Scream 3 Assembly Cut: What Is This New Viral Edit Of Wes Craven's Original Film?

Wes Craven brought a meta approach to franchise horror filmmaking with "Scream." The director passed away on August 30, 2015, and nearly eight years after his death, a new vision of one of his films has emerged to give "Scream" fans a serious case of "What if?" It also coincides with the upcoming 4k remastered release of "Scream 3," coming out on October 3. But many have already taken a gander at the long-rumored "Scream 3" assembly cut. 

The rough cut of the horror film as it was on October 1999 was uploaded by Scream Thrillogy via Google Drive. It's an early cut of the movie before reshoots took place, and it includes more than 20 minutes of footage that were ultimately scrubbed from the theatrical cut. While certain scenes were long speculated on, the assembly cut confirms them once and for all. 

There are plenty of notable changes between the two versions. As a rough draft, the assembly cut uses temporary music for some scenes. Audio from Ghostface also remains unfinalized, and there's different dialogue when the voice changer is used. All told, the "Scream 3" assembly cut runs at two hours and 20 minutes, which makes it roughly 20 minutes longer than the theatrical release.

There's plenty for diehard "Scream" fans to get out of the rough cut. That's made immediately clear right off the bat. For starters, the "Scream 3" assembly cut has a slightly different opening scene in which Christine (Kelly Rutherford) is killed off-screen, while Cotton (Liev Schreiber) is killed thinking Ghostface using the voice modulator is her. In the theatrical cut, Christine actually has a physical presence. 

After the title card, the assembly cut transitions to Gale's (Courteney Cox) press conference, but the theatrical version goes straight to Sidney (Neve Campbell) walking her dog, Cherokee, by her house in a secluded area. Various other scenes follow in this vein, such as there being a longer pause when Gale is asked at the conference, "Was it worth it?" There are also more references to Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale breaking up in the rough draft. 

With Wes Craven no longer with us, it's bound to be a treat for fans to see and hear new scenes he directed. And even though "Scream 3" is considered one of the goofier entries in the franchise, many fans clearly have a soft spot for it. And with new scenes and a 4k remaster on the way, the threequel may finally get the respect it deserves.