Scream 2 Review
by Julie Prince (jprince AT peak DOT org)December 20th, 1997
Scream 2 *** (out of ****)
DIRECTED BY
Wes Cravens
Starring
Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O'Connell
We're not breaking new ground here, folks.
If you liked the original Scream, you'll enjoy the sequel. But it is still a sequel. The joy of discovery (as with the original Scream, which was the first good slasher pic in more than 10 years) is gone.
Everyone who survived the first Scream (yes, I'm going to spoil the original's plot; if you haven't seen it by now, tough noogies) is back -- plucky Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is now a college freshman, majoring in theater. Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the kid who knew all the horror cliches, is at the same college, majoring in film. Deputy Dewey (David Arquette), crippled by his injuries, is no longer a cop; Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is still a sleazy journalist, and has written a book about the Woodsboro murders of the first film.
As Scream 2 opens, the movie of Weathers' book on the murders from the first film (stay with me here) is opening. Jada Pinkett and Omar Epps play an unlucky young couple who attend the premiere of Stab, as the movie-in-a-movie is called.
The movie-in-a-movie stuff is a real hoot. Sydney's worst fear is realized -- in Stab, she's portrayed by Tori Spelling. If you've seen Scream, the movie-in-a-movie will seem very strange ... I kept thinking "No, that's not how it really happened! I was there, I know!" This must be the way Joey Buttafuoco felt when he watched the three TV movies about him and Amy Fisher.
After this very promising beginning, Scream 2 becomes a pretty damned good slasher-pic sequel. The characters have fun with the sequel cliches (though not as much as in the original). Many people are killed. There are some neat, nightmarish sequences, such as Sydney's rehearsal of "Agamemnon," in which she plays Cassandra.
The movie cheats at the end; any good whodunit (which is, in essence, what both Scream flicks are) should give subtle clues to the killer's identity. When he or she is finally revealed, the audience should think, "Of course! I should've known!"
Not here. The killer's identity came totally out of left field. All right, as one character in Scream said, "It's the millennium, motives are incidental." But I don't think it's too much to ask that the perp have some reason for doing what he or she does.
All criticism aside, Scream 2 is an entertaining movie. Fans of the first are unlikely to be disappointed.
Scream 3, apparently, is in the works. Wes Craven says he planned the movies as a trilogy all along. I'm skeptical, but maybe he'll break new ground with the third installment. We'll see.
-- Julie M. Prince
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