Scream 2

SCREAM 2 (MOVIE)
Dimension Films

Original release date: December 12th, 1997
Running time: 120 minutes

Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Composer: Marco Beltrami

Cast: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O’Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, Liev Schreiber, Laurie Metcalf, Rebecca Gayhart

Certain events in our lives stay with us forever. Whether it’s meeting our first love, graduating, the birth of a child or moving into our first home, these are memories that remain etched in our minds, that we look back on fondly and smile. Then there are other events that go on to scar, leaving a mark that’s more like a stain on what should’ve been a day like any other.

These events can occur more than once in our lifetimes, and if you’re the survivor of a hugely successful slasher film called Scream and you’re brought back for its first sequel, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll occur again.

Picking up two years after the events of the first move, Scream 2 plays out in and around Windsor College rather than Woodsboro where the original murders took place. It’s here we find Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) doing her best to move on with her life but still taking precautions when it comes to anonymous callers and choosing boyfriends. She’s settled for the seemingly sane and safe Derek (Jerry O’Connell) whom she attends classes with, along with her other new friends Hallie (Elise Neal) and Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), and fellow Woodsboro survivor Randy (Jamie Kennedy).

Life might’ve still worked out ok for her. Despite having to deal with the brutal murders of her mother, best friend and classmates, and learning that the guy she was dating was a serial killer, Sidney could’ve still lived a normal life, but those possibilities end when she hears of the double murder that took place at a screening for Stab, the movie that was made based on the book by Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), starring none other than Tori Spelling as Sidney.

The double murder looks like the work of a copycat killer who’s intent on duplicating the Woodsboro murders and making a real-life sequel. Now having to deal with news crews and hungry journalists once more – Gale among them of course – Sidney starts to question who she can really trust. With officer Dewey (David Arquette) arriving to give her support as they try to figure out who’s responsible for the killings, Scream 2 packs a lot into its 2 hours, offering up laughs and scares a-plenty as we too try to figure out who’s hiding behind the mask this time.

As the second in four of the instalments Scream 2 is the one I always find myself going back over and over again. I loved it from the moment I first saw it and if I were to pick my favourite moments from the film there would definitely be a few. For example, we have some wonderful exchanges between feisty reporter Gale and local journalist Debbie Salt (Laurie Metcalf) when she tries to get a quote from her. There’s also a wonderful series of exchanges during a film class where students voice their thoughts on why sequels tend to suck so much while Mickey argues the opposite.

Aside form the film’s self referential dialogue and layers of intertexuality (Gale denies the nude pictures of her on the internet were really her “It was just my head, it was Jennifer Aniston’s body!”), Scream 2 has some of the most excruciatingly tense scenes I’ve witnessed in a film this enjoyable. One of them takes place in the campus’ auditorium where Gale and Dewey are looking over the crowd footage Joel shot, hoping that the killer might’ve been caught on camera somewhere. After a few intimate moments where they get re-acquainted with each other, the killer appears and they get separated while fleeing.

Locking herself in a sound room, Gale hides from one dividing wall to the next as the killer stalks her. She enters another room and locks the door behind her and we see Dewey entering the adjacent room separated by a thick pane of glass. With both rooms sound-proofed Gale doesn’t hear Dewey until he grabs the microphone – just as the killer sneaks up behind him. It’s gut-wrenching to watch and it gets me every time, especially with Marco Beltrami’s haunting score rising above the unfolding horror.

Other painfully tense moments include Sarah Michelle Gellar’s big scene and where Hallie and Sidney try to get out of a police car with the killer inside it. I can’t think of any sequels that managed make me spill my popcorn as many times as Scream 2 did, but it ranks up there as one of those films I enjoyed even more than its original – and I love the original!

So while there may be events in our lives that stay with us forever, the memory of my first time seeing Scream 2 is one I’ll always look back on fondly and smile, even as I answer the phone to some a mystery caller waiting to ask “What’s your favorite scary movie?”

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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