10 Horror Movies That Should've Scrapped Their Opening Scene
5. Scream 3
In addition to being the consensus-worst film in the franchise, Scream 3 also has the weakest opening sequence of the lot, but it could've been fixed by straight-up ditching the first half of it.
The threequel begins in flabbergastingly flat fashion as Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is taunted over the phone by Ghostface while in traffic, prompting him to speed home to check on his girlfriend Christine (Kelly Rutherford), who meanwhile has to deal with Ghostface... playing Creed over Cotton's stereo. Eww.
This is all dead weight, basically, and the whole sequence would've felt far more urgent if we simply started with Ghostface preying on Christine at home.
Holding off on showing us Cotton would've also made the reveal that Ghostface was using a voice changer to imitate him more impactful.
Instead, Scream 3's overbaked intro feels padded and leaden, lacking the magic touch of Kevin Williamson's brilliant opening scenes from the first two movies.