Scream 3’s Original Ending Would’ve Been Much Worse

Scream 3 is regarded by many as the weakest film in the Scream franchise, and its original ending would have made it even more unpopular. Back in 1996, Wes Craven brought the slasher genre back to life with Scream, which mixed comedy and slasher while also firing shots at the genre’s biggest clichés. Scream introduced the audience to a new killer known as Ghostface and a new final girl in Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), whose battle for survival continued for three more films.

Scream went on to become a franchise, with a total of four films (and a fifth one in development) and a TV series separate from Sidney’s storyline. Each movie had a different person underneath the Ghostface mask, all of them with their own reasons to go after Sidney, but one that didn’t surprise viewers was Scream 3’s killer, Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), who unlike the previous films which had two killers, decided to work on his own and his motives were not believable. Roman turned out to be Sidney’s half-brother, born to their mother Maureen Prescott, who rejected him after he tried to reunite with her.

In addition to that, Roman revealed himself as the mastermind of Maureen’s death and the original Woodsboro Murders (as in, those seen in the first Scream). Roman filmed all of Maureen’s affairs and showed Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) the footage of his father with her, which was Billy’s motivation to kill Maureen and then go after Sidney with the help of his friend Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). However, seeing all the fame that Sidney attracted after those events prompted Roman to take action by himself, and his plan was to frame Sidney for all the murders he committed. This “twist” ended up falling into the clichés the films had been criticizing, but the original ending that Kevin Williamson had planned would have been worse.

Back in 2013, Williamson shared that in his original story for Scream 3, the killers turned out to be a fan club that formed after Stab 1 and Stab 2, and decided to take their fanatism to a very dangerous level. The big twist, then, would have been that, as Sidney walked into the house after Ghostface killed everyone, all the victims would have risen up, as it was all a plan to become famous. Other reports said that among the victims that turned out to be alive were those from the previous movies, including Maureen, and it was all part of an elaborate conspiracy to trick Sidney and drive her insane. Of course, that wouldn’t have been believable at all, more so if her mother was involved, and all the killings being a hoax would have been an even bigger cliché.

While Scream 3’s ending isn’t the best, compared to Williamson’s original idea (which he later used in the series The Following as well as in Scream 4, as the killers’ motivation was their quest for fame) it’s definitely better. The “fame” motivation worked better in Scream 4 thanks to the connection between Jill (Emma Roberts) and Sidney, but it wouldn’t have worked in Scream 3 even if Roman was Sidney’s half-brother, which wasn’t believable in the first place. Ultimately, Scream 3 doesn’t bring much to the franchise in general, except for Dewey and Gale’s engagement at the end.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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