Watching horror movies is one thing, but surviving them is another and Scream 2 sets the bar higher, and to be honest it should have ended here. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson take it to high gear this time around. It's a lot less subtle and more in your face, which is a nice change of pace compared to the first film, cause you cannot do what you did in the first movie.
Like the first film, it's hilarious with the self-aware characters and the jokes that come with it, but it still takes the kills very seriously. Craven and Williamson keeps the guessing game going and it still makes us wonder who the damn killer is.
The main players, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, and Jamie Kennedy are back. What makes this Scream special is that the cast is likable, perhaps in my own opinion a little more likable than the original. The last two don't have any characters that are as likable as first Scream and this sequel. All the cast are great. Jerry O'Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Elise Neal, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Liev Schreiber, etc. They all come to play and bring their A-game.
You also feel for most of the cast. The script has fun making Derek, played by Jerry O'Connell a potential suspect. The film show's Sidney's rightful paranoia, like the little moments where Derek offers her a seat and she sits next to Timothy Olyphant's character Mickey. You can't help but maybe feel a little sorry for him, but yet ponder if he is behind all the killings. Williamson does a great job juggling all these characters.
What I respect about Scream 2 is that it doesn't play it safe at all. It takes risks and makes no apologies. They kill off, who is arguably the most popular character in the series Randy Meeks. It takes balls to do that, but I'm glad they did. I love Randy, but his death just made Scream 2 that much more unpredictable and immediately the stakes are much higher. They didn't play it safe. Props to Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. Some may ponder that Sidney and Randy were destined to be together, and probably should have died in the third film while they end up as a couple, but even if that may have been cool, killing him off in this sequel makes everything unpredictable and makes a bigger shocking impact.
Speaking of impact, the killer reveals are quite a surprise. Mickey(Olyphant) was expected, but Craven and Williamson do a nice homage to Laurie Metcalf's Mrs. Loomis, Billy's mother. Breaking a rule of a serial killer typically being a male, as well as tributing other female killers in cinema, particularly Mrs. Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise.
The first Scream is game changer, but in the second film, it solidified Sidney Prescott being poison. If you're friends with Sidney you die, like poor Randy Meeks. You would think all the main players are safe, but they're not, at one point you even think Dewey is toast. You just don't feel safe for anyone else, and what I love is that it spoofs itself, cause Randy's argument is that sequels, especially sequels to horror films are garbage, ironically making Scream 2 being one of the few horror sequels that is considered to be worthy compared many atrocious horror sequels that killed the genre. It's meta, even before people knew what meta was.
9/10
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