Henry Thomas and Olivia Hussey star as Norman and Norma Bates in Psycho IV
Hello Halloween pals! It’s Slick Dungeon here, back again to review yet another of the movies in the Psycho franchise. In the fourth movie, which was actually made for television, we take a look forward and back as this is both a sequel and a prequel and, kinda confusing. Still, it’s a thing that exists and it’s Halloween-ish so I might as well give you my take on it. Be forewarned there are spoilers for this movie but then again, if you never see it, and you still read this review, I don’t think your life will be much altered one way or the other.
I Just Called To Say…
The central premise of this movie is a bit odd. A radio call in show is having a conversation about a rather controversial subject. Boys who kill their mothers. They have on a psychologist and a guest who killed his mother. It’s got a fairly Jerry Springer quality to it but whatever. The show is, I guess, standard for the time as people just call in and make comments. But this show gets interesting when perhaps the most famous mother killer of all time dials in. Yep, good ol’ Norman Bates has something to say.
There’s a lot that happens in the movie here but I’ll sum up this part pretty briefly. Norman has just found out that his wife is pregnant. Yep! He has a wife! When did that happen? Unclear. When did Norman get out of the institution? Also, unclear. This makes the timeline here pretty murky. To add to the complication, while he is on the phone, Norman tells us about his past and how he started killing in the first place. In addition to all that, he’s planning to kill his wife who had promised him she would never allow herself to become pregnant.
The best scenes of the movie are definitely the ones with Anthony Perkins as he still plays Norman Bates to absolute creepy perfection. The only real tension in the movie though, is if Norman will or will not kill his wife since we know the rest of the murders already happened.
How did Norman Get that Way?
The other half of the movie has Henry Thomas playing a young Norman with Olvia Hussey playing his deranged mother, Norma. Thomas does an adequate job with it but it’s not a stand out performance. Hussey is enjoyable but way too over the top.
We see lots of uncomfortable incidents between the two of them, which ultimately lead Norman to become the homicidal person he was destined to be. Norma makes Norman dress in girls clothes, is weirdly intimate with him far after she should be, and is utterly unhinged and violent a lot of the time.
The movie basically gets the story across, but I’m not sure demystifying Norman in this film helps all that much. Yes, we get some background but he seemed a bit creepier when we weren’t sure why he did what he does.
To get a much better origin story of Norman Bates, I highly recommend the show BatesMotel which had the room to lay the groundwork for the psychosis of Norman Bates. That show is able to subtly balance the awfulness of Norma and the nice guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly but still is capable of violence routine of Norman. It’s five seasons long though, so it’s a bit of a commitment. Still, it’s a far superior prequel than this one.
What Does Norman Do?
The last bit of the movie is Norman getting his wife to come over to his mother’s house where he plans to kill her. Dude, I don’t care if you are married to the guy or not, do not go over to Norman’s mother’s house. It will end badly.
Anyway, Norman is about to kill his wife but he sees his own reflection in the knife and hesitates. She convinces him that he is capable of love, he will love his child, and he should not kill anyone anymore. Norman does stop himself this time. Then he burns down the house but sort of traps himself in it. He’s confronted with the ghosts of his past (but only from this movie not from any of the others) but does make it out of the house. The next day at the burned down house he declares himself free.
Ah, but not so fast. He didn’t burn down the fruit cellar and we see the doors bang and we hear Norma’s voice yelling at Norman just like usual. We fade to the credits to hear a baby crying. We’re meant to assume this is Norman’s kid.
The Troubles with this Movie
While there is some good here, this movie needs a bit of work. Are there worse slasher sequels? Yes, by far there are. But, the fact we can’t really place the timeline here is problematic. If it’s after the events of Psycho III why does Norman never reference those events? If it’s during the time Norman was freed but still killing people, why was his wife never brought up in the other movies? It’s as if this movie wants to skip from Psyho to this movie. This is not the best technique if you ask me (I’m looking at you, Halloween franchise). And if that is the case, well, fine but at least tell us that going in.
The prequel part is not quite long enough to truly immerse us and the sequel part is mostly a phone conversation. And oddly, the phone conversation is much more interesting than the prequel portion. If they could have just decided either prequel or sequel here it would have worked better. For my money, I would have preferred sequel with Anthony Perkins as Norman because I can watch that dude performing that character all day long.
In Conclusion
In the end, this is a skippable film that didn’t need to be made. But if you want to find out a little more about Norman it’s worth a watch. Still, in my opinion, you are better off watching Bates Motel instead. Those performances are a lot more subtle and do a good job establishing a young Norman. But even with that show, there is still only one true Norman Bates and that is Anthony Perkins. Since this is the last film with him in it as the character of Norman Bates, you may want to check it out just to see that.
We’ve only got one more Psycho film to go and it’s a remake. Come back next time to see my thoughts on that.
Anthony Perkins is not only back as Norman Bates but directs Psycho III as well
Hello Halloween pals, it’s Slick Dungeon back again! We’re here for the third turn in the Psycho series. This also makes the third time of Anthony Perkins playing the character and the first time he directs one of the films. As usual, there will be spoilers in this review so if you care about that sort of thing, watch the movie first and then come on back here to read the review. Fair warning for anyone who needs to know this, but there is mention of suicide in this review as it’s one of the themes of the film so if that is an issue for you, skip this review altogether.
We Start With Nuns
This film starts off with something we haven’t seen before. There is a blonde woman who is at a church surrounded by nuns. This woman is proclaiming there is not God. She goes out onto a rooftop ledge and gets pretty close to throwing herself off. But before she jumps, a nun grabs the woman. In the process the woman is saved but the nun falls down from a ledge and dies. Now the woman, Maureen, is left to find her own way in the world. She grabs a suitcase with her initials, M.C. on it and hitches a ride.
The guy who picks her up is no prize and gets really grabby really quick. Needless to say, Maureen’s situation is pretty dire and things are not looking up.
What about Norman?
We then switch to Norman Bates. He’s living what you might call a mostly normal life, despite, you know, having a dead woman in an upstairs bedroom. He is running his motel, although it’s a little worse for wear. He’s back at doing his taxidermy with birds. The only unsettling thing for him is the fact people are still looking for Mrs. Spool who revealed to Norman in the last film that she was his real mother. That’s not good for Norman since he knows exactly where she is. She’s just sitting up there in that bedroom where he put her.
The scumbag who picked Maureen up rolls into the Bates Motel looking for a job and Norman hires the guy on the spot. In town, there is a journalist who wants to get Norman’s point of view on being released on his own recognizance. This is Tracy Venable who tells him she wants to get the other side of the story.
While the two are talking, Maureen shows up with her suitcase and Norman sees her. To him, she’s the living embodiment of Marion Crane. Same blonde hair, same frightened demeanor, and the exact same suitcase.
Mother’s Watching
Duke, the scumbag musician who now works at the Bates Motel gives Maureen cabin 1, the same cabin where Marion Crane died. And, yes, Norman’s mother is watching. Norman does his usual routine of watching someone in the shower, only this time, she takes a bath. And Norman does what he usually does and goes into the bathroom with a big old knife. He’s wearing the old lady outfit and everything. But when he gets there, he’s in for a surprise because Maureen has slit her wrists. Instead of killing her, Norman saves her life. And Maureen actually sees Norman as Mary right before he saves her.
This makes him a bit of a hero in town and Maureen is certainly appreciative of him. Norman just tells the cops he was there to give her fresh towels.
But, while this is going down, Duke finds out about Norman’s background from Tracy. Duke then goes back to the motel with a date he picked up at the bar. They have a good time for a while but then get into an argument. And this complete jerk throws her out of the room without her clothes. She does manage to get Duke to toss her top to her. Then, she goes to make a phone call at the phone booth. And that is the end of her. Mother stabs her and we hear Norman talking about the blood once again, just like he did in the first film.
Norman offered for Maureen to stay in his hotel free of charge for a while so she does. Duke finds Norman cleaning up the phone booth early the next morning but doesn’t think anything of it. But, he does see a bill the woman had the night before and wonders if something happened to her.
Maureen tells the local priest about how she had doubts and hesitations before taking her vows.
Tracy tries to catch up with Norman again but he pretty much tells her to take a hike. There’s a bit of activity at the hotel because there is a big football game in town. But, Norman and Maureen seem to be hitting it off a bit.
Tracy Continues to Dig
Being a good journalist, Tracy Venable is determined to find out what happened to Mrs. Spool. She goes to her apartment and discovers the number for the Bates Motel written down. She calls the number and Norman answers. She’s smart enough to just hang up.
Meanwhile, Norman is still talking to the dead woman he has upstairs. He has a bit of a date with Maureen. The two have a bit much to drink and when they get back to the hotel there is a raucous party going on. Maureen sees the silhouette of a woman in the window of Norman’s house. You’d think by this time Norman would have installed thicker shades or something but I guess he didn’t think of that.
Bodies keep Droppin’ at the Old Motel
Norman seems to have a good time with Maureen but they go back to the hotel. There’s a moment when it looks like Norman and Maureen are going to get a lot more intimate but Norman says he can’t. Maureen suggests they just hold each other for a while. Norman agrees. But then Maureen wakes up and Norman is gone.
See, Norman was a little busy ending the life of yet another young woman. This one he apparently hides in the big old ice chest right outside the motel where anyone can grab ice. The sheriff comes looking for the missing woman. And he proves to be the most unobservant cop ever because he literally grabs ice from said ice chest, dripping red with blood but doesn’t look at it. He also doesn’t see the body parts peeking out of the ice. Norman squeaks by once again, not becoming the prime suspect.
But while she is there digging into the story, Tracy lets Maureen know what Norman’s past is. Maureen decides she’d rather go hang out with the priest who keeps lecturing her than with the guy who has committed multiple murders. Can’t say I blame her there.
Duke is a Moron
So, this scumbag Duke, who won’t shut up about how he’s a musician and needs money has the dumbest plan ever. He’s figured out Norman’s got Mrs. Spool. What does Duke do about this? Well, he knows if he turns Norman in, he might get a pat on the back but not much else. He also knows if he tells Tracy Venable what is going on, he’ll get five minutes of fame but no money out of it. Duke’s idea is to extort a man who has killed about ten people at this point, as if Norman wouldn’t just kill him.
And… Duke gets his brains bashed in with his own guitar. Norman does his usual routine of driving a car to the swamp to sink the bodies but it turns out he hadn’t quite finished the job on Duke who tries to choke Norman. But, Norman drives the car into the swamp and since Duke is wrapped up in plastic and Norman is not, Norman gets away while Duke drowns.
Tracy is Still Digging
Starting to put some pieces together between Norman and Mrs. Spool, Tracy finds out Spool worked at the diner where Norman did, and that Spool had been in an institution before being hired there. Tracy also figures out that Spool is only claiming to be Norman’s real mother because she was in love with Norman’s dad.
What are you Doing MaUREEN?
Okay, now get this. Maureen has convinced herself that Norman Bates is actually her true love and she’s going to go back to the hotel to be with him. You were so close to being fine, Maureen! Ah well. Maureen goes to the house and shares a nice moment with Norman. But then, Norman hears his mother yell at him from upstairs.
Next, one of the least believable things in the film happens (even less believable than the ice chest). Norman is holding Maureen’s hand on the stairs but when he hears his mother he lets go. Maureen falls down the stairs and impales herself on a cupid statue at the foot of the stairs. Yep, total accident that Maureen dies. But what I want to know is, who in the world puts a super sharp object at the bottom of a staircase? Like who in their right mind thinks this is a good idea ever?
Anyway, Norman shouts at his mother that he is going to get her for this.
What are you Doing Tracy?
Tracy shows up at the house, with no one else with her. This is a woman who is an intelligent journalist, knows Norman’s past, has dug further and further into his story, and still shows up alone? Why? Why Tracy would you do that?
But, show up alone she does. And she finds not only Maureen dead on the floor but Norman, wearing the “mother” outfit and wielding his old trusty kitchen knife. Tracy is basically locked in the house at this point so her only chance is to try to reason with Norman. She uses the only thing that might get her out of this mess, and tells him his family history. Emma Spool is not his mother, she was his aunt. Norma Bates really is Norman’s mother. Emma was in love with Norman’s father and killed the guy. She killed him because she thought Norman was the child she should have had with the man and wanted to raise Norman as her own. She even ended up kidnapping Norman and running off. That did not work out so well for her as she was caught and put in an institution.
Luckily for Tracy, this does the job. Instead of stabbing Tracy, Norman stabs the dead body of Mrs. Spool.
The sheriff shows up and arrests Norman for all the murders and whatnot and tells him he’s never getting out of the institution again. Norman replies, “But I’ll be free… I’ll finally be free.”
The last shot of the movie reveals Norman holding Emma Spools severed hand and smiling in the creepy way only Anthony Perkins can pull off.
In Conclusion
A lot of this movie is overly gratuitous and unnecessary. The plot does move along but there are things that just seem kind of odd and confusing here. The twist in this one is basically to undo the twist of the last one which doesn’t make a ton of sense. While the directing is fine, it’s not the most brilliant slasher film by any stretch of the imagination. In some ways, this movie feels like it’s trying to imitate the more popular slasher movies of the 1980’s rather than lean into its legacy as being one of the first slashers. Norman is creepy, no doubt, but other than that we’re not seeing anything too groundbreaking here.
This is not an essential film to add to your collection. But it’s still fun to watch and has a few interesting kills and a bit of surprise here and there.
Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates in Psycho II
Hello Halloween friends, Slick Dungeon here! Did you know there are sequels to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho? Yep, that’s right, the story of Norman Bates continues decades later than the events of the original film. And, not only that but Anthony Perkins himself is back as Norman along with Vera Miles as Lila Loomis.
Whether or not this film ever needed to be made is highly debatable but since it’s a thing, I figured I would watch it and give my thoughts here. There will be spoilers in the review below but I won’t give as strong a spoiler warning as I did for Psycho. In all reality, you don’t need to watch this film but if you are curious about the fate of Norman Bates and Lila Crane (who apparently marries Sam from the first film at some point to become Lila Loomis) you should watch the movie first and then come back here to read the review. There’s a lot going on here so let’s get into it. Spoilers follow.
It’s Based on a Book Right?
Wrong. The first film, Psycho was, in fact, based on the book Psycho by Robert Bloch, the second film did not adapt Bloch’s novel Psycho II. That book was a scathing take down of Hollywood society and apparently Hollywood society didn’t want to, you know, put that up on a screen for everyone to see. Instead, they hired Tom Holland to write a screenplay which ultimately is nothing like the book. Still, this screenplay convinced Anthony Perkins to return to the series. Guys, we almost had Christopher Walken as Norman Bates. Christopher Walken! I like him as an actor but he is not Norman Bates.
Anyway, to even try to attempt a sequel, whether based on a book or not, seems like a huge gamble to me. After all, you can’t outdo Alfred Hitchcock so why even try? But try they did.
This film is in full color, except for the parts that flash back to the original film. And while there is a lot wrong with the movie, there is still some stuff here that is worth watching.
Wasn’t Norman Bates Locked Up?
Yes. But, he was put away in an institution, the very thing he railed against in the first film. The movie starts off with the audacity to show us the shower scene from the first film as if we had all somehow forgotten it. But the very next scene in the film has Norman in a court room. He’s dismissed on his own recognizance as a psychiatrist named Dr. Raymond (Robert Loggia) declares Norman returned to sanity. This is over the protests of one Lila Loomis. Lila is the sister of Marion Crane, the woman killed in the famous shower scene. And we know from the last name Loomis that Sam, Marion’s boyfriend, must have married Lila between films. Lila does have good reason to want Norman to remain put away and she does see him as a threat to society. But, we’ll get more into her deal later.
It’s been 22 years since Norman killed his last victim and presumably he has spent the rest of this time working on himself and trying to understand that he is not his mother. Dr. Raymond seems to be a firm believer that someone restored to sanity should have just as much opportunity as anyone else in society. Lila is more concerned with Norman’s victims. Dr. Raymond also points out Norman was found not guilty by reason of insanity so he has every right to live like a normal person. We can argue about how likely this is to happen in the real world but for the sake of the movie we can go along with the premise.
One thing to note here, which I believe is a mistake but might not be, is the number of victims ascribed to Norman in the courtroom. If we do the math of the last film, Norman killed his mother, her lover, two tourists, Marion, and the private investigator Arbogast. That totals six people. But in the courtroom scene Lila asks what about Norman’s seven victims. Either they miscounted, or Norman killed someone at the institution, or they found yet another body in the swamp. This seventh victim is not explained in this film so we have to leave it as is but I seriously think this was an unintentional mistake by the filmmakers.
Along with this release, Norman is expected to work at a local diner where he has been given a job. In addition, he’s able to have control of the Bates Motel once again, although, it is currently being run by the medical board in Norman’s interest. Legally speaking Norman is still full owner though, so he can hire and fire staff there as he wishes.
Dr. Raymond isn’t too keen on Norman moving back to the old place considering its potential for triggering Norman into a setback is huge.
Norman Makes a Friend
At the diner where Norman works, he covers for a coworker named Mary. She’s a bit frazzled and breaks a dish. Norman says it was his fault. Mary later tells Norman she’s recently had a fight with her boyfriend and has nowhere to stay. Norman owns a hotel, so being a nice, normal, guy he offers to let her stay there free of charge.
But when Norman gets to the hotel and sees the state it is in, he’s pretty pissed. The current hotel manager, Warren Toomey, has allowed the place to become a party hotel where guests rent by the hour, drugs and sex are commonplace, and it’s everything Norman (and his dead mother) would hate. Bates fires the guy and tells him to leave the next day.
The next day at the diner, Norman gets a note on the order wheel from his dead mother. He knows this must be some practical joke. And guess who one of the patrons was? Yep, Toomey, drunk and as unpleasant as can be. Naturally, Norman suspects this guy of being the one to leave the note. Norman’s definitely tempted by the sharp cutlery around the place but he does not do anything to Toomey.
The bodies start dropping again
The next time we see Toomey, he’s packing up his crap to leave the Bates Motel. But then a person dressed in black, wielding a knife stabs Toomey to death.
Mary and Norman get to know each other a bit better. Norman is still pretty damn creepy as he’s drilled a hole in the wall to the bathroom where he can observe Mary undressing, just like he does in the first film. We get a shower scene here that’s fairly uninspired, shows a lot more than we saw in the first film in the way of nudity, and ends without anyone getting killed. Still, really creepy that Norman is watching like that.
To make matters worse, Norman keeps getting notes around the house from his mother, and he’s even received a phone call or two from someone who is claiming to be his mother. Mary seems to be getting a bit nervous at this but she doesn’t leave.
One night, Norman looks in his mother’s old bedroom to find it restored to exactly how it was in the first movie. A sound in the attic draws his attention and he goes to investigate but someone locks him in there.
Meanwhile, a pair of teenagers are messing around in the fruit cellar where Norman’s mother’s body was famously kept. And, yep, one of them is killed. We can probably assume it wasn’t Norman considering he was locked up in the attic but we’ve had unexpected twists in this series before so who knows?
The other teenager escapes and she tells the sheriff. Mary finds Norman in the attic and lets him out but she says the door was unlocked the whole time. Norman tries to show Mary that someone messed with his mother’s old room but when he opens the door, it looks like it did in the start of this film, with all the old stuff covered up and put away. Either Norman is hallucinating or someone is pulling off a really elaborate stunt.
The sheriff shows up to question Norman, considering there has been a report of a murder. Mary covers for Norman and gives him an alibi saying they were walking in the fields at the time. Norman knows she’s lying for him but obviously if he tells the sheriff that he’ll implicate himself.
The First Twist
While the original Psycho has an incredible twist in it, this made things a lot more difficult for a sequel. First off, the audience is likely expecting something to be a twist. Reveal it too early, and it’s pointless. Make it not as consequential, and you’re going to be told you are poorly imitating the original. Don’t have any twist and then it’s boring. So, what does this film do? Basically it flips the protagonist and antagonist. In the first movie, the antagonist was definitely Norman Bates. But here, we’ve spent some time building up some sympathy for him. We’re meant to believe he’s at least trying to change, or has changed. Norman had an illness, and that kind of illness has been cured here so we want to see him succeed. But then again, this is a horror movie so we want to see him fail.
The first of the big reveals of this movie was a bit surprising but fairly logical. It turns out Mary is actually Mary Loomis. She’s Lila and Sam’s daughter. Lila and Mary have been setting Norman up for failure. They have been leaving the notes and making the phone calls. Mary even dressed up in Norman’s mother’s clothes at least once, to give Norman the impression she was in the window. And it was Lila and Mary who set up the room, locked Norman in the attic, and restored the room once again.
Why are they doing all this? Lila’s convinced Norman will never change, and if she can set him off again, he’ll be locked up once more. Of course, she doesn’t seem to care that this will mean someone is likely to die.
However, Mary has had second thoughts here. She’s spent enough time with Norman to think maybe he has changed. And also, that it would be unfair of them to continue torturing him in this way. Mary tells her mother she’s not going to keep up the ruse.
Also, Mary knows someone else must be in the house because someone killed the teenager, yet the fruit cellar remained free of evidence. Lila asks Mary to just go along one more time but she refuses.
Dr. Raymond puts some pieces together and figures out that Mary is Lila’s daughter and the two are in cahoots. He tells Norman but, of course, Norman doesn’t want to believe his friend would betray him. He’s also sure he’s been hearing from his, “real” mother. He believes he was adopted.
Norman eventually confronts Mary who admits she was in on the scheme to put him back in the institution but tells him she’s done with all that. And she warns him her mother is not done so when he gets phone calls they must be from her.
More bodies drop
Lila Loomis retrieves the “mother” costume from Norman’s fruit cellar but as she is doing so, she’s killed by a female figure.
The police dredge the swamp and come up with Toomey’s car which will directly pin the blame on Norman. Mary tells Norman about the situation and encourages him to run but Norman knows he’d just get caught.
A call comes in and Norman picks up the phone. He has an eerily strange conversation about killing Mary, while Mary is listening. Mary picks up the other phone to listen in and no one is on the line with Norman. If the goal was to drive Norman back to insanity, it seems they were successful.
In a desperate attempt to gain control of the situation, Mary goes and gets the “mother” costume and tells Norman he’s not talking to his mother. Norman doesn’t seem to buy in to whatever Mary is saying so she runs up the stairs. There, Dr. Raymond grabs Mary. But, she’s startled and has a knife. She accidentally stabs the doctor who tumbles down the stairs and dies.
Now Norman is looking at what he thinks is his mother, standing over a dead body, holding a bloody knife. If he had any shred of sanity left, well, that’s all gone now. Norman tries to clean up the scene and put Mary in the fruit cellar. There, Mary stumbles over the body of her mother. She assumes Norman has killed her and so she tries to kill Norman with the knife she still has. But before she can finish the job, the police show up and shoot Mary.
The police have evidence of Mary and Lila arguing about how they are setting Norman up and they come to the conclusion that Mary was the killer. Norman is seen as the victim here, being framed by a family out for revenge, for a past misdeed. They obviously don’t have the whole picture and at this point, it’s not entirely clear to the audience who has done all the killing.
There’s another Twist
So, if you can’t outdo an original twist, and flipping protagonist and antagonist only goes so far, what more can you do? Throw in another twist of course!
As the audience we’re not sure if Norman actually killed anyone in this film. He probably couldn’t have killed the teenager since he was locked in an attic. But he definitely could have been the one to kill Toomey or Lila Loomis.
Turns out what we all thought was a complete delusion on Norman’s part was based in reality. A waitress from the diner, one Mrs. Spool, shows up at Norman’s house after he is released by the police. She tells him she is his real mother. Her sister was who Norman thought of as his mother. And Mrs. Spool had been in an institution herself. She’s fairly vague about why but we can infer it was violent and bloody and probably similar to what happened with Norman.
While the two are there, Norman offers her some tea which she gladly accepts. Mrs. Spool also tells Norman she did all the killing. She was just looking out for her son.
Welp, that’s certainly enough to set Norman off. He gives Mrs. Spool the poison tea, whacks her on the head with a shovel and kills her. Norman hauls that body up the stairs to the ol’ dead mother resting room, and boom, he’s back to the whole split personality bit. The movie leaves us there.
In Conclusion
There are some people who utterly hate this movie. And, of course, there are a few who absolutely love it. Ultimately, it’s not an essential film, or even an essential horror film, but it’s fine that it’s there. You can go your whole life and never watch it and you won’t suffer for it. But if you are a bit curious about Norman’s whole trajectory, it’s worth a watch. Just don’t expect it to be as brilliant as the first film. But then again, most films aren’t as brilliant as Psycho.
Happy Halloween month horror fans! It’s Slick Dungeon here and I wanted to kick the month off by reviewing one of the all time classics of not just horror but all of cinema. We’re taking a deep dive into one of the earliest slasher films, helmed by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. I am, of course, talking about the iconic and masterful film Psycho.
We’re going to dig pretty deep into this one, and this is the kind of movie that is ruined if you hear spoilers about it before you see it, so please, for your own sake, if you have not watched this film, give it a go before you read this review. There will be a heavy dose of spoilers so be forewarned!
A bit of Background
Psycho is based on a novel by the same name written by Robert Bloch. Alfred Hitchcock’s last film had been a full color, big budget, star studded thriller, North by Northwest. Like most of Hitchcock’s films that one is a classic and well worth watching. But in all of Hitchcock’s career there is one film most associated with him. It was shot in black and white and on a lower budget. It still had star power in the form of Janet Leigh but there was a lot less fanfare and attention brought to this film before its release. The film was shot by the same crew who filmed Hitchcock’s television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
At first, when the film was released, this was a critical failure because the subject matter was highly controversial. But box office does wonders for a film and audiences could not get enough of it. This caused a bit of critical reflection and eventually the movie went on to earn four Academy Award nominations, including one for Hitchcock as director and one for Leigh as supporting actress. Sadly the film did not win any of the awards but this film stands the test of time as it is still the film most associated with Hitchcock and is hands down his most popular film.
We’ll get into some of the reasons the film has had such lasting impact below but there were a few factors that set this film apart right from the beginning. One of them was a genius marketing move made by Hitchcock himself. Outside of theaters where the film was screening Hitchcock placed signs telling the audience that it was “Required that you see Psycho from the very beginning.” The cutout then has a big blank space where the theater could write in the time of the next show. And most genius of all were the next couple of paragraphs on it.
“The manager of this theater has been instructed, at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theatre any persons after the picture starts.
Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes, or ventilating shafts will be met by force.
The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy Psycho more.“
Alfred Hitchcock
In addition to the sensational nature of the marketing materials, the controversial topics depicted in the film, the brilliance of the acting, directing, and screenplay there was one other major factor that made this film so successful and so iconic for so long. In case you haven’t guessed it, that was, of course, Hershey’s chocolate syrup. We’ll get into why that was below.
Just as Hitchcock would do, I must now warn you spoilers follow below as we get into the review of the actual film. If you have not seen the movie, “It is required that you see Psycho from the very beginning!” Go do that and then come back to read below if you haven’t yet.
It’s about Misdirection
If you look at the entire body of Hitchcock’s work you’ll notice a couple of themes featured prominently. First and foremost is the idea of an innocent person accused of crimes they didn’t commit. Coming in a close second is an impulsive crime committed by an otherwise good person on the spur of the moment. At the outset of Psycho we’re meant to believe what we are watching is the consequences of an impulsive act and what might lead from there. It ends up going where no one expected.
The very first moments of the film start with a soundtrack so striking as to be unforgettable. It builds an atmosphere of tension and anticipation and brings the audience into the film already on edge.
After the title sequence we are shown what amounts to a fairly bland and boring city view. The juxtaposition of the striking music followed by the mundane is meant to remind us that intense and horrific things can happen in the most common of places. We then see the words Phoenix, Arizona on the screen, giving us a location for where we assume the events of the film will unfold. We then see the date of Friday, December the Eleventh on the screen. Again Hitchcock is leading us into the ordinary here. There’s nothing special about this date. It’s not starting us on Christmas day, or New Year’s day or any other date that has any particular significance. It only stands out if you happen to have a birthday or wedding anniversary or something like that associated with it. For the vast majority of us, this would be a completely boring, standard day. If it seems like I am making a big deal out of how commonplace the date is, you would be correct. Part of Hitchcock’s genius is making the mundane into the memorable. Most of the events in his best films stand out because you can envision them happening to the biggest star, anyone in the audience, including yourself.
The camera pans away from some of the more interesting tall buildings in the shot to a smaller, square building which looks like any typical hotel you could find in any typical city in America. We then see the time of Two Forty-Three PM on the screen. And once again, this is a completely mundane time. It’s not the start or end of a work day. It’s not even lunchtime. It’s just a time that passes for all of us, virtually unnoticed most of the time.
The first sign of anything possibly out of the ordinary is when we zoom into the window of one of the rooms in the building. On the bed is Janet Leigh. She’s wearing a lacy bra and next to her is a shirtless man. While we don’t see anything explicit, the implication of sex is quite obvious. This could be normal. Perhaps the couple is on vacation or newly married. But Hitchcock is only interested in the normal insofar as it makes sense for the background of an extraordinary story.
The shirtless man comments that the woman never ate her lunch, further implying sex. The woman says she needs to get back to the office because it bothers her boss when she takes extended lunches. The man suggests the woman call her boss and take the rest of the afternoon off. The woman tells the man checkout time is 3 pm. And she states they are at the sort of place that is not interested in you when you come in but rather when you check out. This implies a pretty sleazy type of motel for the time. We also find out the man is going to catch a flight.
Soon, if it wasn’t obvious enough, we find out the couple is not married. The man is named Sam and this is a bit of a lurid love affair. He’s divorced and in debt but clearly in love with the woman. We learn her name is Marion. She wants to either cut off the relationship or have it be a more respectable one where Sam meets her family and they have dinner together.
She wants to get married but Sam doesn’t think he can afford to give Marion a good life. Marion leaves with the question a bit unsettled. It’s pretty clear this couple would be together and married if Sam just had enough money.
We next see Marion go into her office. Again this looks utterly mundane. Just a common office where people do everyday business. In fact, the only interesting thing about this building is the man you can see just outside the window. This is where Alfred Hitchcock makes his cameo for this film. When some directors do this, it’s really annoying but Hitchcock always managed it in an understated style that just works. All he does is stand there and only people who know who he is will even notice it.
Inside, Marion mentions she has a headache to her coworker. She then asks her coworker if there were any messages. Again, they’re boring messages. We do pick up one vital piece of information which will be important later. It’s just that Marion’s sister is going to be gone for the weekend. Another mundane fact, but something that will be important.
After a moment Marion’s boss walks in with a client. A wealthy oil tycoon is going to buy a property for his daughter’s wedding. And, this guy is filthy rich. To the point where he not only flirts with Marion but also flashes money in her face, saying he never carries more than he can afford to lose. The wad of bills amounts to $40,000. Marion’s boss points out a cash transaction of that size is irregular. The man doesn’t seem to care.
You’ll notice here that the most unusual thing in the movie so far is the cash itself. Everything else is just a boring day. And, it’s one of the few things that could change Marion’s life.
Marion’s boss tells the client they’ll put the money in the safe and deposit it on Monday. He then whispers to Marion he doesn’t actually want the money in the office over the weekend. He tells her to take it to the company’s safe deposit box. Marion puts the cash into an envelope and puts the envelope into her purse. She tells her boss she wants to go straight home after depositing the money because she has a headache. The client tells her she can go home because he and Marion’s boss are going drinking.
The boss agrees and Marion heads out after telling her boss she’s going to spend the weekend in bed. She tells her coworker much the same.
I’ve seen this film in theaters several times and the next scene is where the first gasp from the audience always happens. We see Marion once again, this time wearing a lacy black bra. More importantly, the envelope with the money is on the bed. She didn’t deposit it. What’s more is Marion is packing up her suitcase. She’s clearly planning to head to Sam with the stolen money.
And here is where the mundane begins to fall into the extraordinary. The money is a huge temptation for Marion and she’s committed an impulsive act. It’s still not too later for her to decide to turn back but it could mean losing Sam.
As the audience we’re now ready for a crime thriller chase film. We’re waiting so see how far Marion will spiral and if she’ll be caught by the authorities.
We see her drive out of town. As she does so, she thinks about the things people will say about her, including Sam’s reaction. While distracted in this way, she sees her boss and the client walk past her car at a stoplight. She nods to them and the boss looks at her with a bit of a puzzled expression.
The audience assumes at this point, this little incident is what will likely lead to Marion getting caught. She clearly lied to the boss and he knows it. Although, he doesn’t yet know about the stolen money.
She drives further and we get more of the iconic soundtrack ratcheting up the tension.
Then we see Marion’s car pulled off to the side of the road in yet another typically boring spot. It’s the kind of place you could drive past thousands of times and have no memory of it.
A police car pulls up and asks Marion what she is doing there. She explains she pulled off to the side of the road because she was tired and fell asleep for longer than she meant to. And in a major bit of foreshadowing, the officer says there are plenty of motels in the area and she should have gone to one of those.
Marion acts extremely suspicious but the officer does let her leave. This certainly feels like a narrow escape for Marion but we’ll find out later getting arrested would probably have been the best thing for her.
She drives further until she finds a used car lot. She buys a newspaper and sees nothing about herself in it. However, the cop from before is watching from across the street. Again, this feels like it will be a movie where Marion is playing a cat and mouse game with the law.
Marion seems to almost pressure the car salesman into selling her a car as fast as possible. To say she was acting weird would be an understatement. At this point, she could still walk away without any major consequences. She could decide not to buy the car and just return with the money with no one the wiser. But she’s panicked by the presence of the cop and hasn’t been thinking straight since she saw the money in the first place.
She does buy the car, paying $700 cash for it, and just makes it off the lot before the police officer can really question the salesman.
Marion continues driving and imagines what the cop and the salesman must be saying about her. She hears voices of her coworker and boss as well. Since this is called Psycho the voices here play a bit of a duel role. On the one hand these are reasonable things for anyone in this situation to imagine. But on the other hand, we start to wonder if the Psycho or person who is losing their mind here might, in fact, be Marion.
It gets to be later in the night and it starts to rain pretty hard. Rather than pulling off to the side of the road this time, Marion makes the fateful decision to pull over at the next motel she sees. The Bates Motel.
When we first see the motel, again it is mundane. It’s a tiny little place with a few rooms and an office for check in. The sign is nothing special and it’s no surprise there is a vacancy here.
Marion tries to check in but there is no one in the office. She goes outside and we see the first abnormal thing about the place. There is a little house just up the hill from the hotel. The style is foreboding and doesn’t match the rest of the hotel. There are lights on and we see the silhouette of a woman walk across the room.
Marion honks her horn to get someone’s attention. Someone does come out of the house. This is a young man named Norman Bates played by Anthony Perkins. He immediately apologizes for not hearing her in all the rain.
By the looks of him Norman Bates is as boring and mundane as can be. He’s friendly and genial and freely admits to how little business the hotel gets. The highway was moved so the hotel now sees almost no customers. Norman makes Marion sign the register which was common practice back then. She signs the book with the fake name of Marie Samuels. Did you notice how she put Sam’s name in there? It’s a small detail that comes up again later.
Bates hesitates for a moment and gives her the key to cabin one, the closest to the office. He shows her the room and we get the first hint of something strange going on. He can’t seem to even bring himself to say the word bathroom. It’s a bit of an odd tic but not overly concerning. Still, Marion, thinks it’s odd and she has no hesitation saying the word for Norman.
Norman then asks Marion if she’d join him for dinner. This could seem odd and creepy but given the circumstances it’s not that strange. Obviously Norman doesn’t see a lot of people and talking with someone is probably a welcome distraction. And while Marion is pretty, Norman has been acting so “aw shucks” innocent it doesn’t seem like he has any ill intent. This is further reinforced when Norman says he was about to eat anyway and Marion probably shouldn’t go driving in the pouring rain. To make it even more innocent the dinner he is offering is about the most boring and mundane meal possible. He’s offering her sandwiches and milk. It kind of makes you wonder what grown man would eat sandwiches and milk for dinner but again, nothing feels nefarious here. We’re in the world of the mundane.
Marion agrees to join him, probably more to get him out of the room than for any other reason. Once Norman is gone she looks for places to hide the money. She decides to put the money in the most mundane object anyone can think of. She wraps it up in the newspaper she bought at the car dealer. She’s wrapping up the extraordinary in the ordinary which will turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the whole film.
Mother Dearest
Just after she does this, Marion hears the voice of a woman, presumably Norman’s mother yelling. She doesn’t seem to approve of the idea of Norman inviting a woman to eat at their house. Norman argues back but ends up leaving the house with the sandwiches.
And here is where the movie starts to take an unexpected turn. This starts when Norman says his mother, “…isn’t quite herself today.” Marion tells Norman that since he fixed a supper they might as well eat it and gestures to the open door of her room. Norman takes a step towards there but then backs up.
The way Anthony Perkins plays this is perfect. Norman seems like he has to be innocent. He’s got an overbearing mother and while his first, natural impulse is to go into Marion’s room he doesn’t. Is this because of his mother or because he’s too sheltered or because he doesn’t want to do anything improper? In the end it doesn’t matter because he’s doing what would be the innocent thing to do. This is quite the contrast from Sam who we first see perfectly comfortable in a cheap motel with his shirt off.
Norman invites Marion to eat in the office instead. But then he decides eating there feels too officious and takes her back to the parlor.
Things start to become decidedly unordinary in the parlor. It’s full of dead, stuffed animals. Then, Norman just watches her eat instead of joining her. He tries awkwardly to make small talk. This is fine until he talks about how his hobby is taxidermy. Norman is happy to stuff birds but says he couldn’t bring himself to stuff dogs or cats or anything other than birds.
Marion mentions its a strange hobby and Norman says it’s uncommon too. Much like the money in the newspaper, the uncommon is wrapped up in the common here in the person of Norman Bates.
Marion says a man should have a hobby and Norman says its more than a hobby. A hobby is supposed to pass the time, not fill it. She asks him a little about his life and when she asks if Norman goes out with friends, his answer is decidedly odd. He says, “Well, a boy’s best friend is his mother.”
Norman changes the subject to Marion and seems to understand she’s running away from something. Then Norman says one of the creepiest things in the whole film. “I think that we’re all in our private traps. Clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it we never budge an inch.”
Marion replies that sometimes we deliberately step into those traps. Norman says he was born in his and doesn’t mind it anymore. Marion tells him he should mind it and Norman answers that he does but he says he doesn’t.
Marion kind of tries to get Norman to stand up to his mother. Norman’s next comment is decidedly disturbing. He says, “Sometimes when she talks to me like that, I’d like to go up there and curse her and leave her forever, or at least defy her but I know I can’t. She’s ill… She had to raise me all by herself after my father died. I was only five and it must have been quite a strain for her… Anyway, a few years ago, mother met this man. He talked her into building this motel. He could have talked her into anything. And when he died too it was just too great a shock for her. And the way he died… “
He goes on to say it was too great a loss for his mother and she had nothing left. Marion says, “Except you.” And Norman’s odd answers continue when he says, “A son is a poor substitute for a lover.”
Marion asks him why he doesn’t go away. Norman says he can’t because she’d be alone up there. He then says he doesn’t hate his mother but he hates what she’s become. He hates the illness.
Marion then asks if it wouldn’t be better if if Norman put her someplace. This is an obvious euphemism for what was known at the time as an insane asylum. We’d probably call it a mental health institution today. This sets Norman off.
He leans in and says, “You mean an institution? A madhouse? People always call a madhouse someplace don’t they? Put her in someplace.”
Marion apologizes and says she didn’t mean it to sound uncaring. Norman’s response continues to be very strange.
He says, “What do you know about caring? Have you ever seen the inside of one of those places? The laughing and the tears, and the cruel eyes studying you? My mother there? But she’s harmless. She’s as harmless as one of those stuffed birds.” The comparison to the birds will come back as utterly disturbing by the end of the film.
Marion again tries to apologize and says she meant well. At this point Norman starts to seem off the hinges.
He says, “People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues and sharke their heads and suggest oh so very delicately… Of course, I’ve suggested it myself but I hate to even think about it. She needs me. It’s not as if she were a… a maniac… a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?”
I’ve watched this movie more times than I can count and every time Anthony Perkins delivers that line, I get chills down my spine. It’s so menacing yet so understated. It’s the longest conversation in the film so far and it’s gripping.
Hitchcock used to say if you film two people having a conversation at dinner it’s boring. But if you have the same two people having a conversation at dinner but show the audience a bomb strapped underneath the table it’s thrilling. At this point in Psycho it seems like the bomb is either Norman or his mother.
Marion admits she has gone mad and that even just one time can be enough. Marion tells Norman she is tired and going back to her room because she has a long drive back to Phoenix. She stepped into a private trap and wants to pull herself out of it. She also says she is going to leave at dawn. Marion also slips up here and says her last name is Crane, which is not what she put on the register.
Norman waits until she leaves and confirms on the register that it’s not the same name. We then go into full creepy mode as Norman moves aside a painting where he’s able to look into Marion’s room while she changes.
Marion does some quick math on a notepad to figure out how far in the hole she is. She then tears that up and flushes it down the toilet. It’s a little unclear why she does this. Maybe she thinks she can replace the money without anyone noticing or maybe it’s just because she doesn’t want to get caught if she does change her mind and go to Sam like she intended. Either way, it comes up again later int he film.
The Iconic Shower Scene
There are a few scenes in cinema history which are absolutely unforgettable. There’s the moment when Dorothy steps out of her destroyed house into a world of color, there is Rhett Butler saying, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,” there is Orson Welles whispering, “Rosebud” and there is the shower scene from Psycho.
Janet Leigh, who was a big start at the time, and one of the main reasons people came to see Psycho in the first place gets in the shower. As she is showering, the silhouette of a person in a dress with gray hair tied back in a bun comes into view. This person pulls back the shower curtain and the camera shifts its focus back to Marion. We see her murdered with a knife.
There are a few extraordinary things about this scene. To this day, people swear they see the knife penetrate Janet Leigh’s body and that they see more of her body than censors at the time would have allowed. They are a little less convinced of it now, but at the time, people also swore the blood swirling down the drain had to be real.
The reason people think all these things is because of the quick cuts, shifting angles, and menacing music used in the scene. It comes down to the fact that Hitchcock was a master filmmaker. And part of that mastery was using the right tool for the right job. The reason the blood looked so real at the time was because Hitchcock had a can of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. They watered it down a bit but this was part of the reason Hitchcock chose to shoot in black and white. He didn’t want to show tons of blood in color. And the chocolate syrup worked perfectly.
The other really striking thing about this scene is we’re only about 45 minutes in and they main star of the film was just killed. This was utterly unheard of at the time. Absolutely no one expected this, especially not after the whole build up of Marion running away with the money. What in the world was the rest of the movie going to be about?
Here’s where it Gets Interesting
At this point the whole film shifts perspective. We’re now following Norman more than anyone else, even though several characters are interested in Marion’s whereabouts. Norman cleans up the crime scene, mops up the blood, gathers all of Marion’s belongings and puts them, and Marion’s body, in the trunk of her car. And he very nearly misses the most important item in the room. The very last thing Norman gathers up is the newspaper with the money in it. He doesn’t even open it to find the money. It’s literally too mundane for him to care about. And it might be argued this is what gets Norman caught later in the film. After he’s done the cleanup, Norman drives the car to a swamp. He pushes it into the swamp and there is a moment where it almost doesn’t sink. Thankfully for Norman it eventually does go to the bottom and the car disappears from our sight.
About a week later, Marion’s sister has finally figured out that Marion is missing. She does the most obvious thing possible, she goes to confront the boyfriend, Sam. We know Sam is completely innocent of any crime here but Lila is sure Sam must know something. While she is confronting Sam, a private investigator named Arbogast shows up. He’s been hired to track down the money.
Arbogast goes up and down the coast looking for any sign of Marion when he eventually happens upon the Bates Motel. Norman starts out just as genial and friendly as he did with Marion. But Arbogast can see past the nice guy routine pretty quickly. And with just a little bit of poking around, Norman’s answers to questions start to become inconsistent. Furthermore, Arbogast notices on the hotel register that Marion signed in with the last name of Samuels. He is able to match the handwriting up and he’s pretty sure Marion was at least seen at the Bates Motel.
Arbogast gives Lila a call and updates her on the situation and lets her know he’ll be in touch soon. Arbogast then makes the fatal mistake of going back to the hotel. He learned that Norman’s mother lives in the house by the motel and Arbogast figures she might have seen something. So, without Norman’s permission, the private investigator goes into the house. The same figure we saw in shadow stabbing Marion, does the same thing to Arbogast. And we can assume Norman disposes of the body in the swamp once again.
Meanwhile, Sam and Lila are waiting for Arbogast’s call. Lila is understandably worried and while Sam asks her to be patient, he also knows things are not looking good here. Eventually Sam takes the initiative and goes to the Bates Motel where he knows Arbogast was last seen. In the window of the house, he sees the silhouette of an elderly woman. Sam plays it smart and he and Lila go see the local sheriff to tell him about the missing people. The sheriff is pretty dismissive but he does mention that Norman’s mother and stepfather died in a murder suicide involving strychnine. The sheriff also somewhat resaonably assumes Marion just left with the money.
Lila and Sam are still suspicious and not knowing what else to do, they go back to the Bates Motel. They feed Norman a line about being a married couple and get checked in. Sam and Lila then plan to distract Norman while Lila goes to talk with Norman’s mother. But, this doesn’t work out too well as Norman catches on and knocks Sam out cold.
Meanwhile, Lila has made it into the fruit cellar of the house where we know Norman threatened to put his mother earlier in the film. Lila finds what looks like an old woman in a rocking chair but when she turns the chair, it’s the mummified remains of Norman’s mother. This is a scene that still makes audiences jump in theaters to this day. Immediately after, Norman shows up, in women’s clothing, with the same knife we can assume he used to kill Marion. There’s a bit of a fight but Sam comes to and rescues Lila just in the knick of time.
Ten Boring Minutes of Cinema
The scene then cuts to the police station. Here, we find out from a psychiatrist what exactly is going on with Norman Bates. It turns out Norman’s mother was impossibly overbearing. And at a certain point Norman had it with her and decided to kill her and her lover. But because he felt so guilty about this, he started taking on the personality of his own dead mother.
In all honesty it’s kind of a long and boring scene and I’m not sure the explanation truly holds up. It’s probably the least talked about scene of the movie and while it does provide an explanation, it’s not nearly as engaging as the rest of the film. It probably needs to be there but it definitely brings us back to the mundane.
The very end, however, does give us a close up shot of Norman as he’s thinking in the voice of his mother and that part is pretty compelling. You definitely get the impression we have not heard the last of Norman Bates (or his mother).
Long Term Influence of Psycho
Taken as a whole, Psycho is a brilliant film. It twists audience expectations in a way that had not been seen previously and there are great films which come later that echo a lot of what is found here. The whole Scream series owes a great deal to Psycho and even more recent movies such as X make direct mentions of the film.
Whether or not this is actually the first slasher film is highly debatable but it’s the first one with such mass appeal and one of the few that truly stands the test of time. About the only way to ruin this movie is to have it spoiled for you, or have sequels made of it, or to do a remake. And… yeah all of those things have been done.
Still, this film stands out as one of the greats and I can’t imagine a 100 best films list that doesn’t have this movie on it. I don’t think you can really overstate how influential this movie is. It’s perhaps not perfect but it is damn near close to perfect. If you have never watched this movie then I hope you are not reading this right now because I would hate to be the one to spoil it for you. But if you have seen the film, you know just how good it is. There is an entire subgenre of horror that flat out would not exist if not for this film. For that reason alone, Psycho is one of my favorite movies. And, if you are ever in a place where you can watch it with a live audience, do yourself a favor and go. You’ll be able to spot anyone who has never seen it because their reactions will still happen right where the movie wants them to more than sixty years after the initial release. That’s good filmmaking and great for Halloween.
(from left) Clemens (Corey Hawkins) and Anna (Aisling Franciosi) in The Last Voyage of the Demeter, directed by André Øvredal.
Hey horror fans, Slick Dungeon here! I made my way out to the movie theater the other day and watched the latest creepy horror vampire flick, The Last Voyage of the Demeter. If you’re into bloodsuckers and are wondering if this movie is worth watching, you’re in the right place. Do be warned there will be spoilers below for both the movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter and the book Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’ll try to keep the spoilers light but they will be there. If you can feel your blood drain out of you when you have a film spoiled, go watch the movie and come on back here to read the review after.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
In the novel Dracula there is a section where a derelict ship crashes off some rocks near a London port. Once the ship arrives, it’s immediately clear the whole crew was killed and disappeared but there is no real evidence of what happened. We, as the audience, know this ship had none other than Dracula himself on it. It’s one of the moodiest and creepiest sections of the book and all we really get is a newspaper clipping and a portion of a captain’s log. To me it was one of the most memorable parts of the book and an area I thought had been overlooked in most adaptations of the novel. Usually, film adaptations just show a short clip of a boat and have it crash, if they even do that much. But I was pleasantly surprised to see a film which fills in some of these gaps.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is the story of the crew who shuttle Dracula from Romania to London. It stars Liam Cunningham as Captain Eliot, Corey Hawkins as Clemens the ship doctor, Aisling Franciosi as Anna, a stowaway and victim of Dracula, and Javier Botet as Dracula.
Clemens who is looking for a way to London is able to earn his way onto the crew of the Demeter when he rescues Captain Eliot’s young nephew from certain death. Upon leaving port, the locals seem to think the trip is cursed and there are several people who refuse to board the ship, even for an inflated wage.
The film plays out in a lot of ways you would expect. As the voyage goes on, strange things happen. Men get injured or go missing. People see things in the night that seem unexplainable. The threats grow once a young woman is discovered in the cargo hold. She needs medical intervention from Clemens just to survive and seems to know something about the events surrounding injuries and disappearances.
Eventually, the crew realizes how doomed they are and that they are fighting for their lives here. If you have read Dracula, you know they’re doomed but, of course, the characters think they have a fighting chance. We see the crew try to understand what it is they are fighting and how to stop it, as they get picked off one by one.
There are a few good jump scares and a bit of gore but this is far from the scariest film you’ll ever see. The creature design of Dracula is more feral and beast-like than most which gives it a bit of a twist. I’m not sure that was the best choice though as at times the creature design was a bit distracting.
The film is left open ended enough for there to be a sequel, which I assume would continue along the lines of the story of Dracula with some new information added or adapted. I would be willing to watch a sequel if they made one because I feel like this has potential to go somewhere interesting.
If this had been the first film in the reboot of the Universal Monster movies rather than the bloated Tom Cruise feature The Mummy, I think the whole thing could have worked. While this isn’t the most inspired vampire film, it’s a good creature feature worth watching which takes a solid look at an underdeveloped area of Dracula lore.
If you like vampire films, this is definitely worth watching. If you’re only so so on them, this one is skippable but probably worth a watch when you need a spooky film on a rainy night.
Did you see the movie? If so, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!
Hello film fanatics, it’s Slick Dungeon! If you’ve already done the Barbenheimer and you are still itching to go out to the movie theater you might be wondering what to watch. There’s a tight little indy horror film called Talk to Me I recently saw and I’m here to give you my thoughts on it. There will be some mild spoilers in this film so if that kind of thing bothers you, put your cursed hand in your pocket, light a candle, head out to your theater and see the movie before coming back here to see if Talk to Me is anything to talk about.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Review
Still with me? Great. On the surface level, this film is similar to a lot of other horror films. It’s a cursed object film where a group of teenagers go too far with an object which allows them to see and interact with the dead. If that’s all this film was, it wouldn’t be much to write about and it would be like any old film where a bunch of crazy teenagers find a Ouija board or something like that.
The interesting thing here is the cursed object, a hand encased in ceramic with etchings all over it, becomes an addiction to the group rather than just a one time lark. The film is Australian and the teenagers also have a bit of a different vibe. Sophie Wilde puts in an absolutely brilliant performance covering a range of emotions from grief, loss, addiction, loneliness to determination, suspicion, and fear. She’s never not believable here even in the scenes which are played just for scares to ratchet up the supernatural elements.
The film is somewhat similar to Smile or It Follows in that the horror here is passed on from one person to another and the protagonist sounds more and more delusional as the film progresses. But unlike those movies, in this one, the group of friends know the supernatural things happening here are 100% real. For the most part, the group wants to cover up what happened rather than do anything about it because they’re afraid of getting in trouble themselves.
There are some absolutely brutal scenes involving violence and self harm so do be warned about that before you watch it. But the shocks of the film are well timed and don’t seem overly gratuitous. It’s bloody but it’s not bloody simply for the sake of showing us gore. And the violence really is surprising here and extremely effective.
The end also wraps up in a way that is pretty terrifying and it stays with you. There are some slow points of the film but those moments are useful in informing the characters and it makes for a well rounded movie.
In the end, this one lets the audience play into what you can usually expect from supernatural horror but then subverts it just enough to keep things interesting. And while it is brutal in the violence, it is subtle in the storytelling. All of the characters feel like real people with real lives and real histories.
It’s also refreshingly short for a movie in 2023. This one is around 90 minutes and they use the whole time to tell us a good story rather than packing in an extra thirty minutes of filler.
For me, this just misses the 5 star mark because a few of the effects don’t quite work for me and there are a few times where I do find it hard to understand the main character Mia’s motivations for what she’s doing. But those are pretty minor issues and it might just be me.
If you need a good independent horror fix though, you could do a lot worse than this one.
Hello horror fans and slasher stans, it’s Slick Dungeon here! I finally made it out to the theater to see the sixth installment of the Scream franchise. I’m going to do a longer review full of spoilers in the next few days but this one will be spoiler free. If you haven”t seen this movie yet, you should be fine to read this post. But if you’d like to see in depth reviews of the other Scream films you can do so here – Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Scream 5.
If you like horror movies, and in particular, if you like slasher films, you’re probably well aware of the Scream franchise. Each movie has its strengths and weaknesses but most people prefer the first film to all of the others. With this sixth installment, for me, I think I have a new favorite in the series. I will always love the first film but this sixth one is at least tied with that one. The action is thrilling, the story is (mostly) believable and the setting actually works. Unlike most slashers, I actually found myself caring about these characters, and what happens to some of them had me both on the edge of my seat and near tears on occasion.
This is not a perfect film and I have some issues with it, especially in the third act, but those problems are small enough the rest of the film overcomes those problems for me.
If you’ve seen a trailer for this movie you probably know it is set in New York City. So many horror franchises have attempted something like this, trying to get characters into a new, famous environment but it almost always feels like a gimmick. But here, the characters really feel like they live in New York and for good reasons. It’s not a Ghostface tours New York movie but rather a movie that follows our main characters from last time who just happen to be in New York. Yes, we still see some of the iconic buildings and all that but this film is just really well grounded.
Also, I don’t think this is a spoiler, but just in case you have never seen the trailer, mild spoiler warning. There is a scene in the subway that was literally one of the most intense horror scenes in a slasher I have ever watched. It was brilliantly done.
I will say this film is decidedly bloodier than any of the earlier films but it’s not as gruesome as a lot of other horror films out there. If you like horror it’s not going to shock you or anything but compared to other Scream movies this is hands down the one with the most gore.
As always there are more horror easter eggs than you can shake a stick at. And there is meta commentary but I don’t want to get into that in this post. I don’t know if it’s the best meta commentary but it’s still pretty smart like all these movies are.
And I would be remiss if I did not talk about the performances of Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown. They all deliver stellar performances that felt real and intense and I think even more than in Scream 5 they really come through as interesting characters.
I also really liked most of the cold open but again, no spoilers here so won’t talk about it now.
If you’re debating about whether or not to go see this film and you have seen the rest of the Scream movies, I highly recommend you go check it out before it leaves theaters. You definitely don’t need to see it in 3D or anything but just go see it as soon as you can.
For those who have seen it, what did you think? Let me know in the comments but please keep it spoiler free here.
Hello horror fans and slasher stans, it’s Slick Dungeon here! I’m gearing up to go see the sixth installment of the Scream franchise soon but before I do that, I wanted to review all of the previous movies here. For these reviews I plan on going in-depth so if you have not seen the movies, I advise you not to read this review yet. Scream is a great slasher franchise but the best parts of it are surprising events and reveals so definitely have a watch first because reviewing without spoilers is never easy with these movies.
When I do review Scream VI, I will have a first reaction spoiler free review followed by a spoiler heavy review. For the rest of these, watch first or risk the fun of the movies being taken away by reading. I’m going to be talking about individual scenes, characters, and themes so it’s all fair game in these reviews. I will only spoil things from the first five movies in this review so you don’t need to have seen all the Scream films to keep yourself spoiler free, just the first five. If you want to read my review of any of the previous films you can do so here – Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3 and Scream 4.
Scream 2022 in Historical Context
While Scream movies are fun to watch on their own, regardless of what was going on in the world, it can help to have some historical context to better understand what the films are trying to say. The first film was one of the earliest to make meta commentary on horror films and it revived the slasher genre. Scream 2 and 3 were commentary on sequels and trilogies respectively. And Scream 4 makes the point that horror is different more than a decade after the third movie.
If you take a quick look at what movies are playing in any given theater, you can place where Scream (2022) is. Almost every well selling film in theaters is a sequel or a reboot, or they walk a gray area where we have legacy characters from an original property introduced to new characters in the modern era in an attempt to please both old and new fans. Some easy examples of films like these are The Force Awakens and Halloween (2018) where it is a sequel to the original film series but it also has a plot almost identical to the original. Some stakes are raised when dealing with beloved characters and the newer ones get time to develop so the audience can become attached to the fresh blood (pun intended).
These kinds of films are a gamble because you risk simply pleasing the long time fans in making a fan service project which only the core fandom appreciates, you focus completely on the new material in an attempt to bring in the new crowd and alienating long term fans, or you risk ruining the franchise entirely by attempting to please both sets of fans and have a film of lesser quality as a result.
When Scream announced it was going to be back in theaters and just call the movie Scream instead of Scream 5 it was an obvious comparison to think this would be just like Halloween (2018). Scream fans weren’t happy with the title change but could understand why the filmmakers would make the choice. We’ll get more into this later but the difficult fan split is one Scream (2022) was going to have to navigate by default. In other words, there was no world where everyone would be happy with this movie. You had people going in who would hate it simply because it wasn’t what they had spent years speculating it would be. And, on the other hand, you had people who may have never even seen a horror movie, let alone a Scream film before.
Also, this sequel was in limbo for a long time for several reasons. First off, Wes Craven, had passed away. And without him as a director, it was unclear if anyone could helm the ship. Secondly, Scream was stuck in the whole Miramax debacle created by the absolutely horrid behavior of Harvey Weinstein. Figuring out where this property would land was no easy task.
Finally, at this time, slashers weren’t all that popular. People had gotten used to seeing films with a more psychological nuanced approach to horror with films like The Babadook, Get Out, and Midsommer. All fantastic films in their own way, but not the bloody, action oriented slasher style of film popularized before the 21st century. It was unclear if Scream could pull this off at all, especially considering Halloween (2018) was a decent success but not entirely groundbreaking and had some mixed reaction from both old and new fans.
With all this in mind Scream (2022) needed to walk a delicately balanced tightrope just to keep people in theaters until the end of the movie.
So, did the filmmakers succeed here and pull off the impossible, making a new film off an old franchise that could live up to the hype of long time fans, while at the same time introducing an entire new audience to characters they would care about?
Let’s dive in and find out.
Spoilers follow below!
The Cold Open
In any film you have to grab audiences right from the beginning. The first thing shown on film has the potential to either get the audience excited enough to keep watching or awful enough to make someone walk out of the theater. But with a Scream film this necessity is elevated to the next level. It also has to be original and completely surprising to the audience. And this audience is usually a savvy horror fan audience who has seen nearly every scenario played out in other horror films and knows what to expect in a Scream opening. The expectation of surprise makes it much more difficult to surprise the audience.
This movie starts just as the first one did, with the ringing of a phone. There is no sound of a scream as there was in the first though. We see a house in the suburbs very much like the house Casey Becker was in at the start of the first movie. Inside we see Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) stare at a landline phone and just switch it off. Right away, this movie is establishing it is different from the original. It almost makes no sense there is a landline at all here.
Tara is texting with her friend Amber (Mikey Madison) on her cell phone. She invites Amber over and entices her with an unlocked liquor cabinet. Tara takes a puff of her asthma inhaler and the landline rings again. Tara gives in and answers the phone.
The voice on the line is the one we’ve all come to hear, the voice of the Ghostface killer. The voice asks for someone named Christina and then seems to accidentally clue Tara into the fact this caller knows Christina from “group.” He gives his name as Charlie and tries to leave a polite message. Tara pushes to find out what kind of group “Charlie” is talking about. Charlie then says Tara sounds exactly like Christina describes her in group. Tara keeps pushing Charlie for more details. And Charlie mentions Christina said Tara loves movies. In particular, Tara loves scary movies. Charlie then says Christina wondered the other day, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” This is a direct nod to the original. The older crowd is probably expecting Tara to say something like Halloween or Alien or something like that but Tara goes with The Babadook. She says it’s an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief.
And not to belabor the point, but Tara is right, that is what The Babadook is. Whether it’s a great film or not can be debated but it certainly qualifies as a new generation of horror films. Charlie thinks it’s too fancy but Tara says it’s “elevated horror.” Still scary but with complex emotions and underpinnings.
As a side note, I kind of hate the term elevated horror, because to me, horror is horror. A movie is not necessarily better or worse because it goes into deep intellectual territory. And even if you love so called elevated horror, you may still enjoy just a fun slasher film, which is what Scream is at its core.
Charlie asks Tara if she’s seen Stab, the movie within the Scream movies that depicts the events of Scream films. Tara says she has seen it a long time ago at a sleepover. Charlie seems surprised Tara doesn’t know more about it considering she lives in Woodsboro, and Christina talks about it all the time in group.
I should also mention, at this point, Tara is playing with a kitchen knife in a wood block, practically identically to how Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker does in the first Scream film.
Tara remembers the movie being “super nineties, everyone had weird hair, really over lit.” Charlie asks if she remembers the beginning. Tara says she doesn’t, other than it started with a kill scene. Charlie says that’s right and that it’s a girl at home alone who answers a wrong number and starts talking with the killer who makes her play a game.
As the audience, we know where this is going. Tara is the girl in the opening. And, considering how many times we’ve seen the person at the beginning of the movie die after answering the phone, it seems Tara can’t possibly be long for this world.
Charlie then asks Tara if she’d like to play a game. Tara gets frightened and hangs up the phone. She uses her phone to secure the alarms on her home and automatically lock the doors. And she texts Amber, telling her what the situation is.
We see here, this is a whole new world, where the technology has changed and while the killer may be savvy, the potential victims have more defenses than they used to.
The phone rings again and Amber is texting her concern for her friend. But then she says Tara should answer. Tara texts to ask how Amber knows her phone was ringing. The text comes back saying, “This isn’t Amber.”
Now we have a threat to Tara coming from two directions. First, is the voice on the phone the killer? It’s safe to assume it is because of the history of these movies, but this one may be different, so maybe the voice is the misdirection. And, while we don’t know who Amber is yet, it’s likely she’s in trouble because it’s not her texting. The juxtaposition of the cell phone and the landline is really interesting here because now we know, even if, Tara has more defenses, the killer can use at least some of those defenses against her.
Tara goes to dial 911 on her cell but she gets a text telling her if she doesn’t answer the landline, Amber will die. This is just like what happens with Casey, only this time, it happens over a cell phone.
Tara picks up the phone and says, “This isn’t funny Amber.” The killer replies, “I told you, this isn’t Amber.”
That line just delivers chills so well. If we had any doubt earlier, now it’s really obvious Tara is about to die. She’s doing things just like Casey did but with modern technology. And the killer is on to her. The killer then sends video of Amber brushing her hair and says Amber shouldn’t leave her phone lying around for anyone to clone.
The killer then gets to his game. Stab movie trivia with three rounds. Tara begs him to ask her about movies she knows something about like, It Follows, Hereditary, or The Witch. All instances of what Tara calls elevated horror. (You should watch those movies btw)
But the killer presses on asking about who the main character in Stab was. Tara knows it was Sidney Prescott who lived on Elm. And the killer mentions Sidney is in every movie but the last one. The killer asks who wrote the original book the Stab movies are based on. Older fans know this is Gale Weathers. Tara takes a minute to remember but she gets it right. The killer then wants to know who plays the girl who answers the phone at the start of the Stab movies.
Sometimes reviewing a Scream film is like peeling an onion because of the layers here. Tara is obviously the person the killer is referring to in this movie but in the Scream movie it was Drew Barrymore but in the Stab movie this was played by Heather Graham.
It looks dicey for Tara for a moment but Tara has an intensely powerful tool that was never available to Casey Becker. Google on her phone. She looks up the answer and gets it right.
The final question is, “Who was the killer in Stab 1?” Tara is absolutely confident she has this one. It was Billy Loomis who was Sidney’s boyfriend who was played by Luke Wilson.
This is a really clever twist because in the Scream movies the Stab actor who did play Billy Loomis was Luke Wilson. But, us older Scream fans know there were two killers at the end of Scream. Yet, we’ve never seen the end of Stab 1 in the Scream movies so we don’t know if the movie within the movie does have two killers.
The killer tells Tara she got it wrong, there was Billy Loomis and Stu Macher. The movie here is playing with us because in the first Scream movie. Drew Barrymore gets the name of the killer of the first Friday the 13th film wrong by not remembering the twist to that movie. So, weirdly, the Scream movies have now been around long enough, they are the twist in the answer.
And, knowing Tara got the answer wrong, we’re sure she’s going to die, and so is Amber, most likely. That’s how the first Scream played out so no reason to expect otherwise here.
Tara runs to the door to go get to Amber who apparently lives nearby. But when she opens the door, she’s stabbed by someone in a Ghostface costume. She pushes the person out of the house and re-arms the security. This has alerted the police as well. But then, it seems the killer is able to disarm the system. Tara and the killer go back and forth with this for a while as Tara gets more panicked. And the landline rings once again. The killer has a bonus question, asking if he made it inside the house before she could rearm. Ghostface then pops up and stabs Tara again. Tara takes some major hits and almost makes it to the door, just as sirens and lights blare outside. The killer raises the knife and we cut to the title card.
Considering the history of the films, the audience assumes Tara is no more.
We meet the New Characters
At the start of a Scream film we usually don’t care who it is too much. We know they won’t be around for long. So, the filmmakers had a choice after Tara is attacked. They could either catch us up with Sidney Prescott, as has happened in every other Scream film, or they can introduce us to new people here, with the assumption that whoever we see next is our main character.
We cut to a bowling alley in Modesto, California, where a woman seems to be on her break and we see her take some prescription medication. This is Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera). She’s joined by Richie Kirsh (Jack Quaid), her boyfriend who also works at the bowling alley. They have a bit of really silly banter but seem happy enough to be together. Sam gets a text and calls the person who texted her. This is Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette) who is Tara’s friend and the son of Deputy Judy Hicks who we were introduced to in Scream 4. He tells Sam that Tara was attacked. And Wes tells Sam, Tara is alive.
This little bit of information just turns the whole film on its head. There has never, not ever, been someone who survived the first phone call in a Scream movie. Tara already has legendary status in this franchise and it’s the one piece of information that could surprise older fans. Bizarrely, but effectively, the twist of the cold open happens after the cold open, setting us up for some entirely different story expectations.
Sam wants to know who did this and Wes tells her it was someone in a Ghostface mask. Sam looks horrified at the news. She tells Richie she has to go to be there with her sister and Richie says he’s going too.
We go back to Woodsboro where we meet Wes, Amber, Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding), and Liv McKensie (Sonia Ammar). Chad is dating Liv and he delivers the exact dialogue Billy Loomis does to Sidney about taking their relationship to the next level, only he’s talking about connecting on location sharing on their phones. Wes thinks this is a bad idea because you’d want to become more anonymous with a killer on the loose.
We find out Chad was just interrogated by Judy Hicks about Tara’s attack. The information about it being a Ghostface attack is still not out to the public but Mindy is sure by the second or third killing it will be. Amber says there wasn’t a first killing because Tara is alive. Mindy says Tara could still die or the killer could come back for her.
The last person in our little circle of new characters/suspects is Vince Schneider (Kyle Gallner) who seems to have briefly dated Liv. Apparently he’s been online stalking Liv, posting creepy stuff and he knows Tara. He’s not a part of the friend group but they know him. Amber notices bruises on Chad’s arms and says Tara fought back hard. Chad says the bruises are from football practice.
Wes gets a text from Tara and everyone from the friend group but Liv goes over to see her.
On the drive to Woodsboro, Sam gives Richie a rundown of the Stab movies and what happened in Woodsboro in the past. Richie says he’s never seen the Stab movies but they sound an awful lot like Halloween. Richie asks if Sam knows why someone wearing the mask would want to kill her sister. Sam says she doesn’t know.
At the hospital we see a banged up but recovering Tara. Sam makes it and Tara seems surprised her sister even came. Sam tells Richie she used to babysit everyone there. This is kind of a horror nod, although I’m not sure if it was intentional but Jenna Ortega who plays Tera has been in a lot of horror films, including one called The Babysitter.
Richie is introduced to everyone and we learn the Carpenter sister’s mom is out of town. She doesn’t seem to be the most attentive mother. Amber suggests giving Tara space and everyone but Sam and Richie clear out. Amber makes sure Tara has her extra inhaler. Richie waits outside the room so Tara and Sam can catch up. Ortega and Barrera start to have great performances here with Tara telling Sam how scared she was and Sam wanting to be there for her sister.
The rest of the friend group go to a local hangout spot where they are playing pool where they talk about how Sam kind of suddenly abandoned Tara and hasn’t come back until now. Mindy starts suspecting Wes of having motive of attacking Tara. But she also says they are all suspects. Essentially, Mindy is taking up the Randy role of the previous films. The only one Mindy rules out is Liv because she’s, “way too boring to be a psycho.”
The Attacks Escalate
Vince shows up and he and Chad get into an argument to the point where Vince pulls out a knife. He goes outside and the rest of the group is kicked out as well. Vince is, shall we say, relieving himself when he’s caught in glaring headlights and we hear the Nick Cave song, Red Right Hand which has played in most of the Scream films, so we know whoever is in the car, is the killer. Vince goes to see who it is but there is no one in the car. And then Vince is stabbed by Ghostface.
At the hospital, Sam and Richie are watching over Tara. Richie has started to watch the Stab movies to prepare himself for what is coming. Sam goes to get something to eat. She takes a pill and looks into the mirror to see a bloody vision of Billy Loomis talking to her. We learn she is taking anti-psychotics from Billy and he says she can’t run from who she is and she should tell Tara why all this is happening. As the audience, we have no idea yet why Sam would have anything to do with Billy Loomis but it was sort of nice to see Skeet Ulrich back in the series, even if he’s nothing more than a hallucination.
Then Sam’s phone rings. It’s the voice of the killer. He says he knows her little family secret. Sam dares him to come and get her and Ghostface pops out of the door behind her. Sam gets away and finds police to help her but the killer is gone. The call came from Amber’s phone but since her phone was cloned, that doesn’t mean much. Also, the police at this point have found Vince’s body. Richie says maybe Amber is the killer. Deputy Hicks asks Richie where he was during all this and he gives the very weak excuse of watching Netflix.
Hicks and Sam get into a bit of an argument and we learn Sam used to be a troublemaker and Hicks is now a sheriff.
Sam asks Richie and Amber to leave so she can talk to Tara. She then gives Tara the information as to why everything is happening. Turns out, Sam, is the daughter of Billy Loomis. Sam and Tara are actually half sisters. Sam confronted her mother about this and accidentally reveals who her father was in front of the man who raised her. And this is what caused the divorce of the Carpenter sisters parents and Sam to leave. Sam was sworn to secrecy by her mother which led her down a bad path to the point she had to leave.
Tara tells Sam to get out. This is one of the best scenes of the whole franchise. It’s emotionally raw and you really feel the tension between the sisters. Outside Tara’s door, Sam runs into Richie, who has heard the whole thing. Sam tells Richie to leave. And that this is the part in horror movies where you want to yell at the characters to get out and Richie should get out now. Richie insists he’s not leaving and tells Sam he loves her. Richie asks what the next move is. Sam says they need to go talk to an expert.
Welcome Back Dewey, and We get the Rules
The expert, as it turns out, is Dewey. He makes sense as the expert considering he’s been through this whole thing four times already. But he is the first legacy character we see and it’s already a third of the way in. Dewey is watching the news about the attacks in a little trailer all alone. Apparently his and Gale’s on again off again relationship is solidly in the off stage. He even turns on Gale’s show.
Sam knocks on the door and Dewey demands to know one good reason he should talk to her. She says she is Billy Loomis’ daughter. Dewey points out that’s a terrible reason for him to talk to her. He reluctantly lets them in and is immediately suspicious of Richie. But he does give them the rules for surviving a Stab movie.
The rules are as follows.
Never trust the love interest. They seem sweet, caring, and supportive but then welcome to act three where they’re trying to rip your head off.
The killer’s motive is always related to something in the past.
The first victim always has a friend group that the killer is a part of.
We know rule one is true because Billy Loomis was the killer in the first Scream. But we also know, this is not always the case, since Derek is not the killer in Scream 2. This one seems like it could go either way, but in this world, a lot of times it does turn out to be the love interest. We know rule 2 is true again because this is what happened with Billy Loomis. But it’s also not true because Stu Macher’s motive was just peer pressure. Again, it could go either way. Rule three we have seen be the case in several of these movies but Casey Becker was only barely a part of Sindey’s friend group so this one doesn’t have to be true.
Just as with most of the other films, this one lays down rules which can be broken but are widely assumed to be correct.
We get a brief glimpse of Sidney getting a call from Dewey. We learn she’s got kids and is married to someone name Mark. Dewey tells her what’s going on and warns her to stay away. Sidney wisely agrees not to come back.
Dewey then bites the bullet and texts Gale to tell her what is going on. We know Dewey can’t resist helping Sam so he shows up to the Meeks house where we see a tribute wall to Randy. Turns out he was Chad and Mindy’s uncle and we get to see Randy’s sister Martha.
Sam tells the group who her father was and they go over who might be a suspect. And we learn Vince’s mother was Stu Macher’s sister, so even that death is connected.
What’s a Requel?
Mindy clues into the fact this is not a sequel, it’s a requel. Mindy says fans are torn on the term but Liv asks if it was like the one the Knives Out guy did. This is funny on a couple of levels because what Liv is really referring to is The Force Awakens directed by JJ Abrams but she is mixing it up with The Last Jedi which actually was directed by the Knives Out guy, Rian Johnson.
Anyway, Mindy talks over how everyone hated the last Stab movie. Basically, she’s talking about toxic fandom. And she goes over what a requel is and that Sam is the star. It’s what I described at the start of this blog post, but applied to Scream. And, this is why Scream (2022) is not actually titled Scream 5. The filmmakers are playing with the audience by taking the real world thing of the fans being disgruntled and literally have it happen in this movie. After the sixth installment, we all pretty much call this Scream5 but they opted to fool us all here.
Mindy give us requl rules. So, this movie actually has two sets of rules to lay out expectations, one involving the original and one involving the current film.
The requel rules are as follows.
The kills must be connected to the original
Legacy characters have to appear
The killer has to be connected to someone that came before
These rules seem to be true in this film so far. The kills are connected to the original because Sam is related to Billy. All three main legacy characters, plus Deputy Hicks have all appeared already. And the last one could still be proven true but we won’t know until the reveal of the killer.
Mindy seems convinced the most logical killer is Sam. We know she didn’t attack Tara, but a lot of time there are two killers so she’s not ruled out.
The Obligatory Psycho Scene
All of the Scream films have had some connection or throw back to Psycho. In this one, it happens at the Hicks residence. First, Judy Hicks grabs a knife much like the one Norman Bates uses. Then, in a gender swapped scene, Wes showers as Sheriff Hicks gets a call from the killer. The killer says there are two deaths but when Hicks corrects him, the killer says by the time she gets back home, he’ll have gutted Wes.
Hicks races back home and we see a ridiculously long scene of Wes doing all the things that usually lead to jump scares, including not answering the phone, getting food from the pantry, and opening the refrigerator door. Yet when Wes does all these things, nothing happens. It subverts all of our expectations and goes on so long it starts to become funny.
But before we see all that, Ghostface kills sheriff Hicks outside the house in broad daylight. Just when we think Wes is safe, he locks the front door and gets attacked by Ghostface. It’s an uncomfortably violent attack.
Sam shows up but it’s all over already. There Sam meets Gale Weathers for the first time. They kind of bond over how Judy didn’t like either of them. Gale sees Dewey and they catch up a bit. Dewey thinks she’s just here for the story but she says she’s there for him. And we see pretty rapidly why they broke up. We also find out Dewey was asked to retire. And we find out Gale is running her show from New York.
Things Get worse
Richie seems to have gotten hooked on the Stab franchise. Sam realizes with all the cops investigating Sheriff Hicks’ house, no one is watching Tara. Sam and Dewey race back to the hospital where a very injured and still recovering Tara hears a noise and the lights go out. Tara manages to get to a wheelchair but Jenna Ortega really sells how much pain Tara is in here.
Tara’s phone rings but it’s Sam calling her. Tara doesn’t answer because she’s trying to get away. She finds bodies on the floor as she wheels herself down the hall. Sam races to the hospital.
Richie gets to Tara first but then he’s attacked by Ghostface. Sam calls Richie’s phone and Ghostface answers. Ghostface says Sam can pick if Tara or Richie dies. Sam hesitates, seemingly unable to decide, when Ghostface tells her, “Maybe you’re too weak for this franchise.” Sam says, “Maybe you’re right. Or maybe I’m just stalling for time f–khead.”
The elevator doors open and Dewey immediately gets some shots off at the killer.
Sam’s ruse here just elevates her to epic status, the same way Tara has already been elevated there. She’s smart. she knows how to turn things around on the killer, and she’d do anything to save her sister. In a lot of ways she’s like Sidney and it’s great to see.
There’s a big action scene in the hospital but the end result is Dewey dies. He only dies because he goes back to make sure the killer is dead by shooting the killer in the head. When he goes back, he gets attacked by Ghostface and loses.
David Arquette who plays Dewey is such a huge part of this franchise. His death was hinted at by Mindy earlier but even with it telegraphed it still really stings. And in a weird way the killer seems to feel the way a lot of fans do. As the killer delivers the final blow he tells Dewey, “It’s an honor.” And honestly, it kind of feels like it has been an honor having Dewey in these movies. He is hands down the most wholesome character and the most selfless one in the entire franchise. So, I’m just pausing here for a moment to say we should all give a big thanks to David Arquette for his five performances. It’s been great and we’re going to miss Dewey.
Sidney Returns and we reach the end of the Second Act
The only thing that could bring Sidney back to Woodsboro happens in this movie. When Dewey dies, she has to come to pay her respects. She meets up with Gale and all of our hearts break just a little more, knowing Gale or Sidney could also be next.
Sam and Tara get a moment to talk where Tara says she doesn’t blame Sam for who she is but she does for leaving her. Sam decides they are going to do the smart thing and get out of Woodsboro. Sam also meets Sidney who knows about Sam’s past. Sidney tells Sam running doesn’t work. Sidney and Gale want Sam to help them kill the killer.
Sam decides to leave anyway and she, Tara, and Richie get in the car to go. Sidney has put a tracker on their car.
In the car, Tara can’t find her inhaler and wants to go back to Amber’s house to get her extra one. Richie protests but finally agrees to go. At Amber’s house, which is actually, Stu Macher’s old house, there is a party going on. Amber, Liv, Chad, and Mindy are all there.
The Killer is Revealed
I could give you a blow by blow recap of everything that happens at Amber’s house but it is fairly close to exactly what happens at Stu Macher’s house in the first movie. I’ll give you the most vital parts but I’m definitely skipping some here.
There are a few changes and twists to what happens but they’re kind of minor. Mindy chastises Amber for going down the stairs alone and Chad seems suspicious of Liv when she wants to go upstairs with him.
Gale and Sidney do show up to the house. And we get the Randy scene from the first movie but this time it’s Mindy watching Randy have the same experience in the first movie.
Liv goes outside. Chad goes to look for her and is attacked. He’s wounded pretty badly but the killer runs when Amber and Richie show up with Tara. Richie tells everyone at the party to leave and most of them do. I will say Richie is pretty funny in his delivery here when he tells them leave. Richie goes to get beer from the basement and says he’ll be right back. Live comes back in upset her ride didn’t show up. So we’re down to Mindy, Liv, Tara, Sam, Amber and Richie as suspects.
Gale and Sidney race to the house to try to save the day. Mindy is attacked, Sam tries to save her. Amber sees the mess and thinks it’s Sam. Richie comes out of the basement and Liv rushes into the room. Amber says she was with Tara but everyone else was wandering around so one of them has to be the killer.
Liv found Chad and has bloody hands. She swears she’s not the killer and Amber says she knows and shoots Liv. We now know Amber is the killer and she welcomes us to act three.
Sam and Richie runs and Richie says there are always two killers. We do know this is not true at all. There has been at least one movie with a single killer. Regardless, both Sam and Richie have reason to suspect each other. Sam does have a knife though. Richie pitches the idea of Tara being the killer but Sam doesn’t buy it for a second.
Sidney and Gale finally arrive at the house to hear a scream. This is Amber running out of the house. Sidney and Gale know it’s a trap and Amber fires her gun. Gale is hit but she asks Sidney to go finish it for Dewey.
Sam finds Tara tied up in the closet but she seems to hesitate and we cut back to Sidney. She gets a call from the killer. Sidney says he’s the most derivative one of all since it’s staged at Stu’s house. Sidney says she’s bored and hangs up. She fires into a closet where Richie is hiding and wounds him. Sidney tells him to come out but he says he won’t since Sidney is firing her gun at everything. Ghostface pops out from behind Sidney and attacks her. Sidney goes down and she tells Richie to grab the gun but before he can, Sam grabs it. Richie cheers for her and says, “Thank God you’re okay.” And then he stabs Sam in the stomach and says, “Because I really, really wanted to be the one to kill you.”
Yep, Dewey called it perfectly here. And now we’re just left to wonder why.
The answer? Toxic fandom. Richie and Amber want to reboot the Stab series with them as the stars. Richie wants to bring things back to basics for the Stab movies. Richie and Amber essentially embody all the worst parts of obsessive fandom. They even met on Redditt where some of the worst fandom can exist. And with Sam’s father being Billy Loomis, Sam makes the perfect villain for their movie.
A lot of stabbing and fighting and yelling go down. Amber goes to get Tara from the closet. But big win, Sam trusts her sister who then flips the script and calls Richie. She nails Amber hard with a crutch and Sam is able to get away. Sidney has been injured but she’s not dead yet.
Gale and Sidney whale on Amber who nearly gets away but Gale and Sidney team up and long story short, Amber becomes a human s’more, allowing Gale to get some revenge for Dewey.
Richie is still going after Sam pretty hard and it’s a tough fight until Sam sees the image of a bloody Billy Loomis in a mirror. She then tells Richie she’s introducing a new rule. “Never f–k with the daughter of a serial killer.” Then she stabs Richie a ton of times. She even cleans of the blade the way Ghostface does now and again.
I’ll say it once more, the Carpenter sisters are legendary.
Sam shoots Richie in the head after Sidney reminds her they always come back. Amber does come back for a last scare but Tara shoots her and says, “I still prefer The Babadook.” This brings us full circle from the beginning.
At the end we see Mindy is still alive and so is Chad. Tara asks to go to a different hospital. Sam goes to thank Sidney and Gale. Gale says she’s not going to write a book about this whole thing. Sam asks if she is going to be okay and Sidney tells her she will, eventually.
We end with Sam and Tara hand in hand in the ambulance with news reporters converging on the scene.
A few notes on the film
The last credit says, “For Wes.” which is great since without him, there is no Scream. Also, having one of the characters named after him in this movie was a nice touch too.
Most of this movie is pretty well done. The acting is great, although at times it’s hard to buy both Richie and Amber as anything but the killers. Still, I can’t say I guessed this on the first try. I really only take issue with the third act because it is so similar to the original. I know what was the point but it felt a little forced.
Mindy and Chad seem like good characters, especially Mindy, but we don’t get a ton of screen time with them so it would have been nice to see a little more there.
I think the film does make good points about how obsessively loving something can turn people toxic but this one doesn’t exactly criticize the horror genre like the first few did. Mostly, this film is telling us what is wrong with film these days is not the films themselves, although they can be bad, rather the fans are what can sour a franchise. I think there is an argument to be made here. Most people don’t turn into deranged killers like Amber and Richie but there are way too many people who are exceptionally vocal online any time a beloved franchise does something like gender swap roles, or bring in people of color to make the film more representative of the world we live in.
Long Live the Carpenter Sisters
Being a horror fan it’s easy to be predisposed to like someone with the last name Carpenter. The name is an homage to John Carpenter who directed Halloween. But if the performances by these actors and their characters were uninteresting, this would be meaningless.
Both Sam and Tara play things about as smart as you can imagine, other than trusting Richie and Amber. Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera were full of chemistry with each other. They are completely believable as sisters and they both give top notch performances here. What’s great about them both surviving is this is like getting two Sidney Prescotts for the price of one.
Tara has an interesting story and she’s played well but we could have gotten to know her a little better through this movie. Sam is especially interesting considering her past and her dependence on anti-psychotics. She’s got major character potential but the one movie can only take us so far with that. For these issues, I don’t blame Ortega or Barrera at all. This is more about the writing and the fact that you can only take up so much time in a single film.
Horror is not an easy genre to act in. Most actors are called on to put out a huge range of emotions, not just fear, and these two women nailed their performances, leaving the audience just wanting more. Thankfully, there is more in the sixth film.
In Conclusion
This may not be the best Scream film but it’s up there with one of the best. There are some issues, mainly in the third act, but overall this delivers on the promise of restarting a dead franchise without killing it. It does introduce us to some pretty interesting new characters and gave us a chance to see the legacy character go at it one more time.
I will also say, this film works better in achieving its goals than The Force Awakens or Halloween do. It’s a fun movie with some decent meta commentary and lots of fun horror easter eggs and it’s got plenty of action. The violent scenes are the bloodiest so far but still not so gory that it’s distracting.
I definitely recommend watching this film to anyone, although I strongly recommend watching the others firs.
Next time I’ll be back with my spoiler free review of Scream VI. Did that one live up to the hype? You’ll have to read to find out. (Or you know, go watch the movie and form your own opinion)
Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts star in Scream 4
Hello horror fans and slasher stans, it’s Slick Dungeon here! I’m gearing up to go see the sixth installment of the Scream franchise soon but before I do that, I wanted to review all of the previous movies here. For these reviews I plan on going in-depth so if you have not seen the movies, I advise you not to read this review yet. Scream is a great slasher franchise but the best parts of it are surprising events and reveals so definitely have a watch first because reviewing without spoilers is never easy with these movies.
When I do review Scream VI, I will have a first reaction spoiler free review followed by a spoiler heavy review. For the rest of these, watch first or risk the fun of the movies being taken away by reading. I’m going to be talking about individual scenes, characters, and themes so it’s all fair game in these reviews. I will only spoil things from the first four movies in this review so you don’t need to have seen all the Scream films to keep yourself spoiler free, just the first four. If you want to read my review of the first Screamyou can do so right here. And if you missed my review of the sequel, Scream 2, you can check it out here. If you need to read my review ofScream 3 you can do so right here.
Scream 4 in Historical Context
After the Scream franchise revived slashers and made horror cool again they tied up their trilogy in the year 2000. Eleven years went by with horror going in new and different directions. There were plenty of reboots and remakes of popular titles from slashers past.
And in the years since Scream made it scary to answer your phone, a new phenomena was starting to pop up in the world. Social media was beginning to have a major influence in our lives. It wasn’t films that made people famous anymore. All you needed was your phone and your favorite platform and to film yourself doing something interesting and before you knew it, everyone could recognize your face.
Even considering making another Scream film was a gamble at this point. On the one hand, it was a well known property with beloved cast members, directors, and writers. On the other hand, the series seemed to have concluded so what new could be said by these films? It would obviously make money given the fanbase but was it simply a cash grab or did Scream 4 have something to contribute to the conversation about horror, movies in general, and the social media climate at the time?
Let’s dive in deep and find out!
Spoilers follow below!
The Cold Open
Every Scream film starts with a phone call. It’s just not a Scream film if it doesn’t. Naturally, this film, just like the first one, starts with the sound of a phone ringing. We know by now not to get too attached to anyone at the start of one of these films so when we see a young woman pick up the phone, we know there is a good chance she’s not making it to the title screen.
Sure enough the voice on the other end is the Ghostface killer voice. The woman hangs up the phone and goes and talks to another woman about the movie they are going to watch. They plan on watching Saw 4 and the woman who didn’t pick up the phone talks about how she thinks it’s not scary, it’s just gross with all the gore. And she complains there is no character development so you don’t care who dies. It does echo complaints some people have about the Saw franchise (and lots of other horror franchises) but we also know these are characters we don’t care about who are going to die. Once again, Scream films comment on tired tropes while still committing the exact same tropes right in the Scream films.
The woman complaining about the Saw movies says she has a Facebook stalker. Her friend tells her to delete him and then goes to look at the picture and realizes it’s a picture of Channing Tatum.
The phone rings again. And, of course, it’s the Ghostface voice again. The woman is getting impatient with him and she passes the phone to her friend who we find out is named Trudie (Shenae Grimes). Trudie asks who it is and Ghostface says he’s the last person she’s ever going to see alive.
Trudie’s friend thinks it’s a prank. Trudie hangs up but the phone rings again. But then Trudie gets a message from her Facebook stalker who tells her to answer the phone. Trudie goes to check the front door is locked. Trudie gets a message daring her to open the door and we find out Trudie’s friend is named Sherrie (Lucy Hale). Sherrie opens the door but no one is there. Trudie gets another message that says, “I’m not outside. I’m right beside you.”
Ghostface pops out and stabs Trudie. And then he kills Sherrie. We hear a scream and we get a title card. Only, it’s not for Scream 4. This title card is for Stab 6, the movie within the movie.
The camera pulls back to reveal two other women have been watching this scene on television. These women are Rachel Barnes (Anna Paquin) and Chloe (Kristen Bell). Rachel complains how the whole killer with a meta plot thing has been done to death, obviously criticizing Scream itself. Chloe, on the other hand, thinks there is just something extra scary about a killer with a knife. It’s not zombies or aliens or anything like that and it’s something that could happen to anyone.
If you ever wonder if the people making Scream films are horror fans all you have to do is listen to the dialogue because this is the kind of debate horror fans have all the time and it just feels like a realistic conversation.
Rachel complains there is no element of surprise and you can see everything coming. And then in something no one saw coming, Chloe stabs Rachel. This is definitely not something we’ve seen in a Scream film before. It’s always a masked killer. Rachel asks why and Chloe tells Rachel it’s because she talks too much and she should shut up and watch the movie and stabs her again.
And we get a title card. Only, once again, this is not for Scream 4. This time it’s for Stab 7. And the camera pulls back and we see two more women watching television. This time the person who paused the movie talks about how much she loves the Stab movies. The audience at this point is starting to wonder if this will go on endlessly, just showing more Stab reveals and never getting to the Scream film.
The other woman in the room says she doesn’t get it. And they start debating what the movies are about if the beginning of one movie is the really the end of another movie. She’s pretty much summing up where the audience is with the Scream movies right now.
We then find out these women live in Woodsboro so we’re getting closer to our movie. It’s explained the original trilogy is based off true events that happened to Sidney Prescott. But then apparently Sidney threatened to sue the filmmakers so they just started making stuff up from that point on.
We find out the one who likes Stab movies is named Jenny (Aimee Teegarden) when she gets up to investigate a noise she heard. The phone rings and we learn the other woman is Marnie (Britt Robertson) when Jenny asks her to answer the phone. And, of course, it’s the voice of Ghostface. Marnie asks who it is and the voice says, “This is the last person you’re ever going to see alive.”
We then see Jenny laughing because she was just pulling a prank on her friend. Marnie’s pretty upset and the camera cuts over to Jenny who says someone falls for it every year. But then we hear choking sounds from Marnie’s end of the phone call. Jenny goes down to investigate and finds the phone on the floor. She thinks Marnie is just pranking back. But the phone rings again. Jenny knows Marnie doesn’t have the voice changing app on her phone so she can’t talk like Ghostface. But then it is the Ghostface voice.
Jenny is told she’s in Ghostface’s movie and Marnie’s body is thrown through the window. Jenny runs but she gets stabbed. She makes her way to the garage and tries to crawl under the door but Ghostface gets her.
And we finally, finally do come to the Scream 4 title card.
While this is not the scariest cold open by far, it’s definitely surprising. And doing the film within the film within the film into the real film was a pretty neat trick only Scream could have pulled off.
Sidney Comes Home and We Catch up with Everyone Else
Just as with all of the other Scream films, after the cold open, we catch up with Sidney Prescott. She’s back in Woodsboro to sign copies of her book. There are decorations of Ghostface all over the town but Sidney shrugs it off figuring it’s because it’s the anniversary of the original killings.
Dewey is back to working for the Woodsboro Police Department. And he’s still married to Gale. Their on again off again relationship is in the on phase at the start of this movie.
He goes to get into his patrol car when someone driving an SUV goes past at high speeds. This is Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere).
Kirby seems to be a bit of a troublemaker but she goes to pick up her friends to go to school. One of her friends is Jill (Emma Roberts), who we learn is Sidney’s cousin. Kirby is a fan of Sidney because she loves horror movies. Jill doesn’t seem to really know Sidney very well.
Jill gets a call from the Ghostface killer while they are in the car. The voice asks her, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” Jill is smart enough to put the call on speaker for her friends to hear. And we hear that one of the girls in the car already got a call like that from Marnie so they shrug it off as a prank.
Dewey has gone from Deputy to Sheriff so we get introduced to a new cop, Deputy Judy Hicks. She talks about how she wishes she was around when the original murders happened because she would be bonding with Dewey. She definitely gets a bit flirty. They then get called to go to the Riley house.
Meanwhile, Gale watches an interview with Sidney on television and then tries to make progress on her fiction writing. It doesn’t go well. Obviously, Gale, is at her best when she’s doing investigative journalism.
At Woodsboro High we see Jill and her friends get interviewed by someone live casting who asks, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” This is Robbie Mercer (Erik Knudsen). He’s there with his friend Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin). Charlie seems to have a thing for Kirby.
Inside, Jill runs into her ex-boyfriend Trevor (Nico Totorella). He seems to be concerned for Jill but she lays into him pretty hard.
Gale meets up with Sidney at her book signing. Dewey shows up and tells everyone they have to stay at the bookstore. They’ve traced a phone call from a crime back to the store. Dewey calls the number and they find find a phone in the trunk of Sidney’s rental car, along with a bunch of blood stained photos of Sidney and a Ghostface mask.
At Woodsboro High everyone starts getting messages on their phones about the death of Jenny and Marnie the night before. Reporters descend on the town and our list of suspects starts to build.
At the police station Gale and Judy have a bit of tension while Dewey is interviewing Sidney. Dewey is trying to keep a lid on what is going on but the internet has already gotten wind of it and the information is out to the world. Despite Dewey’s concern Gale is determined to get the story.
We also meet Deputy Perkins (Anthony Anderson) who mentions some high school kids also got threatening phone calls that day. Dewey figures out immediately one of the kids was Sidney’s cousin.
Kirby, Jill and Olivia Morris (Marielle Jaffe) are brought to the station where they meet Sidney and Kirby worries she’ll be the next one killed since she didn’t get a phone call. Sidney wants to get out of town (as any reasonable person would) but she’s not allowed to leave because everyone is considered a suspect. She gets police protection but we know how that’s worked out for her in the past.
Meanwhile Sidney’s book tour manager is thrilled with the murders. It’s another nod by this franchise pointing out people getting excited by and profiting off of real world violence while criticizing fictionalized violence in horror films. Gale is not a fan of this woman.
The Killer Ramps UP the Violence
At Jill’s house her mother, Kate Roberts (Mary McDonnell), Kirby, Sidney and Dewey are all together. Kate seems a bit jealous of Sidney because she gets all the attention due to her past. Jill gets startled by her ex-boyfriend in a scene reminiscent of what happened to Sidney in the first film. Trevor is obviously a prime suspect because the love interests are always a suspect. Sidney walks in on them and tells Jill she reminds her of herself. And Sidney bumps into Deputy Judy Hicks who comes off as a bit threatening when she brings up how she was in classes with Sidney in High School.
Later, in a great horror easter egg we see Kirby and Jill watching Shaun of the Dead. Olivia debates going inside but figures its safer at home. Jill calls her and does a terrible Ghostface voice to try to prank her. But then Jill’s phone rings and Kirby answers. It’s the voice of the killer.
Kirby seems to think this is Trevor, obviously because it came from his number, but she also thinks he’s just trying to do Ghostface’s voice.
So, for this scene we have Jill and Kirby in Jill’s bedroom. Kirby is on the phone with the killer, while Olivia is on the phone with Jill. It’s kind of a weird phone triangle where anyone on the line might be in danger. The killer asks Kirby how Shaun of the Dead is. Kirby wonders how he could have known that and the killer tells her he is in the closet. Kirby doesn’t believe him so the killer tells her to open the closet door. Kirby does open the closet and there is no one in there. And in a great twist the killer says he never said he was in her closet. And he jumps out of Olivia’s closet. Kirby and Jill watch in horror as Olivia is attacked. Sidney gets to the window just in time to see what is happening and runs out to get the cops but they don’t seem to be there. Sidney goes into Olivia’s house to confront the killer but it’s beyond too late for Olivia.
In Olivia’s room the phone rings and Sidney answers. It’s the killer once again. Sidney pretty much dares the guy to come after her and Ghostface says some pretty horrible stuff about what he’s going to do to her. Jill shows up and while Sidney tries to shield her from the awful scene, Ghostface comes back. He gets a good slash in on Jill’s arm and pins Sidney for a moment. Sidney manages to get the upper hand and knocks him down just around the time the cops arrive. But, of course, Ghostface is already gone.
At the scene Robbie Mercer comes to live cast to his show. He’s confronted by Gale Weathers and we find out Charlie is the cinema club president. Gale suggests a team up and Robbie and Charlie are pretty excited, although, they’d rather have Sidney show up to their cinema club instead of Gale.
At the hospital, Sidney fires her book tour manager who admits she never even read Sidney’s book. She’s the next victim. She gets the call from the killer in the parking garage.
At a press conference Rebecca’s body falls right onto a news van where both Gale and Dewey are. Gale has a lead but Dewey basically just has a list of suspects.
Cinema Club Gives us the Rules
At the cinema club, Sidney comes to talk with the students and Woodsboro High. Charlie points out the only component the killer is missing is live video feed of what he’s doing. Gale shows up as well. Charlie and Robbie say the plan for a new killer would be to film all the murders real time and upload them into cyberspace, making your art immortal.
Here we get our “new rules” of horror. This is because now all movies are just remakes according to Charlie. These stand out from the first three because there are more rules than usual and they are not given in the peppy way Randy did for the last three. Charlie lays them out for us and they are as follows.
The unexpected is the new cliche.
You gotta have an opening sequence that blows the doors off.
The kills have to be way more extreme.
Modern audiences get savvy to the rules of the originals so the reversals become the new standard.
The only sure fire way to survive a modern horror movie, you pretty much have to be gay.
I have to say, I think out of all the first four Scream movies, these rules are the weakest and make the least sense.
In the first three films, when Randy tells us what the rules are, it’s always something the characters can take action on. They can be sure never to say, “I’ll be right back.” Or, the rules tell the characters who is most likely to be targeted as in the third one when Randy says, “Even main characters can die, this means you, Sid.”
How is anyone supposed to take action on the unexpected is cliche? Are we supposed to just guard ourselves against the mundane? That makes no sense considering phone calls are still pretty unexpected when a killer is on the line.
We know there was an opening sequence, and I guess, the characters here might feel like Marnie and Jenny die but for the people in Scream4 they learned about that when everyone’s phones went off at school. It’s not exactly must see television here, more like a news alert anyone could get any day of the year.
The fourth rule is the only one where action can be taken in this film. Reversals are the new standard so we should expect the opposite of what we’re used to. At this point in the movie we haven’t seen this happen. It’s still just been Ghostface calling and attacking with a couple of neat tricks, like being in the house not guarded by the cops.
And rule five, even if potentially true, is useless for these characters. No one is going to suddenly be gay and none of the characters we’ve followed so far are established to be gay so what even is the point of this rule?
These rules are not how to survive a horror film but just kind of lay out what a horror film is these days. In other words, these guys are no Randy and you really feel a Randy sized hole in this movie.
They do give us some useful information in the scene though. They lets us know, as we already do, the killings are following the formula of a Stab movie. And those all culminate in a party. The guaranteed third act bloodbath. This time the party is the Stab-a-thon. Sidney tries to get them to call it off but they won’t.
Things Get Worse
Sidney has a nice moment with Jill where she seems to really care about her cousin. Jill seems to be concerned with all the looks and attention she’ll get because of what’s going on. Sidney advises her to focus on the people she cares about.
Jill is locked up in her room right across from where Olivia died but Kirby goes to the movie marathon. Trevor is also at the party even though it’s not really his scene. There are a bunch of people there in Ghostface masks, including Gale who sets up cameras all over the party.
Charlie and Robbie get the movie marathon started and we see Stab is directed by Robert Rodriguez in a nice nod to horror fans who love From Dusk Til Dawn.
Gale sets up her cameras and goes back to her van where she gets a call from Dewey. Gale tells him about the party and he heads over there. In Gale’s van all of her cameras go dark and she sees the Ghostface mask just before the last one turns off.
At the festival, we see the first scene of Stab which we saw in the first scene of Scream 2. Kirby sees Charlie and Robbie and Gale goes back into the party. There the whole crowd chants my favorite line from the fake Stab movies when Heather Graham, playing Casey Becker, says, “You know, I don’t even know you, and I dislike you already.”
Dewey gets to Gale’s car just in time to realize she’s inside. One of the cameras there is working again and Dewey shouts to Gale to look behind her as Ghostface attacks. This is basically a required scene in Scream films at this point. There has to be a moment where someone sees someone else about to be attacked and shouts at them to turn around. Gale Weathers is no slouch so she snaps right around and there is a tussle. No one at the party seems to notice but Dewey does get there in time to fire some rounds off at the killer. Gale has been injured but she doesn’t seem to be out for the count. She lets Dewey know webcams are being used to record. In other words, this time, Ghostface is making the movie rather than just reacting to them.
Outside of Sidney’s house we get a great scene where the rules of cop movies are talked about between Detective Hoss (Adam Brody) and Deputy Perkins. Hoss says if it’s your last day before retirement you die. If you’re a rookie and find out your wife is pregnant, you die. Or if your partner is better looking than you, you die. Perkins says he’ll take the next perimeter and that he’ll be right back. Immediately he realizes what that means. But Hoss tells him it’s a new decade with new rules and Perkins might come back to find Hoss dead with his eyes gouged out. Could go either way. Perkins decides to stay in the car and Hoss goes instead.
I love this scene because it shows us horror films are not the only ones that have rules. And Scream has already subverted a lot of these cop movie rules too. Dewey has made it through more than three films here and he is not dead. However, several cops in Scream have died in previous movies. It’s a great meta layer on top of another meta layer.
Hoss notices an open window and radios Perkins but there is no answer back. We know Sidney is in danger. Hoss goes back to check on Perkins who has his head down on the steering wheel. He was just trying to prank Hoss. But then the killer kills both Hoss and Perkins, totally subverting the expectations the film just set up. We weren’t expecting both of them to die, and definitely not together, so it really does seem like it’s a new decade with new rules.
Inside, Sidney grabs a knife when she hears a noise outside. It’s her sister Kate who then goes back out to get some grocery bags. And, of course, the phone rings. Sidney answers and hears the killer’s voice. The killer has her turn on the television to see reports of Gale’s attack. The killer then starts talking about Sidney’s family. Sidney runs to Jill’s room but she is not there.
Both Kate and Sidney are then attacked. Kate doesn’t make it. We’ve only known Kate from two scenes in this whole franchise so it’s hard to say we were attached to her. However, for Sidney. she’s family so the kill is a bit more impactful on her. Sidney runs out of the house and bumps into Deputy Hicks. Sidney takes off while Hicks is not looking.
We catch up with Dewey and Gale at the hospital where Gale tells Dewey to get the killer.
The After Party and the Killer is Revealed
Jill has gone over to Kirby’s house. The movie marathon has been cut short so Charlie, Kirby, Robbie and Jill are hanging out talking about what just happened. Charlie mentions the party was the false ending because we’re dealing with new rules. Charlie wants to finish the film festival so he goes to put in Stab 7. Charlie notices Kirby’s horror DVD collection and she’s got some top notch titles, including Suspiria and Don’t Look Now. Charlie and Kirby get a bit flirty with some horror trivia. Trevor shows up out of nowhere. He says he found the after party but Kirby says it’s an anti-party. Trevor also says he got a text from Jill inviting him there. Jill denies ever texting him. But then Jill can’t find her phone and she goes outside.
Robbie seems pretty panicked that Gale was attacked at his film festival and Trevor asks who really sent him the text from Jill’s phone. Kirby mentions Trevor’s phone is missing. Trevor says he got a new one and Kirby is understandably suspicious.
Deputy Hicks gives Dewey the bad news about the scene at Sidney’s house. It sort of seems like Sidney might be a suspect here from Dewey and Hicks’ perspective. This would make sense considering Sidney just fled a murder scene. But we all know she’s not the killer. Or at the very least, couldn’t be the only killer. Either way, Dewey heads back to Sidney’s house.
At the after party, Robbie is on his way to getting as drunk as he can and we see the scene from Stab 7 which was at the beginning of this movie play on the television. It makes for a kind of weird reality for the film but it works pretty well. Robbie goes outside and he hears Kirby continue to flirt with Charlie. Robbie decides to turn his webcam on and he stumbles around a bit. Inside, Kirby goes so far as to kiss Charlie when Trevor interrupts them. Trevor talks about how he loves the part in Stab 7 where you think everyone is safe in the house and suddenly Ghostface comes in and kills them. Charlie walks out in what seems like frustration. Kirby shouts at Trevor to get out of her house.
Outside, Robbie is stumbling around when Ghostface pops out of the house and kills him. Robbie does mention that he is gay but that doesn’t seem like enough to stop his death. While he could have been a suspect, it seems that Robbie is off the list.
Inside, Jill comes down the stairs and tells Kirby there was no text message from her phone to Trevor. Kirby asks where Trevor is because last Kirby saw, Trevor went upstairs looking for Jill. Kirby calls for Trevor, Charlie and Robbie. Jill opens the door of the house to find Sidney standing there.
Sidney grabs Jill and they all start to head out of the house when a very bloody but still alive Robbie shows up and tells them to run. Ghostface forces his way into the house. Sidney and Jill make it upstairs where Sidney tells Jill to hide under the bed. Ghostface breaks through the door. Sidney is outside now and shouts away from the house, telling Jill to keep running, in an attempt to misdirect Ghostface. Sidney gets to the roof of the house and calls Dewey and lets him know the killer is at Kirby’s house. Sidney gets away from Ghostface for a minute and bumps into Kirby who says her landline has been cut along with her router. Kirby asks where Jill is. Kirby leads Sidney to a room downstairs where they can lock themselves away.
I’m not sure how much I buy Sidney would go with Kirby considering how often there has been a partner involved in these killings but she goes anyway. Outside the window, Charlie begs Kirby to let him in. He’s covered in blood and says he just found Robbie. Sidney tells Kirby if she can’t trust him not to open the door.
Behind Charlie, Ghostface pops up and smashes Charlie’s head against the door a couple of times. We hear Charlie shouting for Kirby when we cut back to Dewey on his way to the house.
When the camera goes back to Kirby’s house, Charlie is tied to a chair, still outside. Kirby gets a call from Charlie’s phone. It’s the killer who seems to want to bargain Charlie’s life for Sidney’s. Sidney tells Kirby to stay on the phone and goes to get Jill.
Ghostface asks Kirby horror trivia questions but she says Charlie is the expert. Still, Kirby gets several answers in a row right. Then Ghostface gives a multiple choice of what movie started slasher films. Kirby chooses Psycho but the killer says it’s really Peeping Tom from 1960 because it’s the first movie to ever put the audience in the killer’s point of view. While this may technically be true, I still would say this is a gray area. Psycho can be more acclaimed to be the film that started the slasher craze for the simple reason that it was much more popular than Peeping Tom, even if that film did influence Psycho. Kirby begs the killer to give her one more question. The killer starts to ask a question and Kirby just lists off ton of horror films at rapid speed. In fact, it you want a great night of horror films, just literally go down the list of movies Kirby rattles off, they’re all good picks.
Kirby realizes she must have gotten the question right and goes outside to free Charlie. Meanwhile, Sidney can’t find Jill upstairs.
After Kirby frees Charlie he stabs Kirby in the stomach. Charlie then gets mad that Kirby had four years of classes with him but only noticed him now and he stabs her again in the same spot. She falls to the ground and Charlie goes inside.
Sidney has found a knife and hears noises downstairs. Charlie comes up from behind her with a knife and grabs her. She gets away from Charlie and heads out the door, only to be stabbed by someone in a Ghostface costume at the front of the house. This turns out to be Jill.
Out of all of the Scream killer reveals, I think this one might be the most clever. No one was expecting it to be Sidney’s own cousin. And Jill had rigged it pretty well so we were suspicious of Trevor. Charlie’s reveal was also a bit of a surprise but not outside the realm of possibility. But having the killer be one of the few people Sidney would want to protect most was a nice twist here.
And Jill reveals the plan is to upload all the footage and make it traceable to Trevor who has been tied up in the closet. Charlie pulls him out. Sidney kind of has no choice but to watch as Jill shoots Trevor. Jill and Charlie see themselves as the Sidney and Randy of the remake. Jill just seems to be a jealous brat who wants fame.
And just like in the original Charlie tells Jill to stab him, the way Stu did with Billy. And, just like Billy did, Jill goes too far and kills her partner. Sidney is appalled that Jill could do that to her friends but Jill says she doesn’t need friends, she needs fans. Jill wants to become Sidney for the fame. She stabs Sidney who collapses. Jill unties Trevor’s body and starts to make it look like he pulled her hair out. She then stabs herself in the shoulder and smashes her head against the wall. It’s pretty brutal. She ends off by back-flopping onto a glass table and lies down next to Sidney.
Dewey finally arrives to see all the carnage. Jill is taken out on a stretcher, surrounded by cameras. Dewey is with her at the hospital and Jill spins her story when she mentions she has wounds that match Gale’s. Dewey also lets Jill know Sidney might survive.
Dewey leaves and Jill gets up to finish the job on Sidney. Dewey talks to Gale and figures out Jill wouldn’t know where Gale was injured. Of course, Dewey, Gale, and Deputy Hicks go in to save Sidney in the end. But the fight between the two women is just painful to watch with them both being injured. A scuffle happens but Sidney ends up electrocuting Jill with shock pads and gives us one last rule of remakes, “Don’t f–k with the original.” And, as always, the killer comes back for one more scare but Sidney shoots her.
Outside of the hospital, Jill is getting all the fame she hoped for but she’s just too dead to enjoy it.
A few Notes on the Film
While this wasn’t exactly a remake, it’s also, kind of a remake so I guess we’d call it a reboot. And while I don’t like the rules given here, I’m fine with how they played out. That’s because the rules we get are delivered by the killer himself so this is a subversion of Scream films. For three movies we’ve gotten rules from someone who isn’t a killer so the audience can kind of assume the person saying the rules isn’t the killer. And, as the movie says, it’s a new decade with new rules so nearly anything goes.
At the same time, nothing truly unexpected happens with the returning characters. Gale, Dewey, and Sidney are all fine so there’s not a ton of impact there.
The best addition to the franchise in this movie was far and away Kirby, a horror fan horror fans can relate to. It takes more than another decade before Scream comes back to theaters so for a while this movie felt like an attempt to revive a franchise that didn’t get very far. But, considering what the story ends up being in Scream (2022) (no spoilers for that here) I’m glad there was the time gap. If they never made the fifth and sixth movies I would say Scream 4 is an add on your could see or skip. But now, it’s required viewing.
In a way this is a transition film from the original trilogy into what we see with a more modern take in the next two films.
In Conclusion
This is not my favorite Scream film but it’s one worth watching, especially if you’ve gotten this far with the series. It definitely has flaws but it brings a more current vibe to it. Neve Campbell is still a complete badass in these movies and Dewey and Gale are always entertaining to watch together. There are still tons of easter eggs for horror fans and there are genuinely surprising moments,
This film also seems to be saying, it’s not horror movies that lead to real world violence, but fans who are only interested in attention that are unhinged. The first three made more of a comparison to real world vs. fictional violence. But this one seems to be saying when anyone can have a camera, we can all be filmmakers, and there’s bound to be somebody who’s just in it for the fame, no matter who they hurt.
So, did you see this movie? Are you a Kirby fan? Or does this one feel forced? Let me know what you think in the comments.
David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Patrick Dempsey star in Scream 3
Hello horror fans and slasher stans, it’s Slick Dungeon here! I’m gearing up to go see the sixth installment of the Scream franchise soon but before I do that, I wanted to review all of the previous movies here. For these reviews I plan on going in-depth so if you have not seen the movies, I advise you not to read this review yet. Scream is a great slasher franchise but the best parts of it are surprising events and reveals so definitely have a watch first because reviewing without spoilers is never easy with these movies.
When I do review Scream VI, I will have a first reaction spoiler free review followed by a spoiler heavy review. For the rest of these, watch first or risk the fun of the movies being taken away by reading. I’m going to be talking about individual scenes, characters, and themes so it’s all fair game in these reviews. I will only spoil things from the first three movies in this review so you don’t need to have seen all the Scream films to keep yourself spoiler free, just the first three. If you want to read my review of the first Screamyou can do so right here. And if you missed my review of the sequel, Scream 2, you can check it out here.
Scream 3 in Historical Context
Scream movies are kind of unique in the slasher genre because these are reflections of their time more than a lot of other films. The first Scream revived slasher films, the second was able to develop a franchise during the early age of the internet with spoilers flying around everywhere. And the third? Well, there was a lot happening.
First off, Kevin Williamson who had written the first two scripts wasn’t available for the third movie so instead writing duties fell to Ehren Kruger who had an outline from Williamson but didn’t use much of it.
Secondly, perhaps more importantly, but definitely more tragically, there was a huge increase in scrutiny over violence in the media after the awful shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. This was, at the time, the largest mass shooting at an American school in history. After this tragedy, people wanted to find out a reason why something like this could have happened. Attention was turned towards violent movies, explicit music, and video games. There’s certainly a debate to be had over how much any of this may or may not have contributed to the real world events but either way, releasing a violent slasher film in this kind of heightened scrutiny was not an easy thing to do. This may be the reason why this film plays way more into the comedic aspects of the franchise than the first two did. The filmmakers were a bit reluctant to take too many risks or show too much violence here.
After the first two films were decent sellers, this movie didn’t have as much riding on it as Scream 2 did. It could perform poorly and still make enough of a profit for the studio to be happy. It did end up making $162 million with a $40 million budget, so financially speaking, it was a success. On the critical level, this one is probably the least well loved of all the Scream films. However, this one is still worth a rewatch because in larger context this may not be quite as bad as people remember.
The film brought back old stars including Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, and Liev Schreiber. It also inserts new cast members including Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley and Lance Hennriksen. Plus there are a few notable cameos but we’ll get into some of those further on in the review.
So, let’s take a look and see what went down with Scream 3. Does it deserve the derision it gets as a terrible film, or is there something here we should reconsider?
Spoilers follow below!
The Cold Open
Up to this point, both Scream films started with the deaths of characters barely connected to Sidney Prescott in a setting we don’t see again after the start of the film. The third film throws us in a different direction from the very beginning.
We see helicopter spotlights highlighting the famous Hollywood sign and we see on the road Cotton Weary is driving and talking on the phone. (This was before doing that was illegal) He’s speaking with his agent about a movie part he wants to get. It’s also established there is a Stab (the film within the film) sequel coming. Apparently Cotton has had some success since the last movie. He’s got a talk show and has a girlfriend. We find out he has a girlfriend because while Cotton is on the phone he gets a call from a woman who starts flirting with him. Cotton flirts back until the caller’s voice switches to the one we know as the voice of the Ghostface killers from before. The voice on the phone wants to know where Sidney Prescott is.
Cotton slams on the accelerator and rushes toward his apartment, hoping to save his girlfriend Christine. If you’re a horror fan and you hear the name Christine, you’ll probably think of the Stephen King book and movie of the same name. And the fact that Cotton starts out driving just reinforces that image.
Anyway, the camera cuts to Cotton’s apartment where Christine hears some odd noises and thinks its Cotton. We hear Cotton’s voice answer her but we know it can’t be Cotton because he’s driving. Sure enough someone wearing a Ghostface mask wielding a knife pops up to try to stab Christine. Christine gets away for a moment but whoever is in the mask says in Cotton’s voice he was just playing a game.
The real Cotton comes into the apartment but at this point whoever was in the mask seems to have gone somewhere else. Christine attacks Cotton in a panic, thinking he was trying to kill her. Cotton is on the floor when he sees the Ghostface killer behind Christine. Despite trying to warn her, she dies. Cotton gets the drop on the killer for a moment by dropping an entire bookcase on him but, the killer gets up and that’s the end of Cotton Weary. We then cut to the title card of Scream 3.
This cold open is definitely not one of the scarier ones of the Scream franchise but it does raise the stakes by immediately killing off a legacy character. Cotton Weary has already survived two of these films and while he’s not in the closest inner circle of Sidney’s he’s only one degree separated here. This means the killer means business and really has it out for Sidney.
This is also one of the shortest cold opens in the Scream films and doesn’t really ratchet up the terror at all before we see the consequences. Really, the only surprising part here is who dies, not how they die. It does, however, give the movie a bit of a different feel from the first two.
Catching up with the Gang
As with all of the Scream films so far, after the cold open deaths we cut to Sidney Prescott. She’s walking her dog in an isolated place where she lives alone. She has alarms and door locks and she gets on the phone for her job as a crisis call center operator with a fake name. The previous two films have had Sidney with a boyfriend but it’s pretty clear this time she’s all alone.
Next we see Gale Weathers giving a talk to a crowded classroom of upcoming journalists. After the speech Gale is told someone from the police wants to talk to her. The audience is pretty much expecting this to be Dewey but it turns out to be Detective Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey). He delivers the news about Cotton Weary. And he gives Gale a clue to who the murderer is but swears her to secrecy. It’s a picture of a young Maureen Prescott, Sidney’s mother.
Sidney finds out about Cotton on the news and is understandably upset.
We then cut to Sunrise Studios where Stab 3 is in production. The movie is in danger of being shut down because of the likely return of a deranged killer. In the studio there is a debate over whether shutting down a scary movie would have any effect on reducing the amount of “psychos” in the world. They use that word intentionally, I think, because the first two Scream films truly do depend on a bunch of tricks the movie Psycho pulled off. It’s a sort of spiritual ancestor to the Scream movies. But, it’s trying to make the same point the first two movies did. Depicting violence doesn’t necessarily cause real world violence. One of the filmmakers asks the detectives passing by if there was any reason to think the murders were linked to the movie. The detective says, “He was making a movie called Stab. He was stabbed.” This sort of throws out the argument the filmmakers of Stab were trying to make.
We then see the cast of actors who are making the movie. They are all obvious stand ins for the cast we know from the first Scream movies, including a person dressed as a deputy, one who looks an awful lot like Sidney and a character named Ricky who works at the video store. These actors all start debating who the killer could be and hypothesize it might be Sidney because no one has seen her in the public eye for quite some time. Some are more callous than others about whether or not they should be concerned for their own safety.
Gale Weathers walks into the set and she is met by Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey) who is portraying Gale Weathers in the Stab films. One of the definite bright spots of this film is the back and forth between Posey and Courtney Cox. Jennifer Jolie says to Gale, “…after two films I feel like I am in your mind.” Gales quips back, “Well that would explain my constant headaches.”
We finally catch up with Dewey who is on set as a creative consultant. Gale and Dewey have an on again off again relationship and this time they start the movie in the off stage. As Gale goes through the set it’s pretty clear no one there is happy to see her either because they see her as a rival, had bad news about them reported by her, or in the case of Dewey, broke up with her. It’s definitely not friendly territory for our intrepid journalist.
After a bit of back and forth, Gale is told she has to leave the set and on the way out she passes some famous faces.
Now is the point where we have to talk about the Jay & Silent Bob cameo. Some people absolutely hate this cameo and I can understand why. It’s not at all relevant to the story, it’s not a horror cameo or easter egg, and it’s pretty silly. But, I can also see why some people love it. In the 1990’s Jay and Silent Bob were huge icons for independent film and Kevin Smith was a highly respected director with several good films under his belt. Jay says some pretty silly stuff, thinking Gale Weathers is Connie Chung, a famous news anchor of the time. Personally, I’m in the love it camp because no one ever said Scream movies weren’t supposed to be fun. Sure it’s a bit out of place and silly, but the movie within a movie, having characters from another movie who are also real world famous talking about a journalist who is not real being compared to a real world journalist is just so random I can’t help but enjoy it.
The Dream Sequence
Back at Sidney’s home she talks with her dad about how her mom had so many secrets and none of this would have started if she didn’t have those. I’d say that’s highly debatable considering Maureen was a victim all around, other than cheating on Sidney’s father. Sidney’s dad tries to get her to come home and be with him because she only talks to people who don’t even know her real name. To me, this is a really oddly timed thing to ask. Seems like this would be the best time for Sidney to be isolated considering there is someone looking for her and willing to kill. And it just feels wrong here for Sidney to basically be victim blaming her mother. I would think Sidney would be the last person to blame anyone but the killers for killing people.
Sidney goes to sleep and in one of the most ridiculous parts of the movie she has a dream involving her mother. It’s meant to show Sidney’s trauma and all of that but it also sort of implies a supernatural connection between Sidney and Maureen Prescott. It has a pretty standard jump scare with someone as the Ghostface killer jumping through her window. Sidney then wakes up startled.
Out of all of the things in this movie I would get rid of if I could, this is right at the top of the list. It doesn’t really help the film and it takes us out of the reality we’ve been used to in Scream movies. And for that matter, considering how much has happened to all of these characters, this dream would be just as valid for Dewey or Gale to have as well. If this was meant as a sort of nod to the Nightmare on Elm Street films I can respect that but it just doesn’t really work.
The Body Count Increases
Back on the set we see Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy) walking around where she is startled by a fellow actor in a makeup test. It’s late and there are not a lot of people around. The actor with the makeup test and the makeup artist leave and the phone rings. Sarah speaks with Roman, the director of Stab 3. The name Roman here is no doubt inspired by Roman Polanski who directed Rosemary’s Baby. It should also be noted that Roman Polanski has a very checkered past personal life (to put it mildly) and it makes the audience think, at least briefly, maybe Scream 3 is trying to make a statement about that here.
Sarah tells Roman how unhappy she is because her character is in only two scenes and she gets killed in the second scene. She also mentions she’s 35 playing a 21 year old. Again, these are real world issues Hollywood tends to have, and horror is no exception. This is an interesting aspect of the film because it rings really true and we can feel for Sarah but we also know Sarah is about to die, just like it seems to say in the script for Stab 3.
Roman has Sarah run her lines and we start to get some of the dialogue from the original Scream but it’s cut off when Sarah starts complaining about the scene taking place in the shower. Yet another nod to Psycho. And hilariously Sarah says it’s been done before in Vertigo, misattributing one of the most famous scenes in film history to the wrong Alfred Hitchcock movie.
However, Roman then calls Sarah by her real name in the script read and tells her it’s not a new script but a new movie. Then the voice changes to the one we know as the voice of the Ghostface killer. Sarah goes to hide and ends up in a rack of Ghostface costumes. She tries to call for help but the killer pops out and she is attacked and dies.
Dewey and Gale catch up and we see why they broke up. Gale couldn’t take the slow pace of Woodsboro and Dewey couldn’t keep up with Gale’s lifestyle. Dewey also tells Gale that months ago someone broke into the Woodsboro police department trying to steal Sidney’s file which Dewey had already removed. So, while we know Dewey is here for the film, it does seem he’s trying to get to the bottom of the case.
Dewey and Gale then catch up with Jennifer Jolie who is quite frightened because she dies next in the script. It also sets up a bit of a love triangle for the three of them.
And once again, Maureen Prescott’s photo is left with the body. Detective Kincaid tells Gale and Dewey there are three different versions of the script and says, “Something about trying to keep the ending off the internet.” This gets fairly meta since that’s exactly what happened with the script of Scream 2 and it seems we are blurring the lines of fiction and reality here.
Detective Kincaid and his partner confront Roman and mention Sarah had been scheduled for a meeting with him before she died.
Sidney is at home answering crisis calls when someone with Maureen Prescott’s voice calls her and says Sidney should turn on the news. She sees the reports of the killing at the movie studio and the voice on the phone changes to the voice of the Ghostface killer.
The actors are in what should be a safe location in a large house with a security guard and Dewey is there as well. Gale drops in and tells Dewey that Roman was released because the phone call did not come from him. It was a cloned cell phone which is untraceable. She also tells Dewey that Maureen Prescott didn’t always live in Woodsboro. Two years before she met Sidney’s father she left Woodsboro but no one has any information about where she was or why. But from some photo evidence they realize Maureen was at the backlot at Sunrise Studios.
The security guard gets a call seemingly from Dewey but it’s not Dewey, it’s the killer. In his last moments he gets to the door where everyone else is and drops dead. The group runs outside but the fax machine in the house gets a fax. It prints out script pages describing what is happening, including the death of the security guard. The script says the killer will give mercy to… and then most of them run outside but the actor playing Dewey runs back to read it. And he lights a lighter to read the killer will give mercy to whoever smells the gas. Then the house just straight up explodes.
It’s kind of a weird scene in a Scream movie because it feels way more action oriented than horror based. It’s not fear inducing at all.
The group gets split up but when Dewey sees the killer in the costume, Dewey shoots him several times. Dewey saves Gale once again. Jennifer is not at all pleased Dewey went to Gale instead of her. The killer gets away and Dewey finds another photo of Maureen Prescott. This one says “I killed her.” So someone is claiming to have killed Maureen Prescott, even though it was established long ago Billy Loomis and Stu Macher were the killers.
Detective Kincaid thinks Sidney knows something and wants to talk to her but Dewey won’t give up her information. But, Sidney shows up.
Sidney Comes Back and We Get the Rules
Sidney figures if the killer can call her at home she’s not safe so she comes over to help. She asks to see the places in the pictures of her mother. Sort of randomly we meet Martha Meeks (Heather Matarazzo), Randy’s sister. She’s come to give the group a videotape Randy left for all of them.
On the tape Randy (Jamie Kennedy) tells us he made the tape in case he didn’t survive the killings at Windsor College. He says he’s there to help them so his death won’t be in vain. He first asks if this is simply another sequel, in which case, the rules from Scream 2 apply. But then he says if you find yourself dealing with a lot of unexpected backstory and a preponderance of exposition then sequel rules do not apply because you are not dealing with a sequel. Instead it’s the concluding chapter of a trilogy.
Here are the rules Randy lays out.
You’ve got a killer who is going to be superhuman.
Anyone, including the main character can die.
The past will come back to bite you in the ass.
I really like this part of the movie because we get one last glimpse of Randy we weren’t expecting and just as was the case in the other films, we’re already following and breaking some of these rules. While we don’t know the killer is superhuman, they did take a bunch of shots from Dewey and somehow survived. We’ve seen Cotton Weary die but this is not a main character so rule two could be true but we don’t know yet. And, while we don’t know exactly how, it’s pretty clear rule three is true. Randy pointed out in the best trilogies at the end we learn something wasn’t true that we thought was. In this case, it must have something to do with Maureen, it’s just not clear what.
More Cameos
Gale and Jennifer go to the studio archives to find out anything they can about Maureen’s past. Here we get another cameo where the person in charge of the archives is Carrie Fisher. Gale and Jennifer comment how much she looks like Carrie Fisher but she says she tried out for Star Wars but didn’t get the part because the actress who slept with George Lucas did. It’s kind of a weird cameo and feels a bit out of place but I still like it because I am a hugeStar Wars fan and I like it any time Carrie Fisher shows up in anything.
We do find out Maureen was acting under a stage name in horror films back in John Milton’s heyday. John Milton (Lance Henriksen) is one of the producers on Stab 3 so now he’s more of a suspect.
Things Get Worse
Sidney bumps into the actress playing herself in the restroom in a call back to the first Scream. Sidney kicks in the stall door to find Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer) in the stall with a Ghostface costume and what might be a phone or a voice changer. She’s thrilled to see Sidney and says she was just taking souvenirs from the set.
Then Sidney walks onto the set of Stab 3 which looks just like the houses in Woodsboro did. She sees the set of her own bedroom and starts to think about Billy when she starts hearing noises and gets attacked by the killer. She runs around escaping and shouting for Dewey until she ends up deeper in the set where it looks like the death of her mother has been recreated. Sidney even hears her mother’s voice and someone who is under a sheet stained with blood stands up and seems to speak in Maureen’s voice. Sidney jumps out of the window of the set. All I can say, is I bet Neve Campbell was pretty tired of jumping out of the same window at this point.
Detective Kincaid takes Sidney to a safe house which has never worked before. Meanwhile, Gale and Jennifer let Dewey in on the information about John Milton.
We see a scene where Roman is talking with Milton about how the film is shut down and Milton seems to think it’s no big deal but Roman is really upset. Milton says there are criminals all around Hollywood who still get work. Roman says he was questioned but he’s not a criminal. Milton just replies, “It’s good for your mystique.”
I have to pause her for just a moment to acknowledge something. The Scream franchise was distributed by Miramax at the time, meaning Harvey Weinstein was financially benefitting from these films. While Scream 3 is clearly fiction, it is about life in Hollywood as much as it is about anything else. It was an open secret Weinstein was a pretty awful person at this point so having Milton just shake off Roman’s comments does feel like this movie is trying to say something about that. It’s not clear if it was intentional but the comparison is undoubtedly there. And, while this film could have really gone there with this story line, it doesn’t quite. But, we’ll get a bit more into that later.
Gale, Dewey and Jennifer confront Milton about Maureen but he dismisses her as a bit actress who no one remembers.
The whole scene is a confrontation of Milton who seems to have had, let’s call them troubling, parties where young actresses could try to “make an impression” on men who could get them good parts. It’s a sadly disgusting but accurate summary of how a lot of Hollywood has worked in the past (and probably to some extent currently as well). Milton passes it all off because, “No charges were brought.”
At the police station Sidney kind of grills Kincaid on movie trilogies but he seems fairly creepy in the scene, putting him closer to being a suspect. As Kincaid leaves, Sidney asks him, “What’s your favorite scary movie.” It’s taken all this time to get to that line but it has to be in all the Scream movies. Kincaid just answers, “My life.” Sidney says under her breath, “Mine too.”
Dewey, Gale and Jennifer are driving and get a call from Sidney but we know it’s not Sidney because she says she isn’t at the police station. They believe it is Sidney though and head over to Milton’s house where Roman is having a birthday party. Because, you know, it’s a Scream movie so there’s always a party you would never want to be at.
At the party are the few remaining Stab actors and Roman himself. Sidney, however, is not there.
The Killer is Revealed
Roman and Jennifer pair off and go to look for an old screening room of Milton’s. The actors for Sidney and Randy wander around a different part of the house admiring the movie posters on the walls.
Gale tells Dewey to use his caller id to call whoever called him last. A phone in the house rings and they find a cell phone, a Ghostface costume, and a voice changer with all their voices. Dewey and Gale split up to warn the others.
Dewey finds Tyson (the actor playing fake Randy) and Gale finds Roman’s body in a prop coffin and she and Jennifer run out of the basement. The next to die is Angelina who is trying to escape the house.
Dewey, Gale and Jennifer all meet up and when Jennifer asks if they will be safer together, the killer pops out and punches Dewey out and everyone scatters. There’s a tussle and Dewey and Tyson get stabbed. Tyson tries to get away but doesn’t make it. Jennifer heads down some stairs but is then attacked herself. She ends up behind a mirror where Gale and Dewey are standing. Dewey shoots but it’s too late for Jennifer. Dewey goes to check on Tyson and Gale is attacked.
Dewey then gets a call from Gale saying she is trapped. Dewey hesitates but opens the door to the stairs. He tries to shoot the killer but is out of bullets. The killer then throws a knife at Dewey’s head but it hits with the butt end and Dewey just falls down the stairs.
Sidney, still at the station, finds her mother’s file. She gets a call on her cell phone and its her own voice talking to her. The killer says he has both Gale and Dewey and says he won’t kill them if she shows up. And he can tell her who killed her mother. Sidney, of course, goes, but not before arming herself with a gun she finds in Kincaid’s desk.
At Milton’s house Sidney finds Tyson’s body and a metal detector. She is told to scan her body which she does. In a nice touch from the last movie, Sidney is still wearing Derek’s Greek letters and that makes the detector go off but she makes a big show of not scanning one leg. She is told to scan the other leg and she pulls a gun out of her sock.
Sidney goes inside to find Dewey taped to a chair. The killer attacks her but Sidney pulls out a second gun and blasts the killer full of lead. She starts to free her friends when the killer gets up and walks away. Detective Kincaid shows up with a gun. He tells Sidney to put the gun down and the killer attacks him.
Sidney baits the killer to follow her and she ends up in an old secret passage. Sidney then hears the voice of her mother once again. And she sees the same sheet from the crime scene stage of her mother with the Ghostface killer under it.
Ghostface reveals body armor which is how he survived the bullets. And he reveals himself to be Maureen’s son. So this is Sidney’s half-brother. And it’s Roman, the director. He apparently showed Billy the footage of Maureen with Billy’s mother, kicking everything here into motion.
And, as is standard in these movies, the killer is revealed. Roman has framed it so Milton is the bad guy. He then pulls out Milton and kills him. The plan, apparently is to have Sidney snap but Roman will be the hero. It’s pretty tired and Sidney is over it. As always, Neve Campbell holds her own against this guy even when she takes some pretty hard knocks. Kincaid makes into the room Sidney is in long enough to distract the killer. Then Kincaid is attacked and Sidney picks up the killer’s knife. But Roman gets Kincaid’s gun and shoots Sidney in the gut with it. He shoots her a second time but Gale and Dewey try to make their way into the room.
Suddenly Sidney pops up and stabs Roman. She reveals she’s wearing body armor too. And Sidney stabs Roman. Gale and Dewey make it in and Dewey keeps shooting Roman in the chest until Sidney shouts at him to shoot in the head. And that’s the end of Roman.
We close out the movie with Gale and Dewey at Sidney’s place.
They seem to back in the on phase of their relationship, with a proposal from Dewey for marriage. Even Dewey knows it will probably never work but she agrees anyway. So we end on a happy note with Gale, Dewey, Sidney and Kincaid going to watch a movie.
In Conclusion
Courtney Cox has said the scariest thing about this movie was her bangs she had in it. And I have to say, I agree with her. However, that’s not to say this isn’t a fun watch. Basically it is still enjoyable but it could have been better.
There is just too much victim shaming of Maureen here. The violence is toned down and the comedy is played up so it doesn’t feel so much like a horror film but kind of an oddball comedy or action film with a little bit of horror involved. And the twist of the killer being Sidney’s half brother comes off as fairly lazy writing. Finally, there is some territory here where the film gets frustratingly close to exploring and just kind of ignores. Watching this in the age of the #metoo movement it views differently than when it first came out because we sort of know who the film is trying to call out. But it doesn’t delve deep enough into that to make a real statement. And because the violence is toned down here, it just doesn’t have the same impact the first two films do.
Still, this does end off the trilogy pretty well and leaves us with hope for the characters to lead fairly normal lives in the future. I’d say if you are a Scream fan, you have to watch this one but it’s not the most vital and most of it is fairly skippable. The surprises are mediocre but they are there. You may still be entertained by it just don’t expect it to be as ground breaking as either of the predecessors.
