Scream 2 (1997)
Director: Wes Craven Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O'Connel Rated R: Strong violence, gore, language
by Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
Is there a point at which a film can become so absurd that you simply stop watching it? I almost got to that point during the climax of Scream 2, which is one of the silliest, loudest, most obnoxious finales to a film I've seen in a good long while. The film itself is an exercise in self-awareness, where every cliché and every shot of someone being pounced by a knife-wielding maniac is observed with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. It seems almost pointless to even talk about the film, for anything that I might decide to criticize it for is probably an intentional element added by director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson not out of ignorance, but to keep the tone consistent.
Okay, so the story is kind of weak, in that Scream sort of way, but it doesn't matter because the characters all talk about how sequels are "by definition," lesser films than the originals. There are, of course, addendums to this postulate: Aliens, The Godfather Part II, Terminator 2--but, for the most part, sequels kind of suck (figuratively speaking, of course). So some psycho goes around killing innocent college students in an attempt to upset and later destroy Neve Campbell. "Someone has taken his love for sequels one step too far!" shouts the preview. I think that's an accurate assessment of the film.
After some initial setup-gore, the characters from the original film--Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Randy the movie nerd guy (Jamie Kennedy)--talk about who the killer might me. They discuss at great lengths the ideas behind cliché characters, about how the boyfriend isn't the killer because it's already been done, and so forth. All the gore aside, this film is so funny. I laughed frequently, and I'm not talking about chuckles--it was like "HA HA HA!" funny.
A film like Scream 2 can be successful for no other reason than it's almost sickeningly complete tone. I mean, come on, if there is someone standing next to a corner, then a killer will jump out from behind that corner and drive his knife into that person several times. There's no question about it. It's going to happen. But here we have a problem--the movie is so funny, so unrealistic, that it actually one-ups its predecessor as far as laughs an concept goes. In the process, the gore and violence feels out of place and often forced.
Scream had some genuinely frightening moments in it--the opening scene, in particular, was tense and horrifying because we didn't know what was going on. There isn't a single startling moment in Scream 2, not one ounce of suspense, and the numerous shots of a knife plunging deep into the backs of college students is really intrusive. Scream's attitude was like, "Woah, this is like one of those horror flicks or something." Scream 2 feels more like, "Check it out, we're in another horror movie, and that's not possible, but isn't this wild?" I think it would have been even better if they thought there was a killer, but it was something else (strange forms of suicide or something like that) so they all turn out to be wrong, but they can talk about sequels anyway. Of course, that would be even sillier than the film already is.
As is, the horror is an excuse for the comedy, and though it works for the most part, elements feel out of place. The last twenty minutes, for example, deliver an unsatisfying conclusion to the point of me rolling my eyes and giving up on the film. Then, the heroine does some stuff (I'll keep it a surprise) that really rubbed me the wrong way, and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. It looses its self-awareness and becomes absurd out of carelessness. And that's problematic. But reflecting back on the pre-conclusion part of the film, it's really funny. For what it is, Scream 2 works. And if you like to laugh, then you'll be doing some of that during the course of this film.
>From 0-10: 7 Grade: B-
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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