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Sequels of successful films are often hastily copied Xeroxes that lose much of the original's magic. There are, however, some notable exceptions to this cineKinko's syndrome: The Empire Strikes Back; The Godfather, Part 2; Aliens; Terminator 2; Evil Dead 2; Batman Returns; Weekend at Bernie's 2 (just kidding); Kieslowski's White and Red; French Connection 2. Oh, and--what the hell--Scream 2. Known for A Nightmare on Elm Street and nearly disowned for Shocker and The People Under the Stairs, Wes Craven was able to revive the gutted slasher genre with Scream. By making fun of the very thing it was, Scream became a witty example of having your splatter-movie cake and lampooning it, too. At times, Scream 2 is the movie equivalent of a mirror reflecting another mirror: an almost vertiginous conga line of keen pop-culture references. As the sequel opens, the original Scream story--in which a masked killer terrified the town of Woodsboro, slaying teen-agers and working his way to Sidney (Neve Campbell), the traumatized daughter of a prior murder victim--has been turned into a book by telejournalist/ exploitative power-bitch Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and, in turn, a movie called Stab. In typical in-joke fashion, the film opens with a young African-American couple (Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett, whose character quips, "I don't want to go to some dumb-ass white movie") in line for the sneak preview of the film. In Stab, Heather Graham plays the Drew Barrymore role from the original, redone as Friday the 13th-style schlock (the character is now introduced taking a sudden evening shower before receiving her harassing calls). The scene whips up into an interactive life-imitates-schlock event somewhere between Rocky Horror and Purple Rose of Cairo when it becomes gruesomely obvious that someone is intent on making a real-life sequel to Stab. Sidney is now a college freshman plagued by reporters and crank phone calls due to her unfortunate celebrity, while wise-cracking cinephile Randy (Jamie Kennedy) spends his time dissecting genres including, most amusingly, sequels to horror films. Gale blows upon the scene to vulture a Stab follow-up just as bumbling sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) rushes to Sidney's side. Soon everyone--including wrongly imprisoned Cotton (Liev Schreiber), Sidney's bland new beau Derek (Jason Bateman-esque Jerry O'Connell), and jittery film student Mickey (Timothy Olyphant)--is a suspect after an increasingly ambitious array of murders that abide by Randy's horror sequel rules: "Sequels always have bigger death scenes. Carnage candy!" During the course of its brisk running time, Scream 2 becomes the most unlikely of things: a comic slasher "message" film. Can you blame real-life violence on movies? (Craven's theory, as opined in the original: Movies don't make murderers, they only give them ideas.) Is crime a one-way ticket to celebrity? Do sequels suck? Why are horror films so satisfying? Scream 2 doesn't presume to have "the big answers," but despite its energetic questioning, it becomes an entertaining example of what it ponders. Unfortunately, most horror films are like a joke with a great set-up marred by a lame punch line, and Scream 2 is no exception. The ending plays out like a Tarantino-directed episode of Scooby Doo, but luckily everything prior is so delightfully clever and guiltily thrilling, you forgive the unwelcome allusions to Daphne and Shaggy. Zoinks, indeed |
