit of a regression for her in a weird way, and it's it's similar to how I felt at the end of Sean of the Dead, right? I feel like she made up her mind about Dewey. You know what I mean? Like I feel like they had a chance and she wanted different things, and again, they're rebonded through this trauma again, they're back together again because there's another fucking psychopath killing their friends, and now she's getting married to him. And I'm like, Gail, you can you can do better, right? Like, no shade to Dewey, but you've already tried this and it didn't work. You know what I mean? Just let it go.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

There's nothing we rather point out in this podcast than a little bit of bondage trauma. Walk away.

SPEAKER_04 58:53

Or a woman being way too good for a man.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Ain't that true?

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Really, it's not an episode of Hacker Slash Without It. I love that this movie has a star-studded cast, but please tell me why Jay and Silent Bob are in this movie. Just for shits and giggles.

SPEAKER_04 59:09

Oh, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

Early 2000s cameo.

SPEAKER_04 59:13

I was so afraid they were gonna be a real thing, and I was like, please no.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

No, it's just a cameo within Hollywood. Who is it?

SPEAKER_04 59:21

It was like this thing in the 2000s, these like two stonery dudes. One of them never spoke, the other one ended up being really hot and naked in this one movie. But it was like a bit. It was like a straight douche stoner bit that was never really that funny. I mean, unless you were a straight douched stoner, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 59:36

Yeah. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

SPEAKER_04 59:39

They were also in like a full season of Degrassi for no reason.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

So they were ripping off Cheech and Chong. Got it.

SPEAKER_05 59:44

So this is gonna be this is gonna seem really strange. But the best part of the movie, not like the actual best, but like a nice little good tidbit uh that also talks about some of the characters, just the addition of Patrick Dempsey to this film was something that I was very excited about.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

And I liked the gentle, you know, framing of him.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

You know, it felt good.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:03

So I like that they try to set him up a couple times, but then he shoots it down. And if you're in like scream mentality, you're like, well, if he says, obviously it's not me because I'm the cop, that means he must be the killer. But no, he wasn't lying, he's not the killer, and don't be ridiculous. And I don't know, I like that part, but I also liked when he was like, you know, um, I gotta he's trained with killers, whatever it is, right? So he's he knows how to handle him. He's either gonna catch him or he's gonna kill him. And he just says it like such a like a random action movie hero kind of dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

When he said that, that was so cringy. I was like, I know. No.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:36

My runner-up for opening quote was Remind me not to sleep with him again. And that came from Parker Posey, who somehow ended up being my favorite character in this movie. I one time saw Parker Posey in a dumpling restaurant in New York, and she looked so tired and like just beat by life, and I was like, Oh no. But then I like ended up watching five Parker Posey movies, and I was like, Oh wait, I actually love her. I hope she's okay. And I had no idea she was in this. So seeing her as a knockoff Gale in this movie while also being like a kind of air-headed Hollywood starlet was like surprisingly just an enchanting performance.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

I think she was just low on dumplings.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:13

She was low on dumplings, and she was there to fix the problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Have you tried reaching out to her lately?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:18

See how she's doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:20

No. We go way back.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

I did say my worst, you know, visual was the explosion. But I think the worst part of the movie was definitely the uh ghostly Marine Prescott, you know, gig. Yes. Easily the worst. And tell me how she just it doesn't even look like she disappears. She literally looks like she just falls down.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:45

Yeah, from the window.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

Yeah, I was like, this is stupid.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

Hey, it's a nightmare. Sometimes you dream weird shit. Yeah. But okay, hold on a second. Because you said Pear is easily the worst part. The worst part of this movie could have been that, had it not been for the moment that Ghostface flings a knife and in slow-mo, the fucking knife hits Dewey in the forehead, and Dewey doesn't get out of the way, and he looks really confused and it bonks him in the head, and then he falls down. That is the worst part of this movie. That's some scary movie shit. It has no place in this movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:21

We needed a kabong sound effects to go on at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

Like kabong. It was so bad. Like, legitimately, that was the one time I'm like, fucking Dewey, just die already.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

That was literally one of the best parts of the movie because you could get knocked out by the base of a knife, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:39

It was so unexpected.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

But also, he had so much time to react. Also, I need to confess, and I realize I have not sounded like the smartest person on this podcast, and I just pray that most of our listeners have been here before and know that I am an intelligent person. The whole time that we've been doing this, you guys have been talking about the ghost scene. And I was like, I have no idea. I must have fallen asleep during a part of this movie. What ghost scene are we talking about? And just now I realized when Alexa said it, she's talking about Maureen being outside. And that was the worst part of this movie. It was so dumb.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:11

The ghost mom.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:12

Honestly, all of the parts with the mom like talking. Yeah, when she's like under the blanket or whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

Well, that was that was ghost face doing that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:23

No, I know that. I just all of the Maureen bits were my least favorite. The phone call, especially the ghost. And thank God I finally came around and figured out what y'all have been talking about.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:35

But you think that's worse than this prolific killer not knowing how to correctly throw the knife that has been using to kill everybody?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

It's not a throwing knife.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:44

It's also like a 50-50 chance that it hits with the blade end. Well, 50-50 sounds great, whatever, but like that's not how you throw a knife.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

Actually, maybe 25%, because you could get the sides.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:55

Right. True, true.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:58

Also, it takes much less effort to just run up and stab.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:01

Right. Yeah. Ghostface has never tried throwing a knife before. This was a first attempt. I don't think he'll do it again.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

Honestly, I think he was a little tired, tired of chasing people. It's true. I'm so sorry. You just reminded me. A different worst part is when Ghostface is shot and Sid turns around, leaves him to untie people, and then he leaves, and then she doesn't even finish untying them. She runs after him. So none of the things that we're having, neither thing got achieved. He didn't get killed and they didn't get free. Nothing worked out. It was horrible.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:30

But that's set up for like the headshot reference in the end, because in these movies we're always like, shoot him in the head so you know he's dead.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

I agree with you. I'm just saying, if he runs away, finish untying. If you lose one thing, get the other. You can't give up both.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

Fair.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

Yeah. If you if you try, if you put 50% of your effort into two different things, you done neither of them well. It's like people keep thinking, right? Oh, I'm a jack of all trades, but the other half of that phrase is master of none.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

Listen, the statistics here, the hacker math is really speaking for itself. We're making points.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:03

I want to give a quick shout-out to also the callback to the Star 69 reference at the very end, where she utilized that to figure out where he was, uh, because that's something we've all wondered, like, why not just, you know, Star 69 the killer? Because that's a technology that we have. That's like something people always criticize the movie about originally. So I love that they brought that back in at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

And I love that she did it right before he did it. Like he was reaching for his phone and he was about to call her.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

Truly, the best thing about doing this podcast is when we all give a universal slash, we get to rant and rave about the worst parts of the movie over and over and over.

unknown 1:05:42

I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:43

And so one thing that really got to me was this whole thing with Maureen. Because yeah, the ghost was ridiculous and one of the worst parts of the movie. But I feel like the whole backstory of Scream dealing with Maureen as like this is the reason why this exists is so. Bothersome.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

It's intense.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:02

Yeah. It's also like Sydney has enough trauma to deal with. We don't need to throw mommy issues on her, too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

I personally like the dynamic, and I think Sydney's experiences kind of reflect on kind of what her mom's going through too. So I kind of like that reflection, that sort of, you know, hey, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna try not to end up like my mom. And she still has this sort of respect for her mom when no one else does.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

Well, yeah, she likes she's contending with the whole thing. And let me tell you, as someone who also grew up and once became an adult, learned she had a secret brother. That's it's weird, man. It's a weird experience. But I absolutely love this look at you know, you think about how you feel, and you know, like m my dad had a lot of secrets. He had this whole secret family that I didn't know about until I was like 18. And you just spend so many years like wondering why you think about this, like is was anything even real? I had so much love for this person, and then you just spend so much time being angry, and you don't even really get to sit with the loss very well because you're so bitter, right? But then looking at what Sydney goes through in this movie when she finally learns her mother's story, and her mother is a woman who was assaulted, and you hear the way he describes it, like this what happened happened, despite what she said afterwards, everything was fine. You know that her mother never really healed from that. And she responded, and it repaints all of her actions, right? And she's not this like horrific villain that Sydney had kind of developed in her mind that she was. This person, like, why does she have so many secrets? Who was she? Why did she do this? Why did she cheat on you, etc.? So I absolutely loved that, and that's why I think I love the inclusion of Maureen as a ghost haunting her. And again, it may look goofy for sure, but I love that element because it brings so much of that seriousness, and you see that journey of just what Sydney goes through emotionally in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:05

Chris, I love your deep, deep thoughts and feelings because hey man, secret families are weird. Yeah, I have so few of them. Feelings, not secret families.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:20

Oh, Ryan, I've been pulling up an inventory on your secret families. You gotta shake in with the one in Utah soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

Honestly, though, as a person who's moved a lot in life, I do feel like I have secret families, but they're secret families of friends. People that I love. With all of that being said, considering I felt almost nothing during this movie, I don't think I'll be watching it again anytime soon. I feel like it's scream one, maybe two for me, and then that might be it. Depending how the rest of the you know, how the new one goes. Oh, I'm definitely watching this again.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:51

Oh, for sure. Now that I know that the sequels are all pretty good, I will definitely be doing a scream movie marathon at some point, probably in October.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:00

I look forward to re-watching this in a marathon before the new screen movie comes out.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:05

Ooh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

Okay, I'm gonna wait for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:07

I will absolutely be watching this again. This is one of my favorites in the franchise, again, not for quality, but really just for sentiment. And I think obviously I haven't seen this since 2011-ish, and that was a couple years removed from me figuring out all the secrets that like my family had. So it's like a really interesting, cathartic watch. Looking at characters kind of go through obviously a much different experience than that. I think this movie has a ton of rewatch value, but let's see if any of you are persuaded to rewatch based on what Mac has in store for us in fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:41

Number one.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

Fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:51

Fiction. He'd never seen the movies before. Fiction because he was hired the day before filming started and had the night to learn three scenes worth of dialogue.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:00

What?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:00

Well, Rockstar. Number two. Originally Detective McDreamy just disappeared into the nothingness of bad writing before the third act. But he was thrown into the climax of the film when producers realized there was a mistake.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:13

Fiction? I don't fully understand the question. Fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:17

Fiction, he was supposed to be the killer all along. This one's a fact. Like literally, they just like forgot to do anything with his character, and the producers were like, um, shouldn't you like do something with that dude that was kind of a major part up until now?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:30

Fortunately, in Scream, someone can just walk up in a house and it just works for the movie, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:35

True, it's true. Never to be heard from again. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:38

That might be why he seems like oddly put in the house at the end, like now he's her boyfriend or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:44

Yeah, just there for no reason. Yeah. Okay, number three. Liv Schreiber wanted Cotton to remove his jacket in the opening scene so that he could show off his totally ripped bod.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:53

Oh, fact. Why not?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:55

Fact, sure. I want that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

It's a fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:58

Yeah, this is a fact. He was totally lifting like a beast and wanted everyone to see his gain.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:02

So if the women have to do it, the men have to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:06

True. Show me those titties. Number four. Randy's three-minute scary movies one-on-one tape, delivered from Beyond the Grave, took over two hours of footage to distill down to his useful tips.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:16

I'm not sure on the timing. I'll say fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:20

I'm thinking fact, because two hours of filming to get a clip I feel like isn't kind of normal.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:25

I agree, Ryan, but I feel like it's fiction because that's just like what are scripts for? Did he improv the whole thing? No, I don't think.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:33

Okay, so this one's a fact, but this is because the script for this film was constantly changing left and right, and there were a ton of reshoots. Like they were shooting a lot of stuff, and he had to shoot so much footage, and then they're just like, alright, three minutes, that's all we needed.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

It's so meta that the movie about the movie, about the movie, had a lot of script changes. In the movie that had a lot of script changes.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:56

Yeah. Pretty ridiculous. And that leaves us with number five. A twist ending was planned in which good old Dewdrop would be revealed to be the killer due to spite after failing to thrive as a cop and not getting the attention he thought he deserved as the savior from the first two films' events.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:12

Fiction. I feel like there are alternate endings. Um, and I would like that one, so I'm gonna say that.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:18

I feel like there are alternate endings, but I wouldn't like that one, so I'm gonna say fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:22

This one's a fiction because I made it up. But they did plan a twist ending in which the killers would have been super fans of the stab movies, and that sounds ridiculous. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:32

Well, that sounds like so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:34

So wait, hear out my fan theory. I thought it was gonna be the bitch that played Sydney, because she was so the killer was so obsessed with Sydney the whole time. I was like, oh, she's really trying to get into the role by killing Sydney herself, which would make the role even more iconic for her to play it. And that's been fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:49

Well, there you have it, folks. Regardless of who the killer was and who the killer wasn't, Scream 3 has won our hearts and earned a universal slash. Now, we've had a lot to talk about here, but there's so much more to say, so much commentary on fashion and hairstyles alike, and it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think, we want to know what you have to say, where your heart lies with this movie. Now keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.com, and on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:18

And if you have bangs that are cooler than Gale Weathers, you can reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128, or visit hackerslash.com slash contact to send us an audio message.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:30

Or if you'd like to answer the question, what's your favorite scary movie? You can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:36

Wait, you should do that. Also, if you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. You can visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:45

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, psychos can't kill what they can't find. Bye.