Review of Scream 2 (1997) by Movie G — 23 Aug 2011

Scream is undoubtedly one of my favourite horror movies ever. It perfectly combined thrilling slasher violence with a great sense of humour and did it with excellent acting and writing as well, a rarity in the horror genre. Going into this I was expecting a lame sequel, but after I read that Wes Craven & Kevin Williamson were both still on board my expectations soared, and they were for the most part met.

The movie is set 1 year after the first one. Sidney is now in University with Randy, one of the only survivors of the first film, and a movie is being made about the killings. It's start to inspire a copycat killer that starts terrorizing the gang again. It's sort of a lame way to bring back the killer, but as I said with the first film it's the dialogue that the films screenplay relies on.

The first film was filled with tonnes of jokes that parodied other classic slasher movies and who stupid the people in them were, and since they knew they couldn't do this again they focused their jokes on something else, sequels themselves. It's actually great because just about every great slasher movie spawned a franchise so it gives them an endless amount of new jokes to work with. The film does have its corny lines, but it makes up for them with returning gags like Randy's list of horror movie basics, this time about the rules of sequels.

The film's acting is pretty much the same for the most part. Sidney is played by Neve Campbell about the same. She's good, but not great. David Arquette is once again great as the loveably awkawrd cop Dewey. The real changes occur with Courtney Cox as Gail, & Jamie Kennedy as Randy. In this movie I think Jamie Kennedy is fantastic, as he ways in the first film, but he's also a much more likeable guy, maybe its because you know he's not the killer this time, and Courtney Cox I absolutely hated, but I liked her in the first movie. I don't really know how to explain it further so i'll leave it at that.

I also found the film within the film pretty funny. It makes of fun of other horror cliches like how the girl getting killed is always naked, who in this movie is Heather Graham playing Drew Barrymore's character from the first movie who we know was never naked so that's just studio executives trying to get money. It also makes fun of the first Scream film with things like how obvious it was a retractible fake knife that stabbed Drew Barrymore.

As for the killer, he's about the same. Same costume, same voice, same everything, and this is where I start to criticize this movie, becuase the killer was killed at the end of the last movie, so how is he back? I understand its a copycat but how is it exactly the same?!?!?!

The direction by Wes Craven was again typical, just copying other slasher movies which I guess technically is Wes Craven's style since he made Classic Slasher movies, but whatever. Same can be said for the music, typical slasher fare.

The movie also doesn't keep you guessing like the first one did. Sure it's hard to figure out who the killer is but the first movie kept throwing incorrect clues at you to throw you off, whereas this one leaves you open to think.

Overall as far as horror sequels go this is probably the best one I've ever seen, but a few obvious problems keep it from being as good as the original but it still has the same charm and entertainment factor. I thought the story from the first movie ended perfectly, but this movie continues it quite well and is definately worth seeing if you're a fan of the first film.