Scream 2

With the surprising success of “Scream,” they came out with a sequel, “Scream 2,” in 1997. This movie talks about how horror sequels suck, as it is described in the movie. That is actually the right statement since this movie sucked harder than the first one.

Returning to the sequel, Sidney Prescott is now a college student who now has a new boyfriend named Derek (Jerry O’Connell) and has a handful of new friends, including her old friend Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), who is obviously a film student. While they are busy trying to finish their college work, the nuisance TV reporter Gale Weathers has been plugging her book, The Woodsboro Murders, everywhere, and now it has been adapted into a movie titled “Stab.” Once “Stab” hits the theaters, the murders start again.

There’s more. Along with trying to plug her book, Gale comes to town with Cotton Weary, reprised by Liev Schreiber, fresh out of jail after being blamed for killing Sidney’s mother, even though he was innocent but Sidney said he was lying. Gale thinks that Sidney and Cotton should meet to let bygones-be-bygones than a posthumous interview with Princess Diana. Also there is Deputy Dewey, played by former WCW wrestler, David Arquette, who somehow survived the previous film’s chaos and wants to protect Sidney and everyone from the new murderer.

Maitland McDonagh stated in her review, “Like all good sequels-as Randy is quick to point out-Scream 2's body count is higher, its murderous tableaux are more elaborate-consider the possibilities of a well-equipped college drama department-and the gore is ladled on with an even heavier hand than in the original.” For the supporting cast like Drew Barrymore and the hot Rose McGowan (who you might remember as Paige from the downhill show “Charmed”) are not in here again, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jada Pinkett and Tori Spelling (who plays Sidney in the movie-within-the-movie) pick up the slack with nice before murder brightness. Sadly, “Scream 2” is exactly below what “Scream” did poorly, getting itself completely stuck in every cliché where it senses to be satire.

“Scream 2” begins with the “Stab” opening night, where Craven redoes “Scream’s” beginning where Casey, played by Heather Graham in the redoing, home alone, tortured by an evil caller, but gives it, as McDonagh says, “the cheesy trappings of a cut-rate slasher movie, right down to the mandatory shower sequence.” In a theater packed with screaming horror fanatics in the Ghostface masks, Craven shoots a really amazing double murder and sets up the movie for another edge-of-your-seat ride where it is between imitation and harshly self-aware horror movie. McDonagh is right when she states, “But that only makes it more disappointing when the killer (killers?) gets up to his/their old tricks, making scary phone calls, popping out of dark corners and carving up miscellaneous incautious nubiles. Been there, done that, and gave it the 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' treatment-Times Square style, thank you-when these fresh-faced victims-to-be were too young to get into a scary movie without a parent or adult guardian.”

By the time the part where the murderer is unmasked, with a character so minimal that the line “The butler did it” arrives undeniably to your head, the handful of survivors have done a lot of ridiculous actions that it’s hard not to want every one of them dead. If that’s not making you see a ridiculous horror sequel, I don’t know what will be.

As you might be already guessing, you shouldn’t even be considering seeing this movie. If you liked the first one and you want to see the sequel, then go ahead. If you end up liking this one as well, then great, but if not, you’re not alone. Basically, this movie does the same thing the first one did, but sinks it to a whole new low, making it a painful trip.

If that is not enough, then you should stay tuned tomorrow when I talk about the third in this ridiculous “Scream franchise” that I don’t see why people like.