Review of Scream 2 (1997) by Jacob B — 11 Feb 2018

Scream 2 may not be as good as the first film and it doesn't have as many comedic elements as the first movie but it still succeeds in making fun of tropes common in horror movies. The opening scene demonstrates this by having a black woman and her boyfriend be the first ones to go.

Then Randy points out that, as a horror movie sequel, it's going to have a bigger body count. Scream 2 utilizes the same plot twist as the first film...and it works. There are two major problems with this movie.

Gale suggests that Ghostface is murdering people based off of their names depending on the body count of the last movie. It's never expanded upon. Then there's the fact that half of the people in the movie are asking to be a suspect.

Ghostface's not that stupid. Plus we already have reason to believe the people who aren't Sidney and Gale that survived the last movie aren't Ghostface. Scream 2 is gleefully self-aware and will please horror movie fans but it's not as good as the first film.

Those film students are right. Maybe the only sequels that are better than the original are the ones that have James Cameron involved and aren't part of a planned franchise, specifically a trilogy.