No spoilers, I promise.
Sequels! I have seen very few horror movie sequels. Only recently did I see the wonderful A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. And I loved it. But sequels to horror films always struck me as blatant rip-offs of the first movie, trying to capitalize on the success of what was probably a great film.
My actual feeling before seeing this movie! But the best part about Scream 2 is that it anticipates this doubt. It’s kind of an underdog in that way, and by utilizing the lack of expectations in what a sequel can be, it succeeds in being awesome.
The film opens at a movie theater scene, the opening night of the new horror movie “Stab.” The movie is literally based on the actual murders that take place in the first Scream movie, with Heather Graham playing Drew Barrymore’s character in an almost shot for shot recreation of the first scene of the original movie.
In the Scream 2 scene, Maureen and her boyfriend, Phil, are murdered at the theater, one of them in front of the entire movie-going audience. The highly stylized murder is an affront on the rowdy “violence is cool” antics of the audience, and it’s all pretty meta.
Which leads us into a film class at the fictional Windsor college, where the surviving members of the first movie, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy), are students. The students in the film class have a legitimate discussion about the effect violent movies have on the public, and even talk about whether a sequel can ever be as good as the original.
By constantly criticizing and critiquing the horror genre, Scream 2 rises above the boring “the killer is back” stories of previous franchises. The killer is back this time, but is he inspired by the reality of the original murders, or does he want to be the star of Stab 2? Is this a revenge story or a copycat killer?
Courtney Cox is also back as the sassy journalist Gale Weathers, who wrote the novel that inspired the movie Stab. There’s so much meta-reality here, it’s very fun to watch.
We also get future Mr. Courtney Cox, David Arquette as officer Dewey Riley.
And new characters!
Sorority girl Cici (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Sidney Prescott’s college roommate Hallie (Elise Neal).
Not to mention the best of all, Portia de Rossi as sorority sister Murphy.
Eyebrows on fleek tbh.
The film is led by the impressive Neve Campbell, who deals with some serious post-traumatic stress after only two years of being “free” of her killer.
What I love about Sidney as a lead character is that she is a scream queen, but she is also capable of taking care of herself. She killed the killer in the first movie, and she’s not afraid to do it again. She’s clearly been through a lot, so we get to watch her genuinely be affected by the horrors of the first movie, not to mention having to relive it when a movie based on her disturbing past is released in theaters (she’s played by Tori Spelling).
And finally, there’s Randy, another Scream survivor.
The film mocks itself for being a sequel, mocks the horror genre for so many of its lazy sequels, and mocks you as an audience member for thinking you could predict how this one will end. Today, in 2015, the only way to make a sequel is to wink at the audience the whole time (22 Jump Street), and this film is a precursor to that much needed self-awareness. If it wasn’t in on the joke, it’d be the butt of it.
Scream 2 grossed $172 million on a $24 million budget, and it earned an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you haven’t seen any of the Scream films, definitely watch them in order (I saw Scream 4, then Scream, then Scream 2… oops). There were parts where I didn’t even remember who did what in reference to the first film, and I saw it less than a year ago.
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