Scream 2 Review
What do you do when a movie does so well that people want more? You make a sequel. Sequels are the lifeblood of many great films, and in the horror genre, they’re practically a requirement. Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Evil Dead all got multiple sequels, allowing their characters to grow in terms of popularity. And with the success of Scream in 1996, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson got the greenlight to continue the story of Sidney Prescott in a sequel, Scream 2. Which also means even more satire about horror movies, and even more meta than before.
They Made a Movie about it!
It’s been a year or so since the events in Woodsboro, and the survivors are trying to move on with their lives. While Sidney and Randy are attending college, Gale turned the entire experience into a best-selling book, with it eventually getting the movie treatment. As a result, Scream 2 opens up with two college students attending a sneak preview of this film, Stab, where we see the first of several glimpses into the film. And I have to say, not a lot of it is promising.
Part of the charm behind the Scream franchise is that it likes to poke fun at many of the elements in horror films. However, as time has passed, it’s extended its target base to encompass film in general and some of the issues that go into making them. Case in point, the opening scene to Stab is supposed to be a retelling of Casey Becker’s murder, and should’ve been a little respectful of her death. Instead, the film spices things up by overly-sexualizing Casey and adding a gratuitous shower scene. The film is calling the industry out on multiple fronts: embellishing the truth, being disrespectful of the people this happened to, and adding fan service when it isn’t necessary.
I would also like to point out just how jarring Jada Pinkett Smith’s death scene in this prologue really is. She’s dying in a crowded movie theater in full view of everyone, yet they all think it’s part of the show until it’s too late to do anything. That’s just as terrifying as it would be dying alone like Casey and many of Ghostface’s other victims do. However, it becomes even harsher in hindsight when you remember something similar happened in 2012 when a screening of The Dark Knight Rises got shot up. Violence like that is not cool!
Get the Gang Back Together
At any rate, the return of Ghostface prompts the main four survivors of Scream to reunite at Windsor College where Sidney and Randy are taking classes, and we get to see how they’re dealing with their experience differently. Gale, of course, decided to profit from it, which some could argue makes her partially responsible for the return of Ghostface. Not only that, but the way she unflatteringly portrayed Dewey in her book alienated her from him just when it seemed like they had something going on. Their relationship is a major sub-plot of the film, and while it does enable some character development on Gale’s part, I think it’s the weakest aspect of Scream 2. Then again, the film probably wanted to use Courtney Cox’s appeal to its advantage, since it is satirizing horror movies.
Randy, meanwhile, continues to remain a surrogate for all the genre-savvy movie buffs out there. He takes one look at what’s happening, and before anyone else, realizes that they’re in a real-life sequel to Woodsboro. That means bigger budget, greater creativity, and even more carnage than before. We even get a scene where he and his film class start listing all the sequels that topped the original film, which is fun for any movie buff. But despite his comic relief nature, Randy knows just how bad things are going to get. He knows that anyone could be Ghostface, and he knows that since he’s only a supporting character, there’s a good chance he might not survive. Tragically, he ends up being right, as Randy winds up dying at the hands of Ghostface halfway through the film. It’s Scream 2’s way of playing with and subverting our expectations once more. If the most genre-savvy person can die, then anyone can die!
Lastly, though, we have Sidney herself. She might be the designated final girl of Scream, but just because the film ended doesn’t mean her life went back to normal. Much like people would in real life, her experience has left her with PTSD. Not to mention the unwanted attention the movie gives her, with her first scene involving her getting prank-called by someone. She’s famous in the worst way possible, and she hates it, just wanting her life back. In addition, being manipulated by Billy has left her with a lot of trust issues, something that she spends the entire film dealing with, and something that she doesn’t fully overcome even when the movie ends.
The Sequel is Love, the Sequel is Life
As previously stated, Scream 2 being a sequel to Scream means that it now has to satirize some of the things that go into making sequels. While Randy largely manages to cover the ground rules to sequel films, I can’t help but notice that there was one that went unmentioned but is still important. That rule is about expanding the world of the films and codifying the rules it works with.
It was something that I noticed when rewatching The Empire Strikes Back. Like the film says, it’s an example of a sequel being better than the original. I said that it was because Empire is the movie that solidified the Star Wars universe and what it is. That holds true for most movie sequels, and the same goes for the Scream franchise, as we got the rules more or less codified. The most important of these rules being the following:
- There is usually going to be more than one Ghostface
- The new Ghostface is either going to be someone in your life or connected to the previous Ghostface
- There will be multiple red herrings to throw audiences off.
- Everyone is a suspect
RIP Randy and Derek
In horror movies, it’s usually the people who are suspicious of anyone or anything unfamiliar who have the best chance at surviving. Yet part of the satire of Scream is deconstructing how being constantly suspicious can be just as bad as not being suspicious. Scream 2 does this by giving us two red herrings to throw everyone off the scent in form of Cotton Weary and Sidney’s new boyfriend, Derek. The former was the man that Billy and Stu framed for murdering Sidney’s mom, and he spends the entire movie trying to get her to reconcile with him so he can get his story out. He wants the fame that Sidney has gotten, even when she doesn’t, and to be fair, he’s not wrong to want something back. It’s just that the film has him do it in a way that is so aggressive at times that it makes even Gale question whether or not he’s the new Ghostface. Ultimately, though, Cotton proves his integrity by not only saving Sidney during the climax, but saving Dewey’s life in the process. And for that, Sidney gives him the attention he wanted.
The real red herring, though, is Sidney’s new boyfriend, Derek. And my goodness, is he a good red herring. Since her last boyfriend was a serial killer, the return of Ghostface leaves her thinking the worst of Derek as the movie goes on. Her relationship with Billy has scarred her so badly that she can’t recognize that his efforts to be a caring and supportive partner are genuine. Ghostface takes full advantage of this at one point by deliberately sparing Derek’s life when they could’ve killed him, something that makes Sidney paranoid and unable to fully trust him. This leads to tragic results during the climax when it’s revealed that Derek really was as nice as he was being, and his death comes off as extra sad since it could have been prevented had Sidney trusted him.
But all of that was thanks to the manipulations of the new Ghostface pair, her fellow student, Mickey, and Nancy Loomis, aka Billy’s mother.
Remember the People vs OJ?
Once it’s revealed who’s playing Ghostface this time, we then get into the monologue behind each of their motivations. And I have to say that it was entertaining to see the film make fun of how dumb each of their rationales was.
Firstly, we have Mickey. His only motivation in helping Mrs. Loomis is for the infamy that being Ghostface would give him. Mickey is someone that Tony Stark would call a diva. He wanted everyone to pay attention to him, regardless of the reasons why. He planned on turning his trial into the kind of spectacle that the news wouldn’t be able to help but cover. It was a reference to the then-recent murder trial of O.J. Simpson, which had more people watching it than the Super Bowl that year. He even name-dropped wanting Cochran to represent him. But that’s still a dumb reason to become a serial killer.
Then again, it’s not as dumb as the reasoning behind that of Nancy Loomis.
Dumb Mother
During her motive rant to Sidney during the climax, Mrs. Loomis says that she wants Sidney dead for killing Billy. She blames Sidney and Sidney alone for his death, but as Sidney points out, this is a load of garbage. After she found her husband was having an affair with Sidney’s mom, she made the decision to walk out on her family. She could have divorced her husband and taken Billy with her, but she chose not to. Then once Billy died, people started blaming her for him crashing out and becoming Ghostface. Granted, she had no control over his own decisions and it’s not always fair to blame bad parenting. However, that doesn’t change the fact that she chooses to sink to her son’s level to avoid accountability. Needless to say, it’s pretty satisfying to see her get killed.
Scream might have been the starting point of the franchise, but like any franchise, it was the sequel that truly established it as a franchise. It checked off the boxes of Randy’s checklist by going bigger and bloodier. It expanded on the meta-nature of the films and did a good job of keeping audiences invested. It was a good sequel, and while it may meet the same hype as the original, I still think that it was a great follow-up. It’s too bad the same can’t be said for its own follow-up.
Come back next time as we cover the finale to the original Scream trilogy, Scream 3. Or as I like to put it, calling out Hollywood for its baloney before it was cool!
