All 6 Scream movies, ranked from worst to best
Out of all of the horror franchises out there, Scream is without a doubt one of the most iconic. Starting back in 1996 with the first film that changed the genre forever, the series has since seen four additional movies, a TV show on MTV (and later VH1), and multiple games. Written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, the original Scream aimed to poke fun at horror movie tropes and clichés while also telling a legitimately scary story, and it did that perfectly. No entry since has been able to top the first, but there have still been some strong entries.
Scream VI, written by Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt and helmed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin — the same team who brought us the fifth film — just hit theaters. Reviews have been decent so far, and now that it’s out, we’re breaking down each installment and ranking them from worst to best.
Unsurprisingly, that means we’re talking about Scream 3 first.
6. Scream 3
Let me start by saying I really don’t think Scream 3 is straight-up bad. If this is the weakest one in the series, the franchise is doing pretty well. The third installment came out in 2000 and is widely considered the worst of the bunch, but compared to other third entries in major horror franchises like Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Friday the 13th Part III, or even Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Scream 3 doesn’t look so bad.
Scream 3 takes place three years after the events of Scream 2, with protagonist Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) now living out in a secluded location where Ghostface can’t find her. We meet a new character named Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey), the lead detective on the latest murder case. Most of the movie takes place in Hollywood as Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro is being filmed, with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) reuniting to investigate the crimes while also trying to keep the killer as far away from Sidney as possible.
The main pro of Scream 3 is the cast, which sees the beloved main actors from the first two movies reprise their roles and introduces us to new characters played by familiar faces like Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie, Emily Mortimer as Angelina Tyler, Scott Foley as Roman Bridger, and Jenny McCarthy as Sarah Darling. The late Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher even makes an awesome cameo.
Scream 3 follows the precedent set in the original film of having a big murder in the opening scene, in this case that of Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) and his new girlfriend Christine (Kelly Rutherford). This one’s pretty good!
The storyline itself is entertaining enough, but there’s really not much memorable about Scream 3. That’s further proven by the Ghostface reveal, which is the weakest one of the whole franchise. The killer is Stab 3 director Roman Bridger, who’s actually Sidney’s half-brother. It’s too similar to the second movie’s reveal, and the whole thing seems like an afterthought rather than one of the most important parts of the film. The whodunnit style of Scream 3 is fun, but the big reveal in the end is a disappointment.
While Scream 3 is nothing to write home about, it’s certainly watchable. And it only goes up from here!