| “ | I did not fuck that pig, Milton, to get a leading role just to die here with second rate celebrities like you two! | „ |
| ― To Gale and Jennifer before running from them |
Angelina Tyler is a character in Scream 3 (2000). She is the chosen actress to replace Tori Spelling and portray heroine, Sidney Prescott in Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro—a fictional slasher story—unrelated to the real-life killing sprees in the previous two films. She is also possibly the hidden secondary antagonist of the film.
The new murders at Sunrise Studios cancel the production and the film is never made, preventing Angelina from gaining the career she seemingly wanted. A re-produced third Stab film is re-titled Stab 3: Hollywood Horror, based on these true events, according to Jenny Randall (and the poster at Cinema Club and Gale's desk also confirm its title). According to Richie Kirsch later, there are two killers in all Stab films. With much of Scream 3's actual production filmed with Angelina as the second killer in mind, she may be the accomplice in Stab as well.
Throughout the film, she feigns an innocent and innocuous persona, which unravels in the final act. A majority of the film's production was shot with Angelina as the second killer—an accomplice to Roman Bridger—but the studio rejected the idea towards the end of production. During Sidney's attack on set, two Ghostface entities target her simultaneously, on opposite ends of the room, making the involvement of an accomplice canon without explicit reference.
Editor Patrick Lussier and Producer Marianne Maddelena question whether her stabbing was staged or not in the official Scream 3 DVD/Blu-Ray commentary. In the DVD trilogy boxset created by Wes Craven, she is omitted as a victim, while every other known victim remains on a list.
Biography[]
Background[]
Angelina is the lead actress starring in Roman Bridger's Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro (2000) alongside returning cast member Jennifer Jolie and newcomers Tyson Fox, Tom Prinze and Sarah Darling. She is cast following Tori Spelling's decision not to return to the role after Stab 2 (1999 film).
However, due to the eventual cancellation of Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, it is possible Spelling returned for Stab 3: Hollywood Horror approx. six years later.
Despite beating out "50,000" girls for the role of Sidney, she is apparently hesitant to keep the role going upon Cotton Weary and Christine Hamilton's murders. Tom Prinze cast doubt on her sympathy, and mocked her supposed sincerity saying, "queue the violins". For a brief moment, Sarah expressed sympathy for her genuine concern.
Angelina was an alleged associate of John Milton, a Sunrise Studios executive and horror producer. He hired Maureen Prescott for small roles in three horror films. As the ending revealed, Angelina apparently manipulated her sexuality to win the role of Sidney Prescott. She admits this scandal to Jennifer and Gale when the three girls were being chased by Ghostface and she tells them off.
She appeared to be a meek and innocent actress with no afflictions and gentle nature until Gale and Jennifer's information on the "death" of Roman. This is when she finally admits to what she did to get her role. While running down a flight of stairs in John Milton's mansion, she turns the corner just to be stabbed in chest by Ghostface. Gale and Jennifer run to her aid, just to see her body being dragged out of sight.
Second Killer[]
In Scream 3, Roman is revealed to be the killer. Though the reveal never happened explicitly, visual and diegetic evidence unveil a hidden, second killer in Scream 3.
Roman Can't Work Alone[]
- Stab 3's 34 Elm Assailants: Two people attack Sidney in the Stab 3 set version of her house, 34 Elm.
- Someone tries to open Sidney's room door, while someone else in the window grabs Sidney from behind, on the opposite end of the room. This occurs 3 seconds within one another.
- Sidney throws one Ghostface to the landing of her set-bed in her room, revealed to be one massive fall, while seconds later, as Sidney remains on the top floor, the voice of Maureen (the other killer) tells her to go to her mother's room across from where she was. We later learn this is not Sidney's imagination, as the entity goes after Sidney from the window in Maureen's body bag. These events also occur a moment apart.
- Why Threaten Cotton?: Roman is unable to track Sidney down, so much so that he threatens to kill Christine unless Cotton Weary gives up her whereabouts. As director, there are many ways he could have gotten access to Dewey's phone records as an employee of his. But it does not explain why he threatens Cotton in the opening. If he already knew, why does he threaten Cotton that he will kill Christine unless he reveals Sidney's whereabouts?
- Sarah's call: If Roman calls Sarah Darling from the set, how is she unable to hear him from inside the studio, speaking to him on the phone? Unless a second killer is on-set, and Roman is using his normal voice from afar (which also gives him an alibi).
- Gas stove explosion: It is impossible for Roman to have done everything in this scene by himself. He would need to quickly run to Jennifer's house to turn the gas stove on after killing Stone, cut the power, fax the script pages from the back-up power fax, cause Tom Prinze's death, attack Gale at the bottom of the hill, be shot by Dewey in the chest, then leave a photo of Maureen, all without being detected.
- Two Voice Changers: Roman has two voice modifiers in the film. While Gale is in possession of one after finding it in a closet, Roman clearly has another, as Roger L. Jackson's voice is heard in the grunts of attacking and killing the Stab 3 cast. It is possible he retrieved the other one from Gale after kidnapping her, but it does not explain why he needs a second.
- In the fifth film, Stab super-fan Richie Kirsch notes that in the Stab films, there are always two killers, and does not detail an exception. Given the events of Scream 3 were adapted into the book, Hollywood Horror and later a film Stab 3: Hollywood Horror, this seems to correlate with the idea that there was a second killer revealed in real-life sometime later on, which became the inspiration for the film Stab 3. According to fellow super-fan Jenny Randallfrom Scream 4, the third film was also based on Sidney's true story, which would reinforce that there was a second killer in the actual third film's events.
Angelina as the Second Killer[]
The majority of the film's production was shot with Sidney's Stab 3 actress, Angelina Tyler (portrayed by Emily Mortimer) as the second killer. This is why she has rather odd behavior throughout the film and almost seems to change personalities each scene that she is in. Tom Prinze even suspected that she had a darker side to her, mocking her ingenue act.
The Stab 3 wrap-up party for example has Angelina act rather suspiciously, as she constantly enters and leaves the house for seemingly no reason. She also wanders away from the others before the explosion at Jennifer Jolie's house occurred. She safely walks down the hill to reunite with everyone later, implying she knew about the gas the whole time and broke away from everyone right before the house exploded. She even ignores Dewey's question on how she even got to the other side of the hill, by what some interpret as feigning hysteria over Tom's death.
The washroom scene at the Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro set ultimately became fauxshadowing with the reveal that Angelina was the other killer being cut. Wes Craven explains on the DVD/Blu-ray audio commentary that Sidney, by breaking down the stall door, actually caught Angelina in the act of changing into her Ghostface costume to terrorize her, unknowingly though. Sidney seems to believe Angelina's excuse that she was only sneaking props off of the set. Angelina in this scene is wearing the same Doc Martens that Ghostface is wearing during the Stab 3 set attack one scene later, and her skirt appears to blend well with the bottom half of the Ghostface robe.
Roman's 30th birthday party scene contains even more suspicious behavior from Angelina. Not only is she the first one there with Roman, but it is their idea to have everyone split up to look around the mansion and explore. Angelina accompanies Tyson throughout the journey but goes into another room alone at some point and disappears from his sight. When she re-appears, it's from a secret passageway and is trying to get Gale and Jennifer to follow her inside before they inform her that Roman was "killed" by Ghostface. If she is a killer, it could have been a trap that she was trying to lure them into.
Filming began without a script, with draft re-writes written each day by Krueger in his office, though this story element remained with many clues in the final product shelved, making her a Red Herring. It was changed last minute due to the studio disagreeing with the idea (See: Executive Meddling).
Marianne Maddalena expressed disappointment with the removal of the incestuous element in the reveal, as "we loved the sickness of that" (referring to Craven, Maddalena and Lussier) and the subsequent reveal, which in a script, followed her "body", as well as Tyson's and Jennifer's legitimate corpses, hung up Silence of the Lambs style, for when Sidney arrives at Milton's mansion, only to reveal she was alive.
This would explain why she was dragged away prior, and why the physical knife impaling her chest is never explicitly seen on-screen. Maddalena and Lussier believe her death scene to be dubious.
The Official DVD/Blu-Ray Scream collection booklet also infer Angelina is alive. The section for Scream 3 in the official list of Scream trilogy deaths (which include killers), excludes Angelina. In January 2000, 3 months after production wrapped, re-shoots led Mark Kincaid (played by Dempsey in a wig) to be involved in the replacement to Angelina's reveal scene, and also to adequately conclude his character arc.
Scrapped from canon, the drafts written revealed Angelina had a pseudonym like Nancy Loomis had with the name Debbie Salt. She was to be revealed as Angie Crick, Sidney's former classmate and Roman's secret girlfriend.
Remnants of Angelina's aborted story arc were passed onto sequel characters, Judy Hicks as a Red Herring (a former classmate of Sidney's) and Jill Roberts as the Killer (wanting to become Sidney and desiring her fame). This Mythology Gag may erase Angelina's motivation/backstory if she were still considered to be the hidden, second killer, but it nonetheless remains possible of her involvement.
Personality[]
Angelina encouraged her image as a sweet ingenue actress from the Midwest, but she had a darker side. Tom Prinze suspected she wasn't exactly what she seemed.
Sidney found her stealing Ghostface props from the set once it was closed. (Though she stated she was a huge fan of Sidney and wanted souvenirs just in case she never got another role in a movie.)
Shortly before her "death", she reveals she didn't fairly won the contest to play Sidney when she revealed that she slept with John Milton to get the role, though this may have been yet another part of her act.
Trivia[]
Angelina is omitted from the death toll in the Blu-Ray/DVD Scream Trilogy boxset booklet.
- She was described as "20. Extremely naïve looking... She's timid, with short dark hair" and looking closely to Sidney in the script.
- Named after actresses Angelina Jolie and Liv Tyler.
- In the beginning of the movie, she has long brown hair and bangs, resembling Sidney's look in the first Scream film (similar to Jennifer portraying a version of Gale with her original hairstyle seen in the first film). She also wears red, which Sidney also wears in her next on-screen appearance right afterwards. For a majority of the film, however, she has short hair. This is believed to be because Sidney had short hair at the time, too, a reflection of their casual real-life resemblance.
- Emily Mortimer didn't have a permit to work in the United States, as she is British. Fortunately, Emily was able to get a permit just before production went underway so she could portray Angelina Tyler.
- Alicia Silverstone was offered the role of Angelina Tyler as well as Christine Hamilton and Sarah Darling, but she turned them all down.
- Claire Danes, Christie Clark, Alyson Hannigan, Kellie Martin, and Eliza Dushku were also considered for the role.
- On the Scream trilogy boxset, Angelina is not listed as a victim for the third massacre.
- Majority of the film's production (as well as the original final script), as well as her official death scene, was shot with Angelina as the intended second Ghostface, meaning her on-screen death was originally intended to be a fake-out.
- In the scrapped unveiling, she comes alive after being shown Silence of the Lambs-style strung up with Jennifer and Tyson's corpses, observed by Sidney who comes to the mansion, while Dewey and Gale would be "behind the screen" in the screening room, according to editor, Patrick Lussier.
- In the screening room, Sidney meets Angelina, where she reveals she is Roman's girlfriend and accomplice, and in reference to the incest connotations, Maddelena said, "we [Craven/Lussier/Maddelena] loved the sickness of that". (1:32:29-01:33:27 in the Scream 3 DVD commentary)
- This version was deemed "scarier" by producer Marianne Maddalena, compared to the filmed version where Dewey and Gale are simply tied up.
- Kincaid was added/expanded to appear in the climax to replace it.
- The script also delves further into the original plan, showing she was intended to be a former classmate of Sidney from Woodsboro, originally named Angie Crick. Her motivation was stated as idolizing Sidney and wanting her fame and attention, thus taking on the role of Sidney in the third Stab film. The idea was cut from the film's theatrical release, and two elements of this were submerged into two characters later on.
- The backstory of being Sidney's classmate was later used as a red herring for Judy Hicks in Scream 4 (2011).
- The killer idolizing and wanting to be Sidney was given to the following female killer, Jill Roberts, also in Scream 4 (2011).
- Despite these cut story elements being re-used, per Wes Craven's words as director, he views her as the secret accomplice. It is possible, with the recycling of Angelina's original story docs to Jill and Judy that her motivation as a killer may be different.
- The name Angie would have fit the other Scream film series killers, where at least one killer's name from each film ends with an "(i)e" name: Billy (first film), Mickey (second film), Charlie (fourth film) and Richie (fifth film).
- Editor Patrick Lussier and producer Marianne Maddalena found her death scene to be dubious, though whether this is canon remains questionable.
- If she is the Accomplice Killer, this technically means Scream 3 has 3 villains (like other "3" numbered references in the film, including 3 scripts): Roman, John Milton and Angelina.
- Fauxshadowing: Due to the reveal being cut, much of Angelina's foreshadowing as killer becomes fauxshadowing.
- Tom Prinze asks, "What if the killer's Sidney Prescott?" The meta of this scene is that the killer would have been Stab Sidney, while the real Sidney was planned on being framed.
- Sidney, trying to explain to Mark that she was attacked on the Stab 3 set, refers to Ghostface as a he or she. Sidney at that point is aware now that the killer can be a female after her encounter with Nancy Loomis, and the line was also supposed to double as foreshadowing, for the reveal that Angelina is the other killer.