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Scream 2 (1997) - Wes Craven


This movie picks up while Sidney Prescott, our young heroine who the franchise is centered around, attends the prestigious Windsor College. A film called Stab comes out based on the Westboro Murders. Meanwhile, a series of copycat murders occur in and around the college mimicking the murderers.

Some of the original cast returns. Randy, Dewey, Gale... Their characters stay pretty much the same. Cotton Weary is explored a lot more and played as a strange, pissy, sociopath that is obsessed with getting his fifteen minuets of fame after being released from prison. He clearly resents Sidney for wrongly accusing him.

The film is obvious but clever and furthers the notion of it becoming self-aware. Film Sequels are a main topic of conversation. The new characters help move the film along in entertaining fashion. Gale has a new cameraman and he's pretty funny. Sidney has a new boyfriend in Sliders own Jerry O'Connell.

The cameos are decent and all in all the movie does well as a sequel. It feels a bit washed out but the sly humor and need for a twist drive it forward. It achieves that same Who-done-it feel from the first film. I recommend this movie on the agreement that you watch the original film first.

Director: Wes Craven
Country: USA
Style: Slasher


Did ya know...
The cast were not informed of the identity of the killer until the last day of principal photography. Also, the cast did not receive the last ten pages of the shooting script until it was time to film the scenes contained therein. Furthermore, the last ten pages of the shooting script were printed on gray paper in order to deter illicit duplication of them. All cast members were required to sign confidentiality clauses as parts of their respective contracts that precluded them from discussing the outcome of the story and the killer's identity. Robert Rodriguez directed scenes of "Stab," the movie-within-a-movie of Scream 2(1997). Rodriguez directed the Casey Becker scene and the Sidney and Billy scene. The rules for a horror-movie sequel as stated by Randy are: 1. the death total is always greater; and 2. the murder scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore. The third rule to surviving a sequel was cut from the movie, but appears in its trailer, "And number three, never, ever under any circumstance assume that the killer is dead.


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