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 s a character in "Scream 2" explains, the sequel
is always bigger, bloodier, and has a bigger bodycount to satisfy the real fans.
Such is the case with "Scream 2", made one year after the original
"Scream" and
re-teams director Wes Craven with writer Kevin Williamson and brings back stars
Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox. Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the
video store clerk and horror film aficionado, also returns, but not for long.
"Scream 2" takes place 2 years after the events
of the original, with Sidney (Campbell) and Randy now in college. In the
background, Hollywood has released a movie based on the events of the original,
which was itself based on a book by spunky reporter Gale Weathers (Cox). The
movie opens at the sneak preview showing of the film, where two black college
students about a page of dialogue short of officially becoming Sassy Black
characters, get killed off by a new Ghostface killer. Suddenly Sidney finds
herself at the center of another round of murders, as the new Ghostface killer
seems determined to make a real-life sequel.
If you were wondering if "Scream 2" offers up the
same irreverent winks and nods that made the original such a, well, original,
then the answer is Yes, if only slightly. There's a scene where horror movie
buff Randy explains to Dewey (Arquette) the finer points of a horror movie
sequel, but other than that the film is a more traditional Teen Slasher than its
predecessor. But like the original, there's plenty of fun to be had with
background characters and scenarios, such as the casting of Tori Spelling
playing herself playing the Sidney character in the movie within the movie. (If
you've seen the original, you will know why this is funny.)
There's a group of new soon-to-be-dead friends for Sidney
to hang around with before their unfortunate ends, including Elise Neal as
Sidney's dorm roommate, Jerry O'Connell ("Buying
the Cow") as Sidney's new boyfriend, and "Roseanne's" Laurie
Metcalf as a reporter trying to out-scoop Gale Weathers. Not everyone gets a
chance to shine, and some cameos by known names bear out that the
"Scream" franchise has become popular enough that even known stars are
willing to show up for just a few seconds of screentime. One of them is Sarah
Michelle Gellar ("Cruel
Intentions") and another is Jada Pinkett Smith
("Ali"), both of
whom show up just long enough to get killed.
With the new settings come new problems; not for the
characters, but for us as viewers. The biggest problem is that the movie is now
working on a wider scope, which means the "house in the boondocks"
scenarios that were used so ingeniously in the original no longer works here. As
a result, when you see Sidney racing across an empty college campus, you wonder
where everyone is. Or when a police car crashes into a construction site in
the street you wonder if people in this town stop driving after dark,
especially since the scene goes on for at least 15 minutes. And here's a hint to
Sidney for the next installment: when the masked killer is lying unconscious,
you should pick up a metal rod and bash his face in, not run away.
"Scream 2" does offer up a bigger bodycount as
promised, but the film's best moments involve Liev Schreiber, who plays Cotton,
a man Sidney helped to wrongly convict years ago, and who now comes back seeking
the spotlight. Schreiber and a whole host of other characters look just insane
enough to offer themselves up as effective red herring. Okay, I'll admit it; I
had no idea who the killer was, although as the movie wore on, it started to
become obvious. But still, the film gets points for keeping me in the dark for
so long. Also, Duane Martin plays the obligatory Sassy Black character that,
because he's sassy enough, increases his chances of survival.
With "Scream 2", the trilogy has now set up 3
main characters instead of just Sidney. The part of Gale Weathers and Dewey has
grown by leaps, and both characters are now essential to the movie. While Neve
Campbell's Sidney is still our Fair Hair Lead, she now has company, which is a
good thing because seeing the same person running from a masked killer over and
over can get a bit tiresome.
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