'Scream 3': We've Seen It All Before By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 4, 2000

Neve Campbell and David Arquette return – again – as potential victims in "Scream 3." (Dimension)

You feel like one of those frustrated, apoplectic football coaches on the sidelines – except you're screaming advice to a cast of attractive morons, instead of bionic lugs from the NFL.

Don't believe that voice on the car phone pretending to be a slinky seductress, it's really the killer and he's gonna – d'oh!

If she drops a hairbrush and then disappears behind a door, don't go chasing after her to give it – d'oh!

Even if you drill the killer full of lead and he falls to the ground, don't turn away and start untying your – d'oh!

But that's the point. Ever since "Wes Craven's New Nightmare," in which actors played themselves as actors in a Wes Craven movie, and ultimately victims, director Craven (creator of Freddy Krueger and the "Elm Street" series, as if you didn't know) has made a self-reflective pastime of making jokes about the genre which, well, he pretty much created himself.

"Scream 3," supposedly the final in a "Scream" trilogy, takes place in Hollywood, during the filming of "Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro," which is based on some terrifying events that took place in Woodsboro. Holy self-reference, Batman! The killer returns with a vengeance, killing – or trying to kill – all the actors in "Stab 3."

Neve Campbell – the recurring hero of the "Scream" series – reprises her role as Sidney Prescott, who has tangled with the killer before. You know the killer: the guy in the "Scream" mask and the black gown. Here, she's trying to keep a low profile as a crisis counselor. Oh sure, she'll stay out of trouble.

Courteney Cox Arquette also returns to the "Scream" series as Gale Weathers, a TV journalist who broke the news of those Woodsboro murders. Her husband, David Arquette (another returnee), reprises his role as Dewey Riley, Gale's old flame, who's been hired as a technical adviser on "Stab 3." And "Scream" newcomer Parker Posey plays Jennifer Jolie, a nutty actor playing Gale Weathers in the "Stab" movie.

Also on the chopping block, I mean, in the cast: Liev Schreiber (another returnee), Jenny McCarthy (as an actor who's playing Candy the Chick in "Stab 3") and Patrick Dempsey, as the detective investigating the killings.

The more I tell you, the more my brain will hurt. Let's just say, everyone in this movie has been on TV, or in a previous Wes Craven film. What matters to the "Scream" audience is a sort of validation for all the television viewing they had to do just to be up to speed on everything. Craven is both feeding his audience's narrow bandwidth of cultural reference and lightly making fun of it.

So when Cox and Posey enter Sunrise Studios, on the trail of the killer, and they run into Carrie Fisher (playing a studio production assistant), it's a couch potato's delight.

"Aren't you . . .?" Begins Posey.

Fisher, world-weary and smoking a cigarette, rolls her eyes and denies it. People think she's Princess Leia all the time, she says. Then she threatens to ask Cox who people think she looks like. Geddit?

Although I appreciated the inventiveness of "Scream" and I'm a fan of Craven's work, I'm no salivating fan of the genre. So, you're on your own here. For my money, Posey is the most fun as the zany Jennifer. She seems to be riffing her way through everything, which is about the best attitude for a guest star in a horror series. And screenwriter Ehren Kruger, who took over the writing honors from "Scream" regular scribe Kevin Williamson, has some amusing moments, which I enjoyed here and there. Like the time, Sarah Darling (that's McCarthy) is reading her lines as Candy, the shower-stabbing victim in "Stab 3."

"The whole shower thing's been done," she groans. " 'Vertigo'? Hello!"

SCREAM 3 (R, 116 minutes) – Contains profanity, obscenity and violence.