Director: Wes Craven
Cast: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Have I Seen it Before: Yes? Of all the sequels to Scream (1996), this is the one for which I have the most memory.
Did I Like It: Honestly, this one just might be the best film in the series. Let’s review that statement for a bit. Scream 2 is not just the best Scream sequel (that I’ve seen so far; watch this space for the latest Scream (2022). It is even better than the original.
The first film tries to play with the tropes of the genre, sure, but mainly accomplished being a dim echo of Halloween (1978). Here, perhaps the horror sequel as a species is low-hanging fruit, but that just means there should be more hits than misses. Sure, it can be difficult to reckon with the fact, in iffy tradition, this one comes back around to the fact that often, people of color (Jada Pinkett and Omar Epps) are the first to die in horror and sci-fi**, the fact that the world of Woodsboro even has black people is at least a step in the right direction.
It does hit more than it misses, but that is not the film’s secret weapon. When it comes to the various villains of the franchise, Skeet Ulrich, Scott Foley, Emma Roberts and… ?*, is there any casting of a horror movie heavy that is better than Laurie Metcalf as mother Loomis? If there is, I can’t think of it. Sure, Timothy Olymphant shows up and fills a Billy-esque role in the proceedings, but he is incidental, which only makes the mystery all the more satisfying.
*I’m thinking Neve Campbell’s got to step up. Maybe, maybe David Arquette.
**Commenting on it feels like a hoary cliche itself, and I think the far more reliable trend is that people of color are often dying in service of white people, which doesn’t make anything any better.