Search - Scream 3 on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Adult Language, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 2000 DVD Release: 07/04/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered,Special Collection Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 57 mins Studio: Dimension Total Copies: 8 Genres: Horror, Slasher Film, Teen Movie, Showbiz Comedy

Wes Craven's Scream (1996) was a half-parody/half-tribute to the first wave of slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s, and since most of them spawned a large number of sequels, it's only appropriate that Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson produced a third installment of their Scream franchise. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), traumatized by the brutal murders of her friends, has left her hometown of Woodsboro and is working in California as a crisis intervention counselor. Meanwhile, "Stab," the novel by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox Arquette), is spawning a series of successful horror films, and as Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro is being filmed in Los Angeles, a lunatic has gotten his hands on a copy of the script, and is murdering the characters in the same order that they die in the movie. But predicting who will die next is not as simple as it might seem, since the producers have circulated three different screenplays, with different endings. In addition to Campbell and Cox-Arquette, David Arquette returns from the first two films as less-than-bright "Dewey" Riley; new members of the cast include Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, and Jenny McCarthy. Kevin Williamson wrote the original story, but the screenplay was penned by Ehren Kruger. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

David Arquette - Dewey Riley
Neve Campbell - Sidney Prescott
Courteney Cox Arquette - Gale Weathers
Patrick Dempsey - Detective Kincaide
Scott Foley - Roman Bridger

The last of the Scream trilogy comes to DVD in a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the 2.35:1 ratio of the original film. The video portion of the transfer looks excellent, with solid blacks and excellent color balance. The transfer is sharp and clear throughout, with no visible artifacts. As the disc is single-sided dual-layer, the bit-budget is quite generous, which helps to keep the image quality up. The disc sound is encoded for Dolby 5.1, and sounds very good, with distinct separation and a solid low end. The underscore is spread effectively across the front soundstage, with some mixing effects reaching into the surrounds. Sound effects are put to good use throughout, whether as environmental elements or as stings. The surround channels are used well enough, but not in any spectacular fashion -- owners of 5.1 systems will not be disappointed, though this release is hardly a demonstration disc for the format. The French 5.1 track maintains the overall music and effects quality, and has an excellent voice cast and spot-on dubbing to go with it. There are English and French subtitles. The disc also includes a number of extras. There is a commentary with director Wes Craven, editor Patrick Lussier, and producer Marianne Maddalena; this is extremely detailed, going into the production, changes that were made, the various actors, and more -- at one point, the entire history of a location is provided. This makes for a commentary that might well be several notches better than the film it accompanies. Also included are outtakes, deleted scenes (with and without commentary), an alternate ending (again, with or without commentary), a montage of behind-the-scenes material from all three films, the U.S. and international trailers (both in full frame for some reason, though both look extremely good), the soundtrack trailer, a huge number of TV spots, Creed's "What If" music video, and very brief cast and crew bios. The outtakes, deleted scenes, and alternate ending are presented in varying degrees of poor quality -- some appear to be mastered from videotape copies, others from work prints. This is something to be expected rather than deplored, however; as post-millennial motion picture production adopts digital photography and post-production, audiences are certainly going to see far more pristine material of this kind. Overall, this is a solid disc that gains extra points for the excellent commentary track. ~ Steven E. McDonald, All Movie Guide