9 Reasons Why Scream 3 Is Not QUITE As Bad As You Remember It
3. Sidney's Haunting
The debate around which of Scream 3's failings is more significant - being a comedy that's not all that funny or a horror film that is not all that scary - is a bit of a non-starter. Even on Wes Craven's worst day, he is still an undisputed master of the genre. His skills are never more on display than when Sidney finds herself isolated from the rest of the cast, either at her safe house or wandering alone through a movie set of Woodsboro.
Sid's unresolved feelings towards her mother's death begin to manifest as chilling visitations from Maureen Prescott’s ghost. At first,, this takes the form of the classic gothic horror trope of spectral and fog-shrouded apparitions at her window. The second time is a more modern take on the same trope, with a blood-splattered body bag standing in for the Maureen’s spectre.
The reason that most people forget about these scenes, beyond being trapped inside a mediocre movie, is that they introduce elements of the supernatural and internal psychological imagery into a franchise that had traditionally ensued them. Scream is first and foremost a physical experience, with the focus on a cutting knife or barb rather than what a given character feels or thinks of a particular aspect of the story.