Scream 2 (1997, R)

As Reviewed by James Brundage

Again comes Randy with the brilliant and perhaps insightful line "Sequels Suck". But is it true? That is the obvious question. Watching Scream 2 I pondered over the simple matter, if it was true or if it was a running joke, a falsity. Was the movie made worse on purpose, a bit of that brilliant satire that Kevin Williamson showed about a year ago with Scream, or was it simply an unavoidable twist of fate.

Were it not for the fact that I respect Williamson so much, and that Craven's masterful Red Right Hand directed this movie, I would have been inclined to say Sequels Do Suck. Indeed, the rough draft of the script sucked (everyone dies, Sidney, Gale, Dewey, Randy, Cotton, and all the new people you've never heard of.) The hype was mixed, but, going into the theater I was surprised.

Once again, as has become Williamson's style, a funny and scary opening is followed by your traditional scary movie pee-break, a twenty to thirty minute lapse of anything but character development before people get slashed. And slash away is what Mr. Ghost Face does in this, oh, wait, its not one of the "S" words.

Scream 2 does not suck.

How, you ask, does that happen when the rule is put down by Randy, the know-all man of scary movies, that sequels suck? Quite simple, really, it is both a sequel and a member of a trilogy (there is a running challenge to find a superior sequel, to which "Empire Strikes Back" is offered, only to be replied with "Not a sequel, part of a trilogy, planned from the beginning"). You see, Scream was put out with a script for Scream and a outline for Scream 2 and Scream 3 (there will probably be, however, a total of 6 Scream movies. Of course the fact remains, this sequel is inferior to the original. Sure, its scarier, but Williamson has been given time to work on his craft of the horror writing. But with more horror comes less of the comedy (though the satire stays about the same, even if it is ambiguous).

So how inferior is it? Put Scream at a 10 and Scream 2 is an 8. See it if you liked the first one. If you didn't, don't bother. If you didn't see the first one, rent it and then see Scream 2.