Horror movies have been part of film making since the dawn of celluloid. While the various "monsters" used to scare audiences have changed over the years -- from Frankenstein's monster, to chainsaw wielding maniacs to deranged serial killers -- the end result is that audiences shriek and hide their eyes in terror, but also in delight from being frightened. In 1978, director John Carpenter brought us "Halloween," the first of what would become a long line of "slasher" films that popularized the next decade or so of movie making.
Progressively getting worse as they copied the simple, albeit successful formula, but leaving out any originality, the films were noted for their "stupid" characters. Not that they had low I.Q.'s (though that's debatable), but their behavior lacked any real common sense. They'd wander into darkened rooms, turns their backs when they believed killers were nearby, and would always split up with one character (usually the male) telling the other (usually a female), "Stay here." Of course, they'd end up meeting a grisly demise that the audience could see coming before they even sat down in the theater.
With the slasher films waning into the cinematic sunset, famed horror maven Wes Craven ("Nightmare on Elm Street") decided it was time to inject the genre with a little originality and an eye toward self parody. Working from screenwriter Kevin Williamson's clever script, Craven embodied his characters with a working knowledge of films, including the top tips on how to survive a horror film if suddenly put in one. The result was 1996's surprise hit, "Scream," that turbo injected the genre, brought in the teenage fans, and pushed the film's grosses over the $100 million mark.
Of course with such success, the inevitable sequel had to follow, and thus the appearance of "Scream 2." Following the formula of the original, this film has an attractive young cast who again knows, and continually comments on, the world of horror films. The fact that this is a sequel provides for a great deal of the film's clever moments, and the characters here comment on the "rules" for a sequel (more bodies, more carnage). The beginning in particular is very clever in that we see a film within this film that portrays what happened in the first film. Following me so far?
Part of the spoof is seeing the Drew Barrymore opening from the original now being played out as a fictitious movie (and later starring Tori Spelling, another "in" joke). At a promotional screening for this film, "Stab," the audience wears masks identical to the one the killer wore in the original, all the better, of course, to hide amongst if you're the real killer. Jada Pinkett plays an African- American woman who comments while watching the movie that African American characters are never in these movies, and then says that she'd be smarter than the characters on screen. It doesn't take much imagination to guess what happens to her next.
More imagination is what's needed, however, in the film's second half that follows in the footsteps of the original and loses steam as the clever material quickly evaporates. Although the body count rises, it unfortunately replaces what made the film unique. We're then subjected to the standard slasher film material where the killer chases the heroine around for a while. More egregious is the fact that the characters resort to breaking the rules set forth in the original and early in this film -- they get stupid and do illogical things.
For instance, after a rather harrowing sequence where Sidney must crawl over the apparently unconscious killer to get out of a car, she doesn't grab the clearly visible gun, or even unmask the killer (why spoil the inevitable revealing at the end?). No, instead she rushes back to what she knows would be an empty theater building for no apparent reason other than to allow the killer to chase her around a bit more.
Such moments, as in the films this movie makes fun of, diffuse what had earlier been built up and are accordingly disappointing. Sure, there are a few obligatory jump scenes, that also make heavy use of sudden music to get that reaction, as well as some tense, scary moments. The most effective include the above-mentioned car escape sequence and a fun scene using foam walls (used in sound recording studios) set up in a maze (for no logical reason other than to be set up like a maze) where Cox and the killer play a game of cat and mouse.
Yet, once the clever material is gone, the rest of the film falls into the standard slasher film scenes, and offers little originality. One wishes that Williamson and Craven were more clever in having the remaining characters survive and defeat the killer. Likewise, while the film tries to dangle a few red herrings in front of us concerning the killer's identity, it's not done effectively enough to really make us think it's any of the major characters.
Still, our preview audience seemed to enjoy the "ride" and it will no doubt please fans of the original and of horror films in general. The characters' stupidity worked as many audience members screamed out instructions for the on screen characters to follow ("watch out"). As we said in our review of the original, however, these are all "surface" scares. There's nothing here that unnerves you or gets under your skin. Some moments might make you jump, but they won't give you nightmares or a case of the late-night "heebie jeebies."
Unfortunately, this is probably the future of horror films, and the target audience will eat it up. Unfortunately, those teenagers weren't born when the truly scary films -- "The Haunting," "The Exorcist," "The Omen," etc... -- were being made and scaring the daylights out of their baby boomer parents. If you want to see really scary films, rent one of those. Certain to be another huge success, this film has its moments, but it's just not scary enough to rate as one of the best of the genre. We give "Scream 2" a 5 out of 10.
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