This one has nostalgic ties to me, it will always be a personal favorite of mine. My cousin who was younger than me was just as hooked on this movie as I was at that time. Every time we'd go to her house, we watched Scream 2, it never failed. We had our own game that we would play with our wild imaginations, forcing my brother to play as ghostface just so he can chase us all over the yard.....Great times.
It starts off with the typical iconic opening death scene with a couple, going to the movie theater
to watch "Stab", which is based off of the events of the first film. Maureen, who is shaky but heavily opinionated, reluctantly goes along with her boyfriend, Phil, who would rather go see a Sandra Bullock movie. Maureen gets some popcorn and without butter, who does that? Who eats popcorn without butter? That's like eating a bagel without cream cheese. But anyway, about the opening death scenes, Phil gets curious when he hears odd whispers coming from the next stall and of course, who wouldn't place their ear against it to hear what they're saying? Well, it doesn't end well for Mr. Stevens, he gets a knife right in the ear, ouchies. What is brilliant though, is ghostface puts on Phil's jacket to deceive Maureen. She watches the movie, reacting to what's about to happen to her in a couple minutes. As Maureen is being stabbed, the audience has no idea, they believe it to be a publicity stunt as Sidney calls it and leaves out a bloodcurdling scream, then falling to the floor as the beginning credits of the movie title "Scream 2" slashes our screens.
First we have our final girl Sidney Prescott, who wakes to a prank call from no other than the infamous Cory Gillis 555-0176, it's a criminal offense Cory, common sense. She has some basic banter with her good friend Hallie until it is interrupted by some random girl telling them to check the news. Sidney knows that it's happening again so she has to tell Randy. Sidney was at one time, a little naive but who isn't in high school? She is now in college and has found her own ways of coping with her trauma but she wasn't ready for what was to come next. She now has the fighter in her, just go ask her drama teacher for he says to embrace it. I have to say that was one of my favorite scenes in Scream 2 and I feel that Sidney was definitely drawn to the character Cassandra in many ways it was therapeutic for her. Sidney is not one to be chased in this one, she faces her monsters so to speak head on a lot more in this one. Another scene I loved was close to the end, when Sidney and Mickey were intensely conversing about Billy she says: "There's one thing you forgot about Billy.......I f**king killed him" Great line from Sidney. Also, with Derek, she seemed so back and forth with him, which was understandable knowing her last boyfriend turned out to be a crazed serial killer. She was having trust issues and the sad part was, Mickey played on that, using it to his advantage to throw Sidney off. But who had the upper hand in the end? Sidney coming in with the "Just in case" move, with the extra bullets to the head to make sure they were dead.
Dewey is one I love talking about, especially in this one because I feel like he is more aware of Gale's intentions and his protective side really shines, our surrogate big brother, Woodsboro's finest. I very much enjoy the back and forth that he has with Gale in this one. It's heated on so many levels and yet there is still chemistry between them that they can't even ignore. When Randy dies, Gale and Dewey team up to figure out how to catch the killer, only leaving them to the inevitable grope sesh before ghostface breaks it up, causing them to split up. Gale has to hide behind soundproof walls, such a nail biting scene until she sees Dewey and it is heartbreaking to see ghostface stabbing Dewey as Gale is just forced to watch feeling helpless. Then she runs into Cotton f**king Weary who has Dewey's blood on his hands, making us believe that perhaps he is the killer? What a red herring but to me I didn't really think it was him.
Speaking of Cotton, I feel like in this one, he is really desperate to bring his name out of the mud and it's understandably so knowing he was accused of a murder of the woman he was having an affair with but yet we never see Sidney address that with Cotton, EVER. It's okay though, I'll just let my own mind fill in the blanks. Cotton is desperate to get an interview with Gale so he can set the record straight about his innocence. Cotton ends up being much more though by the end, even though he has to get through the total creep factor scene when he disrupts the library to yell at Sidney that she's lovable even though we already knew that. Then at the police station when they question him, they really try to make him a suspect but they poured it on pretty thick. But he does end up being a hero at the end and only because Sidney allows it, not wanting the fame or recognition like Cotton so much desires. Consider it done Cotton.
Another worth mentioning is our freaky Tarantino student, Mickey Altieri, who loves playing both sides. He loved appearing to Sidney like he was a great friend who was there for her, only knowing that he was going to betray her very soon. He laid down the groundwork only to be the one who further scars Sidney. He loved pushing her buttons, he loved playing cat and mouse with her, leaving her with more trust issues, having her question Derek to be......boyfriend....killer....boyfriend....killer. He can't do it alone so here we have Debbie Salt and to me it was lackluster. I kind of wanted to see more out Mrs. Loomis. Mrs. Vorhees seemed to be the inspiration and she certainly turned up the crazy on full stereo for sure so why couldn't we have gotten that from Mrs. Loomis? I favored Mickey more as ghostface in this one because Mickey's motive was in fact so 90's but also I liked his techniques as a killer.
I have to say the upset in this film was how they killed Randy. A very beloved character and they just had him killed off camera, in a white van with a stranger in a ghost mask with NO candy. Even Wes regretted killing him, but what was done was done. Randy didn't seem to follow his own rules and why didn't he stick with Gale and Dewey. I don't understand why he didn't urge them to stay together, he was the one on the phone with THE KILLER, why would they leave him alone? At least we get to see more of him in other ways in the next Scream (Hold on, creepy Kare, we will talk about you soon)
This sequel will always be a gem to me, I also love that in the movie itself it makes fun of how sequels tend to fall short of the originals but to me this one holds true on its own. Is it better than the first one? No but it is a solid sequel and that also makes me want to get up onto a table and sing "I think I love you" at the top of my lungs!
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