Scream 2 (USA, 1997) - Color, Director(s): Wes Craven
MPAA Rating: R
[UK: 18]
Approx. 120 min.
Z-rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Cheese Factor: 2 stars out of 5
One year later, a sequel to the immensely popular Scream dropped with Wes Craven back in the director's chair and Kevin Williamson writing the screenplay. The surviving cast from the first film returned along with names like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jada Pinkett-Smith (credited as Jada Pinkett), Timothy Olyphant, and Jerry O'Connell.
The murders of the first film have now been adapted into a movie titled Stab by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Let me just say, The Stab movie premiere looks fucking *AMAZING*! Free costume with fake knife, William Castle-esque puppets flying over the crowd, and black lights that make your mask and knife glow-in-the-dark?! THAT'S a premiere I want to go to! With everyone dressed like Ghostface, a copycat killer murders Jada Pinkett-Smith and Omar Epps. Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) are now in college and it turns out the two slaughtered theater patrons attended the same school. Reporters, including Gale Weathers, immediately swarm in for the story and Dewey (David Arquette) flies out from Woodsboro. With the gang back together, they try to stop the copycat killer who's trying to recreate the Woodboro murders.
After the first movie, there were plenty of advances in telephone services like *69, caller ID, and call waiting. This movie was smart to address these new services rather than pretend they didn't exist. Much like the first movie, this one skewers the conventions of horror movies and sequels in particular. To quote Randy, in sequels "the body count is always bigger" and "the death scenes are always much more elaborate. More blood, more gore." The body count isn't much higher than the first film but some important characters get bumped off. As a sequel, this movie is definitely bigger, even the actors who show up in bit parts are more recognizable. Heather Graham, Tori Spelling, Luke Wilson, even David Warner shows up as a drama teacher.
Nudity: None
Gore: As the tagline says, "Gorier, Sexier, Funnier" I'm not sure about about sexier since there's not much nudity in either of these movies but the stabbings are more brutal. As I mentioned before though, the body count isn't even that much higher. I mean, Gale's cameraman lives! Who's more expendable than a cameraman?? He couldn't have been that important since he doesn't come back in the 3rd one.
Awesome: Very. When we first see Randy, he's in Film Theory class and they're having a discussion that every movie geek can relate to. Scenes like this are definitely what make the Scream movies so much fun. The stakes seemed higher in this one too. The killers from the first one were a couple of high school kids in a small town, flying under the radar of the police. This time around, the police were on high alert and there were tons of reporters around covering the high profile murders. There were even a couple of detectives that followed Sidney around like they were the Secret Service protecting the President or something. I did sometimes question how the killers were able to get away with so much even with so many people around. Sometimes, the killer even seemed to pop-up out of nowhere in situations where it seems like someone should've noticed or seen him coming. In the end, this is a movie about horror movies and they even turned the events of first movie into a movie within the movie. Don't over-analyze it and just have fun watching people get sliced and diced.
For the official trailer, click here: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2471231769/