428: Scream 2

[00:00:00] 135, let's get to Scream 2 which came out in 1997. It is once again directed by Wes Craven, stars basically the same cast but also adds Liev Schreiber, Timothy Oliphant and a few other faces who would really go on to have pretty big careers

[00:00:20] so it's cool to see them in this. And the synopsis is two years after the first series of murders as Sidney acclimates to college life someone donning the ghost-faced costume begins a new string of killings.

[00:00:34] So I only saw this one right after I saw the first one I was like alright cool I'm hooked now and I went and saw I think the whole franchise up until whatever

[00:00:42] that was all the way through like in a night and I was very very pleased that this one did not have a huge dip as many sequels do when it comes to horror slashers and I don't think it's a perfect movie I don't think it's as good

[00:00:58] as five or six but it's still to me a very very solid entry and a very solid sequel and there's not a lot of the meta stuff there is so some of that and I like the conversation with the college classroom and them mentioning how

[00:01:13] sequels don't really work and all that and I think that conversation even though it's a little like alright you know we get it I think it's still pretty clever and I could see a film class having that kind of conversation so it

[00:01:25] works because I've even had that sort of conversation with my film friends so I like that and one thing that this franchise does really well and that sets itself apart from things like Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw,

[00:01:40] Halloween etc is that it is pretty much a different killer every single time whereas you know it's Michael Myers in all of Halloween no matter how many times we think he's dead or how many times he gets stabbed or shot he still

[00:01:53] comes back and in this it's like well typically the killers are killed at the end and then someone else says well I'll go get a costume of Ghostface and I'll be the killer this time so I think that's very clever and that allows you to have

[00:02:08] endless amounts of ideas without making it seem that unbelievable because you could easily see nowadays someone oh well the character from this or this killer is dead I'm just gonna go buy the costume I can get at Walmart and do

[00:02:23] the same thing you know and so it's not really that unrealistic of a situation so that's something I really really like and you only really see that once you go through the franchise as opposed to just having watched one

[00:02:36] and the multiple killers as well I think is a very good idea and pretty much works every time I never really get bored of how they reveal those characters who ends up being like it's never I think part three spoilers probably the

[00:02:50] weakest but we'll get to that besides that I think that carrying through with Neve Campbell's character I really like her I really like Courtney Cox and that set of friends I guess they're not always friends in the context of the story but

[00:03:05] that gang of characters and David Arquette I think how they bounce off of each other and trust each other and then they don't and etc etc I think that is very effective for the most part and there's really talking about this being

[00:03:20] a sequel to a slasher or being a slasher sequel while it's not a masterpiece there aren't that many flaws to it I find like it's obviously not as original as the first but pretty much one of the only issues if we're talking

[00:03:37] about this within the context of the franchise within the context of the genre I mean performances are fine there's nothing amazing but they do the job it's directed well Wes Craven has a very good one thing I do love about him having

[00:03:50] gone through all these movies is he has the ability especially in the first one but really in all of them he has the ability to make simple moments simple visuals very memorable and very creepy very weird and like simple deaths or the

[00:04:06] look of someone's wounds on their body like he just has the ability to make it very iconic and chilling and pretty much one of the only issues is I think it's maybe a touch too long it's two hours it's a little bit longer than the first

[00:04:21] and I think it could have maybe been cut by 10 or 15 minutes but I think the third act is great in the theater the chase with Courtney Cox and David Arquette especially with Courtney Cox through those rooms and through the

[00:04:34] hallways and she's trying to sneak around the different parts of the room and the walls and I think all that is very very suspenseful and it really looks good and I love how they show both Ghostface and her creeping around

[00:04:47] different areas and all that I think it's very well done and then also another thing that this series does well I don't want to get too repetitive but there's just a lot that I love and if I have the chance to talk about it I will

[00:04:59] I like how they set up the idea and especially nowadays it makes sense because of how easy I guess you could say it is to frame someone or to suspect someone or suspect the worst in someone I like how they have the incorporation

[00:05:15] of seemingly innocent characters like who gets the blame for the actual killer and like all right well is he actually the killer is he not and then friends saying no I didn't do it and then they actually did do it or they did it and

[00:05:26] there's that constant suspicion of people and I think as the series goes on and it's especially in five and six where you could really post something about someone take it out of context and well that person looks like a villain

[00:05:40] now they're crazy they're whatever so I really think that this series has a lot more there's nothing incredibly deep but I think it has a lot going on that I didn't really notice on first viewings that sticks with me and I really enjoy

[00:05:55] thinking about that and I enjoy that very gray area of those characters and who you should follow who you shouldn't you know who knows what so besides that the sequence at the beginning with the very meta meta

[00:06:13] situation with the two or with a couple where they're going to see the stab movie and then the girlfriend gets stabbed by ghost face while watching the movie and then she goes up on stage and is obviously like wailing in pain but

[00:06:31] then people think it's like a publicity stunt because they're right in the middle of a violent scene and I think all those ideas it's you could maybe not everybody loves it but I do I think I really appreciate that now and I enjoy

[00:06:42] it more and more every time as I learn more about the series and as I go back and revisit all of them so that opening is iconic and that's another great moment that they parody in the scary movies the parody films

[00:06:58] I like the sequence with the phone call in the park at the college and they're not sure who's calling because they're being watched and them running around trying to tackle anyone who's on the phone I think that's pretty enjoyable

[00:07:09] and the sorority sequence as well with the blonde girl but one thing though that always gets me and maybe this movie set the stage for it I don't know but it sort of annoys me on a very personal level a very unimportant level where this

[00:07:27] very stereotypical girl is watching the silent original version of Nosferatu completely ridiculous never in a million years would that ever be believable and I don't understand why like I understand they want to put in classic movies and

[00:07:46] have more of the meta like oh they're watching a slasher or horror movie while the killers in the house and whatever I get that but I feel like they could put on something a little bit more believable as to what they would

[00:07:57] actually be watching and I think they do the same thing in it follows where she's watching like I think maybe the original Frankenstein or something along those lines where I just don't believe that those characters would ever take the time

[00:08:09] to watch that I mean pretty much me or any other film not maybe but even that is a stretch but definitely not a very stereotypical sorority sort of college person no way and maybe I'm crazy for saying that but I think that's pretty

[00:08:24] accurate so I that doesn't take anything away from the movie itself but it sort of bugs me on a nitpick level but I think that whole sequence where she is thrown out the window is very effective

[00:08:38] so again I don't really have a lot of big things to say or to point out that it's you know that are wrong or bad I think it's just a very good engaging effective entertaining sequel that I think should get more praise than it

[00:08:54] does and I think really all these movies should be getting more praise than they do but they come across as very which I mean maybe you could call them as just shallow slashers but there's a lot more going on and there's a lot more

[00:09:07] creativity and I think people realize at least that's what I get from it maybe I'm the minority there but I've always kind of felt that having gone through these movies especially if I watch them one after another which I easily can do

[00:09:19] so highly recommend it not one that I would really rewatch by itself it's still a very good movie but I think I would only typically watch two three and four if I just watched one whereas I think five and six I can watch by themselves

[00:09:37] but I think even with those I want to start with five and then watch six so I think that they sort of go together in a kind of interesting way where usually I can watch one-offs in all these franchises but in this one I really want

[00:09:51] to start from the beginning and just enjoy all six movies to date so I think that's pretty impressive in its own right but yeah that one is a heavy four and a half out of five