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Edinburgh University
Film Society 47 Years of Student Run Cinema 1963-2010 Student Film Society of the Year 2002, 2005, 2006 |
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Wes Craven, USA 1997, 116 mins
What? Not another shock-horror sequel?
Two years have passed since the Woodsboro murders of Scream. Sydney (Neve Campbell) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) are now at University. Sidney is desperately trying to rebuild her life with a new boyfriend whilst still trying to avoid Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), the now-rich TV reporter who's still up to her old tricks.
Other recognisable faces have also moved town: Deputy Dewey (David Arquette), who has been invalided out of the police due to the injuries he sustained, and Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) who was released from jail on the weight of evidence supplied by Weathers in her best selling book (and film) about the Woodsboro murders, "Stab".
A double murder at the preview of Stab shocks the college town. Someone is out to make a sequel. But who?
A sequel to Scream was inevitable as soon as the money started rolling in. The problem, of course, is that sequels are rarely as good as the originals. Director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson, self-referential post-modernists that they are, love to make this point throughout Scream 2. Randy, the horror film nerd turned film student, explains the rules of slasher movie sequels - "the death scenes are always more elaborate", "the body count is always higher" to a bemused Dewey. And, sure enough, Scream 2 plays to these rules most of the time (the deliciously devious ending being a prime example).
The many take-offs are amusing if you can spot them: look out for Tom Cruise's Top Gun serenade, as well as Tori Spellin's portrayal of Sidney which was mentioned in passing by the real SIdney in Scream.
Scream 2 is funnier, better written, and even more exciting than the first one - providing you've seen Scream (and can follow the refernces). And while it substitutes pyrotechnics for charm on a few too many occasions, there's still plenty left in the franchise to suggest that, even with the law of diminishing returns (as discussed in the film), Scream 3 remains an viable proposition.
Hilary Gay and Keith H. Brown
EUFS Programme 1998-99