Well, Scream 1 was great wasn’t it, it was a whole new addition to the teen-scream genre, bringing a tired type of movie back to life - and oh how good it was, but we’re not here to talk about the first movie, its the second one - does it live up to its promise? well read on faithful mouthshutter and all shall be explained.
We join the story at the premiere of the new movie ’’stab’’ (Look out for a cameo appearance by Tori Spelling, remember the joke syd made about her in the first scream?), which is the movie of the book of the woodsboro murders which of course was wrote by Gale Weathers (Remember her, played by Courtney Cox?), you see Syd’s (Neve Campbell) moved on from the tragedies that happened and is now happily studying in college, Randy’s (Jamie Kennedy) there now and well as with before, theres some killing-a-foot, now I’m not going to say who the victims are this time - thats pretty obvious but there are plenty of chances to watch people being sliced open right here and now.
But anyway its a Scream movie we all know the rough plot, its a somebodys trying to kill Syd, leaving a trail of dead bodies in their path - it could be anyone type of movie. OK, so its a plot ’of sorts’ and it does work well, but as I’ve said before - its a horror movie so we can’t expect miracles when it comes to the story-writing, but they try honest they do.
Anyway, as viewers of the first movie will know half the main cast aren’t alive any more so we need to have some new members, as always heres a list of people to expect:
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), not THAT much can be said with regards to Neve’s performance, its very similar to the first outing of Scream, she plays the scared nervous girl character off to a tee.
Dwight ’Dewey’ Riley (David Arquette), again a character re-introduced from the first Scream, this time, Arquette seems to have a lot more confidence in his own performance, and it really shows on screen as he shines as the nerd-ish police officer.
Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), OK I admit it if there was one character in any movie I had to say was most like me, then we’re talking about him right now - hes the movie-geek, who knows everything you ever needed to know about horror movies, and its a solid turn-out from Kennedy, who it has to be said is very under-rated, fair enough hes appeared in a couple more movies since, but nothing major.
Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), Shes back, shes still up herself, and this time shes got a movie to promote, Cox does her best to make this character appear cold-hearted whilst still showing feelings towards Dewey, and it kind of works, the thing is, the Dewey connection isn’t right for some reason - maybe its the fact that shes showing a change from one feeling to another a little too quickly, not sure to be honest.
Debbie Salt (Laurie Metcalf), best known for her appearances as Jackie in Roseanne, Metcalf is now showing the true ability of her acting, with this showing as the Gale Weathers wannabe, funny at times, always good acting and never out of place, all 3 statements are perfect for the performance made here.
Hallie (Elise Neal), theres always one that spoils it isn’t there, and this time its Elise who does it - a little too over the top, with her portrayal of someone who supposedly doesn’t care that people are dropping like flies all over the place, it didn’t work, but this is really the only flaw in an otherwise perfect movie.
Derek (Jerry O’ Connell), recognize the name? so you should do, he used to be in Sliders and this time is the love interest for Sidney, now we all know if you’re a love interest in a horror movie you’re automatically under suspicion for the murders and he is, it works very well watching him try to let people understand that he has nothing to do with the killings, and O’Connell does the job well.
Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), Wrongly jailed in the first movie, trying to cash in on this accusation in the second movie. He’s a creepy character, who always seems to have an ulterior motive into what hes doing - Schreiber, works this well and takes a presence like none other when on screen.
Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), The new rival for Randy when it comes to movie-banter, not that much is seen of the character early on in the movie, but as we near the end, hes back and with there not being much of a performance here, hes hard to rate - not too bad acting, but a little staid in places.
There are of course, many other notable appearances, including Sarah Michelle-Gellar (Buffy), Portia Rossi (Nell in Ally Mcbeal) and as previously mentioned Tori Spelling, these all add to the whole feel of the movie, but thats where we’ll leave the characters now.
There is of course the familiar soundtrack of Rock music, and haunting scores that accompany the vital scenes in the movie, not too over-bearing and they do add to the general creepy feel you get before the killer comes anywhere near the screen.
Location wise, well we seem to be intertwined between the college campus and a little bit out in the actual city itself, and the locations all seem realistic enough, nowhere seems to have that usual tacky, quickly put together look on it, and its all there for the world to see in its crowning glory.
There you go that my friends is scream 2, definitely not as good as the first one, but thats almost impossible to be anyway - lets just leave it as a high standard sequel, shall we?