Write a commentSometimes, I just freeze.
I'm usually decent in emergency situations. I can normally help others out of bad scenarios and stand up for them if they need it. Most of the time, I'd rather throw myself into danger if it meant my loved ones would be safe from harm. It's more an instinct than anything else.
This isn't a humblebrag; I just don't possess that self-preservation gene. As I've gotten older, I think I realize that it's actually not heroic. It has more to do with my own self-worth. I don't see myself as something worth saving.
It's something I've been working on. A few of my close friends have broached the uncomfortable topic with me on multiple occasions, usually when they see this in action. Even when I was a kid and I was being bullied, I wouldn't stand up for myself. I'd just let it happen. I rarely ever spoke up or spoke out.
----------------POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL HARASSMENT-------------------
A few years back, I was at work. I won't get into where or exactly when and I'm changing all the names besides my own.
Myself and five others were in the breakroom. I don't recall what we were watching, but everyone was focused on the TV/VCR combo in the room. Of the other five people in the room, there was one woman. We'll call her Bertie.
Bertie had been working at this job for much longer than I had. To give you an idea of her age, she graduated high school the year after I was born. She's one of those "metal mommas". The type that never quite got out of the 80s. She dyes her hair jet black, has an eyebrow piercing and consistently wears ill-fitting clothing. My first day at the job, I was told to help her. When I met with her, she was going out of her way to be uncomfortably flirtatious. Because I was brand new, I kept quiet and went about my work.
Around the time of the story, I had been losing quite a bit of weight, enough that a lot of people had noticed. Bertie had made comments every day she saw me.
"Hey, Adam. Lookin' good. Can't believe you're still single," Bertie laughed.
I nodded, continuing on with my task.
While we were all in the breakroom, Bertie kept looking at me. I was sitting and Bertie was one of two people standing. You ever get the feeling that someone is looking at you even though you're not looking at them? It's a chilling thought. When I saw her, I reared my head back briefly as it was strange. I awkwardly nodded and looked back to the television.
The chairs in the breakroom were ones that were mostly broken desk chairs that other people had gotten rid of. The chair I was sitting in had plastic arms and there was space on either side of the chair where my waistline was exposed. I never thought anything of it.
As I was watching the program, I felt something grasp my side. For lack of a better term, it was almost like a sensual caress. I jumped, rolling my chair away from whatever it was. I turned, looking to my right and saw Bertie standing there, smiling coyly. Sort of like an "Oops. Aren't I bad?" expression.
I scanned the room and everyone was still watching TV. No one had seen it or, if they had, no one was letting on. I locked eyes with Bertie and she was sort of awkwardly swaying. I didn't know what to do.
Internally, I was screaming, mostly words I shouldn't use here. Externally, I froze. And there was Bertie, smiling and swaying.
After our lunch break was over, Bertie left along with everyone else. I stayed behind as my supervisor Gordon was checking something on the computer. Problem was one of the other coworkers would always find an excuse not to work. Travis, we'll call him, would assume no one else was working if people continued to sit around so he'd sit around as well.
I cleared my throat. "Hey, Travis. Can I talk to Gordon for a minute?"
Travis' eyes glazed over. "Yeah, sure. I don't mind."
"I mean just him and I."
Travis nodded, looking back at his phone. I looked at Gordon.
"Travis, Adam has to speak with me. Can you go do your work?"
Travis, incensed, stood. He jammed his phone in his pocket and stomped off. Gordon looked at me, seemingly knowing something was wrong.
"Do you want the door shut," he asked.
"I'll make this quick. You know..."
As if having taken lessons from Cosmo Kramer himself, Bertie bursts through the open door. "Hey, guys! Whatcha talkin' 'bout?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. I'll catch up with you later, Gordon."
"What? Did I interrupt boy talk," Bertie giggled.
I walked past her and started my work.
A couple of hours later, Gordon asked if I would help him with a project. He was busy on a machine and I had to ensure no one walked out. Safety first. As I'm standing there, Bertie comes up the stairs and walks directly towards me. I countered her and we ended up going in this small circle.
Bertie was right next to me, giggling. In a tiny, sing-songy voice, she said, "Why are you avoiding me?"
I nervously laughed and mumbled something. She muttered back and walked onto the elevator. She stared me down, smiling as the elevator doors shut.
At that moment, I saw Gordon coming towards me with the machine and I walked out in front of him. "We gotta talk."
Gordon and I went into a room and I told him everything. After I was done, I said, "Should I tell Scott?"
(Scott was Gordon's supervisor. Notoriously, Scott thought he was smarter than everyone else and constantly condescended to everyone. He would frequently say that he "avoids drama". In my experience, the ones that say that are usually the ones that are neck deep in it.)
Gordon nodded. "It's probably a good idea."
I walked to another room and dialed Scott's desk phone. I told him the entire thing as I did Gordon. I was just about finished when Scott interrupted with a deep sigh followed by, "You done?"
I said, "...uh, yeah. I guess."
"Okay. Well, we all know that Bertie is weird."
"Okay."
"Okay. So, yeah."
Silence.
"'So, yeah' what," I asked.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Don't you think it's a bit beyond just weird?"
Scott sighed again. "Adam, what do you want me to do?"
"I'm looking for advice."
"You're a big boy, Adam. I think you can figure this out on your own."
I shook my head. "Isn't it at least sexual harassment?"
"No, Adam. You're overreacting, like usual. Bertie is a touchy person. That's just who she is."
"Scott, hold on. If the same thing happened and the genders were reversed..."
"Well, hold on. That's a different story. If you were a woman then it would definitely be sexual harassment."
"But, how does it..."
"You know what, Adam? Do whatever you want!"
Scott slammed the phone down, hanging up on me.
I sat down where I was and thought about it for a minute. Gordon was helpful, but Scott went out of his way to make me feel tiny. Talking to Scott, I felt worse than I did before.
So, I went to human resources. The people there were much more helpful and understanding. They told me that what happened to me qualified as sexual assault. I never thought of it that way. I just didn't like how it was being handled by Scott. Human resources took care of it and, while Bertie ultimately kept her job, human resources told her this was her one and only warning.
A few years after this, I was speaking to a different coworker. Joe casually brought up to me how he had his own experience with Bertie in the past. Bertie had recently gotten piercings and was going around to people, rubbing up against them and asking them if they knew where the piercings were. She did this to several men including Joe.
I said, "Did you report her?"
Joe scoffed. "You think that'll do anything? Her and Scott are buddy/buddy. You know that."
"When did this happen?"
"The rubbing thing? Like a couple of months ago, but she's been doing all kinds of weird stuff like this for years."
This floored me. Bertie had just been doing similar things all along and a group of people had been harassed by her. They just never said anything. After this, Scott made a point to make my life miserable at work. He went around telling everyone how I overreact and I love drama.
You're probably asking yourself, "What does any of this have to do with Scream 3?" Really, you probably asked this several paragraphs ago. Those of you who have seen it probably already know.
The pink elephant in the room when discussing the earlier Scream films is Harvey Weinstein. Those of you with an eagle eye may have noticed multiple versions of the mask in the original Scream. This was due to Weinstein's continual interference on set. Beyond that, he was known to "buy" Oscars which led to Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture in 1998 over Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. After the ceremony, Weinstein was rumored to have seen Spielberg and arrogantly said, "Better luck next year."
Weinstein is an excrement stain on the history of film and he's not the only one. Anyone who checks the news even casually probably knows of his crimes. And, while he's a monster, that doesn't mean he's the only one. Or the first one. The skewed power dynamics of men and women have been around longer than I, or anyone else reading this, have been around.
Scream 3 billed itself as the concluding chapter of a trilogy. Most people know the final film in a trilogy is usually disappointing, just ask my parents. (I am the third of three children. Zing.) Coming off of the first two, Scream 3 had a lot riding on it. Wes Craven wanted to get out of horror for a while and direct a simple drama. A deal was struck that he would be allowed to do just that if he agreed to direct Scream 3. Thus, we have Music of the Heart, a decent drama with Meryl Streep, but nothing much deeper than that.
Production began on Scream 3 right around the time of the Columbine massacre. The producers were concerned about violence in the media criticisms so there was a concerted effort on the part of the production crew to tone down the violence. The violence in the original Scream harkened back to Craven's days as somewhat of a Grindhouse director. The opening scene of Scream has much more in common with The Last House on the Left than any of Craven's jokier ouvre.
Scream 2 upped the gore and suspense, but lowered the intensity. The set pieces were bloody and fun and the tone of the film erred more towards comedy. Arguably, it was more entertaining than the first film. And why not? All films are best seen in a movie theater, but horror seems to be the most entertaining. They're group experiences. Hearing someone yell out in terror over something silly and then the theater laughs at them is one of life's great joys.
Where does that leave Scream 3? Without the intensity and the gore, what can a Scream film really be?
Well, kind of a mishmash of tones, actually.
----------------------------SPOILERS AHEAD---------------------------
Scream 3 begins with the now famous "Williamson opener". Except this script wasn't written by Williamson. Taking over writing duties is Ehren Kruger. He worked from an outline by Williamson, but took things in his own direction. This particular film suffers from characters making weird decisions and acting a little dumber than we know they are. Williamson was writing several other projects and working on his directorial debut, Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Judging by that film, he should have stuck to writing.
After Cotton and his girlfriend are killed in the opening, we meet up with Sidney. Now out of college and living in isolation with her dog, she works for a women's shelter via phone and under a fake name. It's kind of exactly what you'd imagine Sidney would be doing. Gale is informed of the murder of Cotton and his girlfriend by Detective Mark Kincaid (Dempsey). Kincaid shows Gale a very old picture of Sidney's mother. We come to find out that the pictures of Sidney's mother were modeling pictures shot on a studio backlot. The same one that the latest Stab film is being shot.
The central mystery of a Scream film is not only who is behind the killings but also the motivation. As the film goes on, we find out that the producer of the latest Stab movie is a man named John Milton (Henriksen). When Milton is confronted with the pictures of Sidney's mother, he explains that she was one of a number of girls who came to Hollywood with dreams of being a star but didn't make it. He claims that Sidney's mother knew what she was getting into and was a willing participant.
Ultimately, we find out that the killer is Roman Bridger (Foley), the illegitimate son of Sidney's mother. He went to find her when he was younger and, when he did, she rejected him. Roman began to stalk Sidney's mother, and found out she was having an affair with both Cotton as well as Billy's father. He then approached Billy with the information which led to the murder of Sidney's mother. Roman started all of it. Roman was born out of one of Sidney's mother's sexual assaults. We don't know which one but it is heavily implied he's John Milton's.
This casts Sidney's mother in a different light. Throughout the first and second, a lot of pejoratives were used to describe Sidney's mother. With Scream 3, we see her as a victim, not unlike her daughter. Roman even says that what happened to Sidney's mother in Hollywood is what made her who she was. The movie does not make what happened to Sidney's mother her fault. Milton tries to say she knew what she was getting into and maybe things got out of hand. It's all really grimy.
What sets Scream 3 apart from the first two, to me anyway, is the audacity of the filmmakers to tackle such a heavy subject, especially with who their producer was. It's one of those situations where I have no idea how it got made considering how involved Weinstein was said to be in the first one. My guess is he has a stunning lack of self-awareness and an overabundance of hubris.
Sidney, of course, has always been our heroine. The series has a number of strong female characters with agency. What is most impressive to me about this one is how they made us identify with Sidney's mother. While never a villain, the first two films didn't paint her in the best of lights. This one shows us that trauma is unfortunately generational, perpetuated by people in power.
-----------------SPOILERS END-----------------
In the end, we get an epilogue of sorts. Sidney walks onto her property, throwing the gates open. She walks past Gale and Dewey on the porch. Dewey proposes to Gale in one of the series' most heartwarming scenes. Cox and Arquette are so good in this scene. It feels real because their love and chemistry has always been real. Sidney walks into her home and is about to set her security system when Kincaid tells her they're about to start a movie. Gale and Dewey run in as well.
The sweeping music from moments before mutes as Sidney walks away from her door. After a few steps, she hears the wind push the door open. She stares back at it, smiling slightly. She's not afraid anymore. She can move on now. The door remains open, signifying both the end of something and the beginning of something new for Sidney: peace. It then cuts to black as the credits roll.
This kind of ambiguity isn't something we're exactly used to in a Scream film. They're usually pretty literal and explain (and sometimes over explain) things to the audience. The quiet of this moment is, for lack of a better term, beautiful, which is unexpected for a film like this. Personally, I believe it's one of the best shots of the series.
Given what I've said, there are flaws to the film. Because of all the problems with the production (different screenwriter, seemingly daily rewrites, Campbell's lack of screentime, the somewhat toothless violence in response to Columbine) lead to some weird tones that don't always mesh. There are a few scenes where you see Craven proving how good he is at blocking action, but nothing that rises to the level of the previous entries. It is definitely the weakest of the first three, but it's still fun and very entertaining. Add in the metatextual aspects, it sits comfortably as 4th best of the series (so far).
When all the stuff happened with me and my coworker, I know that it doesn't hold a candle to some of the things other people have been subjected to. I think Bertie is a terrible human being and the administration of my job turning a blind eye to it is incredibly frustrating. What, as a society, has led us to this moment in history? Why is it so difficult to hold people accountable for their actions? As I've mentioned before, and as some of you know already, my father was a police officer. I remember around the time that I bought my first car, my father said to me, "If you ever get a ticket and you say my name, I'll make sure you do jail time." He did not mess around when it came to those things because he thought that people should be better and the police had a responsibility to set the tone.
We need to pay attention to things like this and believe victims of all kinds of crimes. Society deserves better. Good friends of mine will say it's capitalism, and maybe that's true. I think fundamentally the collective psyche of the world is incredibly skewed. We don't want to hear when other people are inconvenienced. If it didn't happen to us, why should we care? That's true cynicism. My "society bums me out" rhetoric has hope that people can change. Maybe that's silly. I hope not.
Maybe I'll drop off a copy of Scream 3 to Bertie and hope she understands why. Or to Scott. Or to human resources. More than likely they wouldn't understand, but that hope for human goodness remains. Sometimes, it's the only light in the darkness we have.
Scream 3 (2000)
Directed by Wes Craven
Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Matt Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Deon Richmond, Liev Schreiber, Kelly Rutherford, Patrick Warburton, Josh Pais, Roger Corman, Lynn McRee, Heather Matarazzo, Lawrence Hecht, Jamie Kennedy, Roger Jackson
Runtime: 117 minutes
MPAA Rating: R (for strong horror violence and language)
Rating (out of ****): ***1/2
"Scream 3" is available on Paramount+ with a subscription as well as on all major streaming platforms for rent or buy. It is also available on 4K Blu-Ray for purchase.
