" 'Stab' would have been better"

(Scream 2)

If you're like me, you were happy with the original "Scream". It was exciting. It was contemporary, the actors were cool, the script was hip and the gore was in just the right places. So, when plans for the sequel were announced, we all lost our minds and waited for it in glee. We heard that Wes Craven was going to come back and direct the sequel. And if that wasn't enough to motivate us, Kevin Williamson, the writer of the first one, was also writing the second one. Pure horror, pure excitement, pure awesome.

Right?

Not quite.

The sequel, "Scream 2", has finally arrived, but honestly, I believe it needs to cook some more. When my wife and I entered that theater, we were probably the oldest people in the audience, and we're in our upper twenties. So, technically, the crowd was the perfect age for this film, and that was exciting for us. There is nothing quite like the experience of theater surround sound and audience surround sound. But there ended up being one LITTLE problem in this entertainment paradise……..

THE MOVIE.

An hour and a half later, I walked out of paradise wondering to myself, 'what the hell happened'? 'Why did Craven and Williamson screw up a great thing?'

So, you now know that I didn't like the film, but the frustrating part is that the warning signs were all there, 'scream'ing out at me, and I was determined to give it the benefit of the doubt. Here is what happened.

The first sign was the opening scene. Now, I think it's safe to say that we were all pretty aware ahead of time that there would be another 'Drew' scene to begin the movie. It was just a matter of which actor would be the unfortunate victim. Well, it turned out to be two actors, one of which gets knifed in the bathroom of the theater, which was neat but silly and unrealistic. But it was the Jada's death that really blew the whistle and set the tone for the film: predictable, silly and too damn long.

So, here's the basic story in a nutshell.

Its' two years later and Sidney (Neve Campbell) is in college. It also happens to be the time when the movie "Stab" is being premiered, the movie based on the book by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) regarding the murders in the first film. But, now that the film has begun, so have new murders. And we can't have more, new murders without what? That's right, new characters. Therefore, we now have Sidney's boyfriend, played by "Slider's" Jerry O'Connell, his friend ( I forget the guy's name), Sidney's room mate (forgot her, too) and a sorority gal played by Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar. Finishing out the cast are returns Officer Dewey and horror guru Randy.

Now, at the beginning of this film, we are presented with another batch of Randy's Rules, but this time they're rules for sequels, and the one that really seems to pertain the most to this film is the rule that states that there is always a higher body count in a sequel. Well, once again, Randy knows best and we are presented with an hour and a half of buckets of blood and a campus full of cell phones.

What we aren't given is originality. Though some particular deaths were a bit of a surprise, everyone of them was terribly predictable and some were even silly. When it came to the ending and I finally got to see who the killer(s) were, I didn't even care. I was bored and frustrated long before that point. What made it worse was that I knew for a fact who the killer(s) WEREN'T, which is the fault of the script's strategy.

If this movie were a few months older, I would be stating examples of my point, but I don't want to give anything away at this juncture in the film's short life.

Instead, I will give you MY rules for a successful horror sequel:

Rule # 1: Don't do one.

Rule # 2: See rule # 1

                                           Rule # 3: See "Poltergeists 2 & 3"oltergeist 2 & 3"

Rule # 4: If you must do one, you will need a balance of 2 elements-
a) any successful elements from the original
b) new, uncliche'd ideas

Rule # 5: If your movie is character driven, like "Scream", do not kill off any reoccurring characters who are a large reason for the film's success. That is a perfect example of shooting yourself in the foot.

Rule #6: Avoid the classic 'Boo' scenes. These are the scenes where everything is quiet, and then a cat jumps through the window and makes you spill your popcorn and beer. They are cheap thrills usually accompanied by loud, sudden music. Movies who abuse these are usually trying to make up for lack of story scare. If you want more examples, watch "Event Horizon" or every "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" film ever made.

Rule # 7: If you really need to follow this many rules, you really shouldn't be making a sequel.

What made the original so unique was that it set new standards that the struggling genre badly needed, and it accomplished this by making fun of itself without degrading or patronizing itself. It had very few clichés, and those it did, it carried out quite cleverly. Lastly, it paid homage to classic horror films, which is something the sequel also did, but it forgot to do everything else. Granted, most of these aspects are a result of a smart script, but that smart script writer was called upon to do the sequel, and quite frankly, he didn't.


C-


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