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Do You Like Scary Movies? | “Scream 2″
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That “Scream” was an unexpected monster hit meant a meta-textual follow-up was inevitable. And so, “Scream 2″ opened less than a year after the first film. The production hit a major snag when the shooting script was leaked on the Internet — which was then in its infancy — and spoiled the ending to the movie. Kevin Williamson had to do a major rewrite during filming. Studios nowadays avoid this sort of hassle by going into production without completed scripts. There’s still the occasional leak, like when a near-completed cut of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” wound up on Bit Torrent sites back in ‘09 a month before its scheduled release. But with “Scream 2,” this was the first time a major motion picture had its creative direction drastically altered because of some doofus with a dial-up connection.
I was very excited to see “Scream 2.” Being a child of the ’80s, I grew up on film sequels, and with horror movies in particular, kind of get a kick out of how long some of those sagas can keep separating gorehounds from their discretionary income. “Scream 2″ didn’t seem like a cynical cash-in to me as much as a logical extension of the first film. To properly deconstruct the horror genre, director Wes Craven would simply have to do a deep-dive into sequels.
I think “Scream 2″ is unfairly maligned as many sequels are. It unfairly gets lumped in with the generally poor imitators that began trickling out at the time rather than being regarded as a worthy extension of the first film. More on that in a moment. First, the high-level analysis:
Body Count: Eight, unless you count Casey Becker’s on-screen death in the “Stab” movie-within-a-movie that plays during the opening sequence. Then it’s nine.
Does Sarah Michelle Gellar Die in It? Yes
Distracting “Dawson’s Creek” Actor Cameo: Joshua Jackson as Ripley-misquoting “Film Class Guy #1″
Best Cameo: Then-unknown Luke Wilson as Billy Loomis in a clip from “Stab.”
Best Exchange: Ghostface asks Randy, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” and Randy deadpans, “Showgirls. Absolutely frightening.”
Hilarious Anachronism: Film student Micky (Timothy Olyphant) carries around a Hi-8 camcorder.
Best Kill: Ghostface crashes a car at a road construction site and inadvertently plunges a length of rebar through the head of a cop who’s clinging to the hood.
“Scream 2″ picks up two years after the first film. Sidney Prescott has started college and tried to move on from the events of her ex-boyfriend’s killing spree in Woodsboro. Unfortunately for her, a copycat Ghostface killer has started bumping people off on campus in attempt at staging a real life sequel to the Woodsboro murders. And Sidney has a whole new host of potential suspects. Is it camera whore Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), the man she wrongly accused of killing her mother? Or could it be nice guy Derek (Jerry O’Connell), her new and seemingly perfect boyfriend? But what about “freaky Tarantino film student” Micky with his fetish for strong female heroes? Then again, what if one of her fellow “Scream” survivors — Gale Weathers, or Randy or even Dewey — have cracked? As with the first film, I think the mystery is more enticing than the “killer” reveal(s) at the end. All the monologuing that goes on during the climax again grinds the action to a halt. It’s not as dire as the final reel of “Scream 3,” but I still prefer the “motives are incidental” concept that the first movie flirted with.
“Scream 2″ delivers on the promise that “the death scenes are always much more elaborate” convention of a horror movie sequel. The opening sequence where Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) is killed in a theater that’s running “Stab” — an adaptation of the events of the first film — strikes a fascinating parallel between how cinema violence and real-life violence affect people differently. It’s a real carnival atmosphere with people parading around as Ghostface and wielding glow-in-dark knives. But when Maureen is killed by someone in the crowd and shambles up on the dais in front of the screen during Casey Becker’s fetishized death scene, suddenly the party atmosphere turns into one of shock and revulsion. It’s a pretty amazing, self-reflexive moment that tries to re-sensitize the viewer. It’s an interesting commentary on slasher movies, particularly in one that ultimately proceeds to become a roller coaster ride rather than “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” To the filmmaker’s credit, at least Craven takes a stab at being bold.
-Brad Lohan
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