Podcasts
Why ‘Scream 3’ Was Doomed From the Beginning [Horror Queers Podcast]
#KevinWilliamsonWouldNever
December wound up being pretty hectic between our festive entries in Krampus, Better Watch Out and Terror Train, but now that it’s January, it’s time to continue the tradition of ringing in the new year with an installment of the Scream franchise.
This time around it’s the complicated, challenging production that birthed Scream 3 (2000).
In the first entry in the Scream franchise written by someone other than Kevin Williamson, Sidney (Neve Campbell) is hiding out under an assumed named in the woods while Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courteney Cox) become involved in a new string of murders plaguing the Hollywood set of Stab 3.
Along for the ride is MVP Parker Posey as Gale stand-in Jennifer Jolie, a baby faced Emily Mortimer, (a miscast?) Scott Foley, and Patrick Dempsey as a truly terrible red herring.
Wes Craven directs from a script by unorthodox choice Ehren Kruger.
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Episode 107 – Scream 3 (2000)
The third year of the pod kicks off with our annual tradition: a Scream film! Scream 3 (2000) is arguably the least popular film in the franchise, but it’s due for a critical reappraisal as we unpack all of its challenges, including no script, an in-demand Neve Campbell, post-Columbine timing, a move to comedic Hollywood and studio interference (the Weinsteins again!)
Thankfully we have Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey’s luscious hair, an ambitious – if misguided – attempt to retcon the root of all of Sid’s trauma and a post #MeToo reckoning that makes the film quite prescient.
For a good time, throw in a game of toot it or boot it, Trace’s confusion over the expression “Red Shirts”, and a Meryl Streep blaxploitation film. Plus: how many times will we say the words Scooby-Doo? Welcome to our third year!
Cross out Scream 3!
Coming up on Wednesday: Our month of 3s continues as we stick around the 90s for the wacky, over the top action of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! We’ve already revealed the results of the 2020 Hereditaries (our horror version of the Oscars) and warned of our audio commentary on Final Destination 3. In the next few weeks we’ll also have episodes on The Stand, Servant and the controversial new film Promising Young Woman.
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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