‘Scream 2’ Retro Review

10/10/2011 by gfunk101

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Sarah Michelle Geller, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O’Connell, Timothy Olyphant

Plot: Pretty much the same as the first one, but without the originality.

The first ‘Scream’ movie manages to incorporate discussions about genre conventions and references to other horror films in a clever and witty fashion. ‘Scream 2’ attempts the same, but just comes across as smug. Whilst the characters in the original came across as normal people dealing with a psychopath who idolises slasher movies, the characters in this film seem to be under the delusion that they’re actually in a slasher movie and act accordingly, this removing the thing that made the original unique.

So another killer is on the prowl once again. This might’ve been more interesting if the returning characters weren’t tired and boring and the new characters are all flat stereotypes that nobody could care about. Just to strip away another layer of interesting plotting, it’s painfully obvious who the killer really is. Here’s a hint: it’s the evil looking guy who keeps glaring at everyone and carries a camera at all times. Plus whenever anyone mentions him as a potential suspect it gets automatically brushed aside.

There is another killer pulling the strings though, and whilst they’re less likely to be picked by the viewer the notion that they spend the entire movie hanging the university, police station, where-ever else Sidney is at the time with the knowledge that Sidney will recognise them on sight and blow the whistle. This killer is not only incredibly lucky, but also immensely stupid.

On the subject of the characters, even the bit parts in the original felt realistic and their discussions seemed natural. Each of these characters is downright annoying and unbelievable. From the public displays of musical number affections to the punchable film-student wannabes it’s barely interesting watching them get murdered.

Plus some of the scenes were clearly put together without any consideration of logic or dignity. Here’s a film that doesn’t make much effort to hide their sponsors – not that there’s anything wrong with that, people do drink Pepsi. But a scene where Dewey and Randy discuss murder, likely suspects and compare their knife wounds takes place while they’re chowing down some Baskin-Robbins and it makes the whole thing look retarded.