Scream 2 is a 1997 horror thriller film, the second part of the Scream trilogy. This movie takes place one year after the original. As with the other films in the trilogy, Scream 2 combines straight-forward scares with dialogue that satirizes conventions of slasher films, especially (in this case) slasher film sequels.
Plot
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) attend Windsor College. While attending the preview of Stab, based on a book by Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) about the Woodsboro murders, Phil Stevens is stabbed through the wall of a bathroom cubicle. The killer sits next to Maureen Evans, and she assumes the killer is her boyfriend wearing a mask. During the Casey Becker death scene the crowd goes wild. Taking advantage of this, the killer stabs Maureen. Since many of the movie-goers are wearing the killer's costume (as publicity material provided by the movie studio) and carrying fake knives, nobody takes Maureen's attack seriously. As the crowd realizes she's not faking, she dies. Sidney and Randy realize that a killer is on the loose again.
Dewey Riley (David Arquette) arrives on the campus to protect Sidney.
The killer attempts to stab Sidney while setting up a copycat ploy. Alone in her sorority house, Casey "Cici" Cooper (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is threatened over the phone before the killer attacks her. After the police discover the body, the students at the nearby martini mixer go to investigate, leaving Sidney and her boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell) at the Delta Lambda Zeta house. The killer attacks Sidney, but Derek helps her escape.
At the police station, Gale and Dewey notice that the names of the victims loosely match the victims from Woodsboro. The police chief assigns two detectives to protect Sidney.
The group is outside amongst dozens of college students when the killer telephones and taunts them. Gale and Dewey search the students in the area who have cell phones, trying to discover the killer. Randy is also looking around while talking to the killer on the phone, hoping to stall them. While he is outside a van, Randy is pulled inside and killed. His body is discovered by Gale and Dewey. The detectives protecting Sidney are attacked while their vehicle is stopped at a traffic light. The killer crashes the car, killing the detective and knocking the killer unconscious. Gale and Dewey approach the killer, resulting in Dewey being stabbed. Sidney and Hallie (Elise Neal), her roommate, narrowly escape the wreckage of the car by squeezing past the unconscious killer in the front seat. Sidney decides to remove the killer's mask, but finds the killer gone. She turns around only to see Hallie being stabbed.
Sidney runs to the school theater and is confronted by the killer. The killer reveals himself to be Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), her new boyfriend's best friend. Sidney finds Derek tied to a stage prop, and Mickey shoots Derek in the chest. Mickey also has a partner: Sidney turns around to see Gale coming out of the stage door, leading her to believe that Gale is the killer. Gale shakes her head "no" and Debbie Salt comes out, holding the other cop's gun. Sidney recognizes her as Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) (Debbie Salt is the name she had when she staged herself as a journalist), the mother of Sidney's previous boyfriend Billy. Mickey reveals that it was his plan to be caught for the murders so that he would become famous, immortalized by the media. He wanted to blame the killings on horror movies; the "effects of cinema violence in society." He met Mrs. Loomis on a "psycho website" and she agreed to fund his college tuition in return for his part in the killings. She also helped Mickey place calls to the victims. Mrs. Loomis' motive for killing Sidney and her friends was revenge for Sidney killing her son. Sidney points out that if Mrs. Loomis had not abandoned Billy then he and Stu Macher would not have started their killing spree. Mrs. Loomis shoots Mickey, removing him as a potential threat and stating that his legal defense was absurd.
As Mickey is shot he shoots Gale, causing her to fall off the stage. Sidney is cornered by Mrs. Loomis and tricks her into believing Mickey is alive; when Mrs. Loomis is distracted, Sidney hits her with a prop jar. Sidney barricades herself backstage and causes the front of the stage to collapse on Mrs. Loomis. Mrs. Loomis survives and gets Sidney in an armlock, but then Cotton (Liev Schreiber)—the man Sidney had blamed for killing her mother—arrives and takes Mickey's gun.
Mrs. Loomis tries to convince Cotton to let her kill Sidney, but Cotton shoots Mrs. Loomis. Sidney and Cotton discover that Gale is wounded but alive, and help her. Mickey jumps up, and Gale and Sidney shoot him. Sidney turns around and shoots Mrs. Loomis in the head — "just in case". It is revealed that Dewey survived his stabbing. He and Gale take an ambulance to the hospital. It turns out that Dewey's scar tissue from previously being stabbed in the back prevented this stabbing from being fatal. At the hospital, the news team arrives and tries to get a story on Sidney. Despite Sidney being the heroine, she tells them Cotton is the man to interview. The news team goes to him, after Cotton tells them there is a "time a place and a price" for an interview, he says, "it'll make one hell of a movie." Sidney walks off the campus, having survived the murders.
Satirical and self-referential style
As with the original film, Scream 2 utilizes self-aware characters and a self-referential style. In the world of the movie, a movie called Stab has been released, which is based on the real events of the first film and is also a parody of Scream. The logo for Stab reflects the logo for Scream, in both font, and a blade like T on the former and M on the latter. The scenes seen of Stab (actually directed by Robert Rodriguez) directly recreate scenes in the first film, with Heather Graham and Luke Wilson being parodies of Drew Barrymore and Skeet Ulrich's characters, respectively. There are also scenes of Tori Spelling being interviewed by Nancy O'Dell (both making cameos as themselves) to promote the movie. In the first Scream (film), while talking about a movie being made of the events, Sidney comments that knowing her luck, Tori Spelling would be cast as her.
There is also the second mention of the "rules" of a horror film, this time the rules of a sequel. There is heavy reference to the downplay of black actors in conventional horror films (including the first Scream, which was criticized for it). This is referenced in the first scene which portrays this downplay in the original film and highlights the increased importance of the roles that black actors play in this movie.
There are also references to David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, who Courteney Cox co-starred with on Friends. The second time we see CiCi (Sarah Michelle Gellar) this time alone in the sorority house and on the phone with her friend, she is talking about the show Party of Five, on which Neve Campbell starred for six years. Other references include Kevin Costner, James Cameron, and Jane Seymour.
Cast
- Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott- The main character from the original Scream, she returns again as the heroine. Barely surviving the events of the first film, Sidney now attends Windsor College, trying to put everything behind her. When a copycat killer surfaces, Sidney finds herself a target once again.
- David Arquette as Dwight 'Dewey' Riley- After being stabbed in the back in the first movie, Dewey comes to Windsor College to help protect Sidney.
- Courteney Cox Arquette as Gale Weathers- The reporter from the first movie who survived and saved Sidney and Randy's lives by shooting the killer.
- Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary- After appearing only briefly in the first movie, Cotton is now one of the main characters.
- Laurie Metcalf as Debbie Salt (Mrs. Loomis)- Posing as annoying tabloid reporter Debbie Salt throughout most of the film, she reveals herself at the end to be Mrs. Loomis and the second killer. Her motive was to take revenge on the original Woodsboro survivors for killing her son, Billy (who was one of the killers in the first film). She partners with Mickey who would kill other random people so that it wouldn't look so obvious that someone is trying to take revenge.
- Timothy Olyphant as Mickey Altieri- One of Sidney's new college friends. During the final act, he reveals himself to be one of the killers. His motive is to create a real life sequel.
- Elise Neal as Hallie McDaniel- Sidney's roommate and new best friend. She is there for Sidney as emotional support throughout most of the movie, but is killed later in the film.
- Jerry O'Connell as Derek Feldman- Sidney's new boyfriend. He is a seemingly good guy, but when Sidney is first attacked, Derek runs in to try and catch the killer. He runs into the killer, who only cuts his arm and runs away and does not kill him, making the police suspicious.
- Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks- Another survivor of the first film, Randy is a horror film lover and goes to Windsor College with Sidney to study film. Once the killings begin to happen and it is discovered that the killer is trying to create a real life sequel, Randy explains the rules of a sequel to Dewey, just as he stated the rules of a horror film in the original Scream.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Casey "Cici" Cooper- Casey is in Mickey and Randy's film class and is one of the killer's victims.
- Jada Pinkett as Maureen Evans- Dies in the opening sequence while seeing the movie Stab.
- Omar Epps as Phil Stevens- Dies in the opening sequence. He and his girlfriend, Maureen, are going to see the movie Stab.
Reception
Like the first film, Scream 2 received mostly positive critical reception. It has achieved 79% of certified freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics agreeing that it was funnier and scarier than the first. Roger Ebert noted the film as being "about as good as the original". Gene Siskel also gave it a 'thumbs up', despite giving a negative review of the first film.
Soundtrack
Track listing
- "Scream" - Master P, Silkk The Shocker 3:30
- "Suburban Life" - Kottonmouth Kings 3:34
- "Rivers" - Sugar Ray 2:50
- "She's Always in My Hair" - D'Angelo 6:19
- "Help Myself" - Dave Matthews Band 4:31
- "She Said" - Collective Soul 4:51
- "Right Place, Wrong Time" - Jon Spencer 3:16
- "Dear Lover" - Foo Fighters 4:33
- "Eyes of Sand" - Tonic 4:16
- "The Swing" - Everclear 2:59
- "I Think I Love You" - Less Than Jake 2:03
- "Your Lucky Day in Hell" - Eels 4:26
- "Red Right Hand" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, DJ Spooky 8:23
- "One More Chance" - Kelly 4:13
- "The Race" - Ear2000 2:19
Marco Beltrami returned to score Scream 2. While using similar themes as in the first film, many scenes featuring Dewey were scored with excerpts from Hans Zimmer's Broken Arrow score. The stage performance's "Cassandra Aria" was written by Danny Elfman.
External links
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