Fans of the SCREAM movies will recognize themselves as the geeky Randy who knows so many tidbits of information about movies, horror films in particular. These fans are the ones who show up on opening weekend for a sequel that, chances are, won’t be near as good as the original film. Those fans were probably quite surprised with what they got when they went to see SCREAM 2. Where most horror films sequels fail, this one lived up to the first.
The time is 2 years after the events of the first film. Those teens who survived are now off at Windsor College, studying and trying to forget the past. If you haven’t seen the first film stop reading now and go watch it. I’ll wait. If you have you know that the survivors are Sidney and Randy. These two are doing their best to be the regular college students everyone expects.
The film opens at a special screening of the movie STAB based on the murders. Young couple Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett (before she was Smith) are there to watch and get more involved than they expected. Epps is killed in the men’s room and Pinkett in the theater while a full house runs around screaming with fake knives and ghosts masks thinking its part of the show.
Other members of the original cast begin to turn up now. Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) has become a celebrity in her own right having written a best seller about the murders. Now she’s back to bother Sidney once more, never thinking of her feelings but simply there to get the story. Cotton Weary (Leiv Schreiber) has been released from prison and is making the rounds of the talk show circuit to cash in as well. He shows as a guest of Gale in the hopes she can catch the first meeting between Cotton and Sidney on film. Then Dewey (David Arquette) shows up fearing that Sidney might be in trouble. Toss in a new boyfriend (Jerry O’Connell), his friend (Timothy Olyphant) and a roommate (Elise Neal) and you have multiple suspects once more.
Victims fall over like flies narrowing the possibilities of who the killer is. We know the original killers are both dead and gone, witnessed at the end of the first film. So who’s responsible now? And why would they be stalking Sidney? Is it simply that, a stalker influenced by the books and the movie, or is it someone else?
This time around the film takes a look at the claims that were made at the time that horror films and slasher films in particular could influence people to repeat the scenes they witnessed on screen. While the proof was never there it made for great defense tactics for lawyers of accused murderers. Its unusual that a film maker like Wes Craven would take up the banner for this argument but he presents a great case here.
There were two things I was most surprised at in this film. The first was the number of actors who had small parts here who went on to bigger and better things. Since it’s been several years since the film came out I’m not sure if some were big then doing cameos or just getting started. Luke Wilson, Tori Spelling, Omar Epps, Jada Pinkett, Heather Graham, Sarah Michelle Geller, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart, Portia di Rosi, Laurie Metcalf and David Warner can all be found here.
The second was the fact that even though this film is a sequel it stands up on its own as a truly scary horror film. One would expect the weakest of plot devices to be used in an attempt to cash in on the success of the first film. Instead we have a well conceived idea here as to who the killer is and why. It also ties into the first film rather than one of those oh yeah moments where the reason seems contrived at best.
Randy once again tells us what to expect in horror films and sequels in general. And for the most part he’s right with one exception. Where he claims that all sequels suck, this movie lives up to the name of SCREAM.
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