Scream 2 [Blu-ray]
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
CAUTION - SPOILERS AHEAD!
After the events of the first movie, Scream 2 sees Sidney is trying to move on and has started college alongside fellow Woodsboro survivor, Randy. At a showing of Stab - a movie within the movie - based on Gale Weather’s book with her firsthand account of the Woodsboro murders, two students wind up dead. It isn’t long before they realise that Billy and Stu’s legacy has led to a copycat, who seems to be hunting down victims with names that coincide with the previous Woodsboro Murders.
We see the return of a few fan-favourites, and once again we’ve got a movie laden with references. Being film-school students, there’s a lot of discussion about sequels and if there are any that are better than the originals, and this all adds a fun layer of meta-humour to things. Randy, of course being a massive movie buff, frequently references movies and their plot lines, as well pointing out that the killer is more than likely to be someone that Sidney already knows.
It does feel as though it tries to push you to suspect Sidney’s boyfriend, Derek (Jerry O’Connell), and this obviously plays on Sidney too - how bad would she be at picking boyfriends if that had turned out to be the case again!? His over-the-top proclamation of love for her, in the form of standing on lunch tables singing I Think I Love You ended up totally souring the character for me, even moreso than his potential involvement in the killings. Maybe because this is pre-smartphone and social media era it would be less of an issue, but the sheer ridicule you’d get for that just gives me the chills, ha.
The killer reveals were kinda disappointing this time round, with both of the killers failing to live up to the personalities of Billy and Stu. We’ve got recent film-school friend Mickey, played by Timothy Olyphant, whose sole intention in the killings is to gain fame and notoriety; and Mrs Loomis, Billy’s mother, who wants nothing more than revenge for the death of her son - in spite of the atrocities that he himself committed. As much as I can appreciate their motives (after I’ve sat and had a think about them), it just doesn’t feel as impactful as the previous title’s reveal. Stu, played by Matthew Lillard, was such a strong character, and Billy’s involvement and proximity to Sidney meant that it felt much more of a shock.
Mrs Loomis - under the guise of a really intense reporter called Debbie Salt - lingers throughout the movie, an omnipresent force that turns up at each crime scene, desperate for answers; not unlike Gale, from the original. Upon the reveal, Sidney instantly identifies her as Billy’s mother, so I find it surprising that across the events of the movie, and ‘Debbie’ interviewing at crime scenes and trying to find information, that Sid never once spotted her. Similarly, Randy once again points out the suspiciousness of the as-yet unrevealed killer, Mickey, just as he did with Billy and Stu. But then Mickey just seems to vanish for a good portion of the movie, before returning for the reveal - taking away a bit of that oomph.
Overall, Scream 2 is a great watch, but sadly doesn’t live up to its predecessor. It has that same clumsy style for Ghostface, even being new killers under the mask(s), but this continues the human approach as opposed to a supernatural, indestructible killer. The story has evolved with the new location opening things up from the small, quiet town of Woodsboro to a much larger college area, but in doing so has disjointed the character relationships, making the group less cohesive as a result - but this also helps to open up the pool of suspects, as well as potential victims. It’s still a movie we’d highly recommend, as long as you don’t go in expecting it to top the first movie.
In the end, we decided to give Scream 2 the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.
Yeah, yeah - you caught me red handed, I’ve come back to revisit this and bump it up a little after yet another rewatch. Sue me!
Have you seen Scream 2? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
