On top of that, it’d be odd making a big fuss over new characters in what may well be the final film of the franchise when said franchise has forever revolved around OG survivors Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, as well as Sidney’s family screwing over other families. Not every character can have an elaborate backstory or even a cute little side game, especially not in a film trying to make meta-jokes about characters in trilogies.
And, of course, one could also argue that some of the new faces are really just there for the body count.
Listen, we’re not saying that Scream 3 is without its faults. It gets off to a somewhat slow start, Jenny McCarthy’s Sarah elicits one too many groans, and Sidney’s dead mom dream thing feels like Craven was maybe missing his Freddy Krueger movies too much. There were a myriad of troubles with the production, from contract issues to script rewrites, but the film’s scathing commentary about the fictionalization of true crime as well as Hollywood’s treatment of women makes it a worthy and important addition to the franchise, even if reviewers didn’t think so at the time. And the ending deserves less hate because the big joke of Scream 3 and the point of the franchise is that it’s always been a family affair. The call has always been coming from inside the house. Come on, that’s the most cliched slasher horror trope you can spoof that’s not “runs upstairs.”