The scene after her chase scene at the Stab 3 set when Dewey runs to her. The best acting in the entire series. My favorite scene of acting anywhere, to be honest. Scream 3 was a once-in-a-lifetime performance for Neve. She completely dominated the movie and the series with this one performance. To say she less screentime than the first two and still come out shining the way she does really is a testament to her. She is really given great material to work with. It's so emotional, with a range of emotions. Neve shows Sidney as strong, smart, but damaged mentally. Every scene, every piece of dialogue, every gesture feels completely necessary to the character development of the leading lady. This performance is what defines Sidney Prescott to me more than any of the other three performances. Bravo, Neve!
Scream 1's performance is a far #2 behind Scream 3. The "shock" value of her performance in the second half is pretty jaw-dropping, to sustain that much emotion for such a long period of time is remarkable. "Kill of be killed" is the best way to sum up Sidney's character arc, and Neve tells us this not overtly, but graciously. She also portrays the "loneliness" in the first half well, but then again this storyline was expanded in Scream 3. I love the string of scenes after school in the first film where she is alone in her house. Neve holds our attention through subtle notions. This first half is really where she must ground the character that would be built upon for three other films.
It's always been hard for me to compare Scream 2 and Scream 4 in terms of Neve's performance. It's always been hard to name a winner in the acting race between the two.
The problem with Scream 2 is that her storyline, Her screentime may be strong, but the story is really weak compared to the other three; it was basically all filler scenes of what could possibly happen at a college campus until the finale. She's always believable as Sidney, don't get me wrong, but she just feels kind of lame here, especially next to Gale's expanded, meaty storyline. However, the scene where Derek dies is heart-breaking, mostly because of Neve's reaction. So sad. That scene is the best acted scene in either 2 or 4 by Neve, but I think 4 is overall slightly better.
Neve dials down the heavy tone after Sidney came full-circle in 3, and effortlessly becomes Sidney in 4. She's so natural in the role it's almost hard to tell she's even acting. She has a great scene of really tender acting with Jill in the kitchen. The problem with 4 is that Neve feels like she isn't all there because of the ensemble-esque style of the film. It's her least involved performance, or at least it feels that way. But when she is on screen, the film overflows with Sidney's complexity portrayed with subtly by Neve.
My Final Ranking of Neve's acting in the Scream Quadrilogy...>
1. Scream 3
2. Scream
3. Scream 4
4. Scream 2
