There's a lot to love about Scream 3. Although a sequel can be famously horrible, and it's rare that every film in a franchise is high quality, this entry has some great things going for it. While fans can't help but smile at Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and her super short bangs, the movie is a great commentary on making a horror movie as Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) visits the set of Stab 3: Return To Woodsboro. It's easy to get drawn into the story of Sidney living in a secluded house and helping people on a phone line with a new name. It's also sweet seeing Gale and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) see each other again.
While Scream 3 definitely isn't the worst sequel in a franchise, there's something off about its opening scene. Is the Scream 3 opening sequence the most lackluster one from the entire franchise?
The opening of Scream is definitely considered an excellent horror film opening scene. But when Scream 3 opens, it feels dull, expected, and not scary. In the opening scene of Scream 3, Cotton Weary's (Liev Schreiber) girlfriend Christine Hamilton (Kelly Rutherford) is at home alone, taking a shower upstairs. After she changes into a black nightgown, she hears a noise and wonders if Cotton is home. When she hears him calling out to her, she is relieved that it's only him, only to become increasingly scared. After locking herself in a room, Christine hears Cotton talking to her from behind the closed door, and she isn't sure what's going on. Christine sees Cotton and is convinced that he's been playing a sick, horrible joke on her. When she holds out a weapon, Cotton screams that someone is nearby and that's when Ghostface murders Christine and Cotton.
It makes sense that Scream 3 would kill off Cotton Weary, since his character has definitely run his course by this point in the horror movie franchise. Fans have learned that Sidney Prescott thought that Cotton raped and murdered her mother Maureen and Gale believed that he was innocent, which caused conflict between the two characters. Now Cotton is the host of a talk show called 100% Cotton, which works since he's a terrible and conceited person, and Scream 3 is commenting on how people take a bit of celebrity and run with it. But Cotton doesn't need to die in the opening scene of a movie, as this isn't a strong enough death to warrant this placement.
Christine is also not an interesting horror movie character. The opening of Scream 3 reminds horror fans of so many scary films that have come before it and while seeing Christine in the shower is an ode to Janet Leigh in Psycho, the movie would be so much better without it. Fans learn nothing about Christine besides the fact that she's dating Cotton, and since no one likes Cotton, it's impossible to really care if Christine is killed.
Scream 3 has the worst opening sequence from the entire horror franchise and it's fair to say that the other four openings are much stronger. When fans rewatch the original Scream movie from 1996, they're always reminded of how brilliant the first scene is. Casey Becker (Drew Barrymoore) is so naive with no idea what's about to happen to her, and the horror movie trivia game that Ghostface plays with her on the phone is iconic. While fans might not love the opening of Scream 2 as much, seeing a murder in a movie theater while everyone is enjoying Stab does at least make sense within the context of the story. Scream 4 has a fun opening scene as two teenage best friends, played by Shenae Grimes-Beech and Lucy Hale, seem to be watching a Stab movie and then it turns out that they're part of the movie Stab 6. Next, Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin's characters are watching Stab 6, and then Britt Roberston and Aimee Teegarden are watching the previous characters in Stab 7.
The Scream franchise has scary deaths, a motive for each Ghostface, a good setting, and of course, beloved characters who come back. The opening sequences tend to be smart, surprising, and creative. The problem with the beginning of Scream 3 is it just doesn't measure up. It's a shame because of the rest of the movie is an interesting commentary on Hollywood and the obsession that people have with scary movies, and it's also a big deal seeing Sidney visit the film set that reminds her of her hometown. When Ghostface chases Sidney through the set of her Woodsboro childhood home, it's a terrifying moment that fans will never forget.
Thankfully, Scream (2022) gives fans an incredible opening sequence. As Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) answers the phone from Ghostface and talks about her love of elevated horror movies, fans know that this scenes plays homage to Casey Becker's from the first film. This is exactly the kind of opening sequence that Scream fans want: either something that is reminiscent of the 1996 Scream movie or a fresh take like in Scream 4.