The characters who survived have all returned. Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is now an abuse counselor who lives in a well-secured home in the woods. She is only faintly aware of "Stab 3," a movie based on her life that is shooting on a Hollywood studio set. Reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox Arquette), on the other hand, is very aware of the film, especially after a murder is connected to its making. She sneaks onto the set where she finds Dewey (David Arquette) serving as a technical advisor.

Also around the fray are the producer (Lance Henricksen) who has made a career out of horror pictures, the hotshot director (Scott Foley) who wants to use "Stab 3" as a springboard to a bigger career, and a cast of actors who are portraying Sydney, Gale, and Dewey. The "fake Gale" is an annoying Method actress, well played by Parker Posey.

The plot is simple: people associated with "Stab 3" start getting killed. Gale and Dewey come to believe that the murderer is trying to send a message to Sydney, so they try to solve the crime before that happens.

Neve Campbell and David Arquette are a real scream in Scream 3

What made the first two Scream movies fun was their knowing sense of humor. The screenplays by Kevin Williamson were literate about horror movies. They knew all the formulas and cliches and went about skewering them mercilessly. I remember that great moment in the original where movie-geek Randy (Jamie Kennedy) explains the "rules" of a horror movie, which Scream then went on to break. Despite a beyond-the-grave cameo from Randy (via videotape), Scream 3 has none of that deconstructionist humor. The jokes mostly fall flat and there are dozens of missed opportunities. For instance, one character is killed in the prop room of "Stab 3." Wouldn't it have been funny for this person to attack the killer with a prop knife, only to find it's made of rubber? What we get instead is a routine slashing of the victim, with none of the parody that Williamson so carefully put into the other two (who could forget the cheerful perversity of Rose McGowan getting stuck in the doggie door?). The script for Scream 3 was penned by Ehrin Kruger, whose highly touted Reindeer Games hits screens in a few weeks. He doesn't bring the much-needed Kevin Williamson wit to the project.

Another problem is that the movie just isn't scary. It does generate a few jolts near the end, but not enough to make a difference. The killer strikes too quickly here; he pops out of a dark corner and slashes someone. The victims never put up much of a fight, so all the inherent suspense is sucked out. Even the pre-credit sequence (a Scream trademark) pales in comparison to watching Drew Barrymore get stalked in an empty house or Jada Pinkett getting trapped in a movie theater filled with people wearing ghost masks. I should also add that when the killer is revealed, it isn't too convincing. The performer doesn't credibly convey the menace or madness needed to be a believable psycho.

There are some interesting performances here and there and an occasional good bit (I kind of liked watching the real Gale and the "fake Gale" sparring). There is even a great, great surprise cameo by two well-known characters from another movie series. Mostly though, Scream 3 is just another in the recent series of teen slasher movies, an uninspired excuse for hacking up an attractive cast of actors. It is exactly the kind of picture the original Scream would have made fun of.

( out of four)

Scream 3 is rated R for language and graphic violence. The running time is 1 hour and 56 minutes.