| Scream 2 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Written by | Kevin Williamson |
| Based on | Characters by Kevin Williamson |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Deming |
| Edited by | Patrick Lussier |
| Music by | Marco Beltrami |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Dimension Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 120 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $24 million[3] |
| Box office | $172.4 million[3] |
Scream 2 is a 1997 Americanslasher film directed byWes Craven and written byKevin Williamson. It starsDavid Arquette,Neve Campbell,Courteney Cox,Sarah Michelle Gellar,Jamie Kennedy,Laurie Metcalf,Jerry O'Connell,Jada Pinkett andLiev Schreiber. A sequel toScream (1996), it is the second installment in theScream film series.Scream 2 follows the character ofSidney Prescott (Campbell), and the other survivors of the Woodsboro massacre, at the fictional Windsor College inOhio where they are targeted by acopycat killer using the identity ofGhostface. Like its predecessor,Scream 2 combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of comedy, satire and "whodunit" mystery while satirizing thecliché of filmsequels.
Williamson provided a five-page outline for a sequel toScream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise. Following a successfultest screening ofScream and the film's financial and critical success, Dimension moved forward with the sequel whileScream was still in theaters, with the principal cast all returning to star, Craven to direct and Beltrami to provide music. The film faced controversy following its significant issues with plot informationleaking onto the Internet, revealing the identity of the killers. Combined with the film's rushed schedule, the script was rewritten often; pages were sometimes completed on the day of filming.
Scream 2 was released on December 12, 1997, byDimension Films. The film earned $172.4 million at the box office, and received positive reviews from critics. Beltrami received positive critical reception for his score for evolving the musical themes of the characters created inScream, although some critics claimed that the most memorable pieces from the film were created by composersDanny Elfman andHans Zimmer. Elfman's contribution had been specially written for the film, but Zimmer's score forBroken Arrow (1996) was controversially used in the film, replacing Beltrami's own work. The film's soundtrack achieved moderate sales success, reaching number 50 on theBillboard 200. A sequel,Scream 3, was released on February 3, 2000.
Two Windsor College seniors, Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens, attend a sneak preview ofStab, afilm based on the events of the Woodsboro massacre.[a] Briefly exiting the theater to use the restroom, Phil is killed by an individual donning aGhostface costume, who proceeds to sit beside Maureen in Phil's place. The killer then stabs her repeatedly, unnoticed by the raucous crowd, leading her to climb up on stage in a cry for help, which the audience mistakes for a publicity stunt until she falls dead.
The news media, including local journalist Debbie Salt, descend on Windsor College whereSidney Prescott is a student alongside her roommate Hallie McDaniel, her new boyfriend Derek Feldman, fellow Woodsboro survivorRandy Meeks and Derek's friendMickey Altieri. Two other Woodsboro survivors arrive: police deputyDewey Riley to offer Sidney protection, and reporterGale Weathers to cover the incident. Gale and her new cameraman, Joel Jones, unsuccessfully try to stage a confrontation between Sidney andCotton Weary, who is attempting to gain fame from his exoneration for the rape and murder of Sidney's mother, Maureen Prescott.
That evening, Sidney and Hallie attend a party at thesorority house Delta Lambda Zeta. At Omega Beta Zeta, another nearby sorority house, Ghostface murders student Cici Cooper. After the partygoers leave to observe Cici's crime scene, Ghostface enters Delta Lambda Zeta and attacks Sidney. Ghostface injures Derek but flees when the police arrive. Later, after realizing that Cici is a diminutive forCasey, Gale theorizes that the new Ghostface is targeting students with the same names as the Woodsboro murder victims. Randy theorizes that the killer is likely someone Sidney knows and is patterning the homicides after a movie sequel. Soon after, Ghostface calls Gale, Dewey, and Randy while they are together in daylight on the college campus. Despite their attempts to find him, Ghostface ultimately ambushes Randy and pulls him into Joel's media van, where he is murdered. Shortly after, Joel, fearing he will be targeted next, skips town.
As night falls over the campus, Dewey and Gale go to a building to review tapes of footage shot by Joel, hoping to spot the killer in the vicinity of the previous crime scenes, but Ghostface attacks them, stabbing Dewey. Two officers driving Sidney and Hallie to a safe house are murdered when Ghostface intercepts the vehicle. In the ensuing struggle, Ghostface is knocked unconscious, but recovers and kills Hallie. Drawn to music playing in the campus theater[b] while seeking safety, Sidney finds Derek in the auditorium tied to a cross from an earlier fraternityhazing ritual. Ghostface arrives, revealing himself as Mickey, and shoots Derek, killing him.
Mickey divulges his intent to kill Sidney and allow his arrest, in an effort to blame movie violence for the murders and become famous from the oncoming trial. Debbie arrives, holding Gale at gunpoint, and is revealed to be Mickey's accomplice, whom Sidney recognizes as Nancy Loomis, the mother of Woodsboro killerBilly. Nancy betrays Mickey and shoots him, affirming that she only used Mickey to frame him for their killing spree. Mickey fires his gun before collapsing, wounding Gale, who falls offstage. Nancy discloses she is seeking revenge against Sidney for killing Billy and that she murdered Randy in Joel's news van for slandering her son's name during their phone call. However, Sidney points out the hypocrisy of Nancy's motives, considering that her abandonment fueled Billy's psychotic tendencies. The pair fight until Cotton appears and holds them at gunpoint. Nancy attempts to manipulate Cotton into murdering Sidney, reminding him that her testimony got him arrested. Much to Nancy's shock, he instead chooses to shoot her in exchange for an interview with Sidney andDiane Sawyer. As Sidney, Cotton, and a recovered Gale glance over Nancy's body, Mickey suddenly resurfaces but is shot to death by Gale and Sidney. Sidney then shoots Nancy in the head to ensure her death.
When the police arrive, Dewey is revealed to be alive and Gale climbs into the ambulance with him rather than taking the opportunity to report with the returning Joel. Sidney then instructs the press to direct questions to Cotton to remove attention from herself and reward Cotton for helping her.
While writing the script forScream, screenwriter Kevin Williamson also developed two five-page treatments for potential sequels, hoping to entice prospective buyers with the fact that they were not just buying a film but a franchise,[4][5] and after a successfultest screening for the original, at whichMiramax executives were present, Craven was also given a contract to direct the two future films.[5] Williamson's idea for a sequel was that Sidney Prescott would now be attending college and acopycatGhostface killer would start a new series of murders.
Dimension Films considered pursuing development of a sequel in January 1997 afterScream grossed more than $50 million in the first month of its release, with production beinggreenlit in March 1997 and the provision of an increased budget of $24 million overScream's $15 million.[6] Williamson already had 42 pages of the plot developed by this point,[6] which involved four different killers:Derek;Hallie;Cotton Weary; andNancy Loomis, who is the mother of one of the previous film's killers.[7]
Craven was hesitant about returning to direct the film, as he was worried about missing other opportunities, not wanting to be "trapped" by aScream franchise, so Williamson and the other filmmakers talked withRobert Rodriguez about directingScream 2, an offer he was willing to take. However, Craven ultimately felt unable to leaveScream 2 to someone else and agreed to direct it, so Rodriguez left to directThe Faculty.[8]
Principal photography forScream 2 took place over a nine-week period beginning in mid-June 1997[9] and on a budget of $24 million.Atlanta, Georgia, andLos Angeles were used to represent the state ofOhio, where the fictional Windsor College is situated inScream 2, with filming taking place largely in Los Angeles and over four weeks in Atlanta. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the fictionalStab film was filmed over three days in the Vista Theater on Sunset Drive, Hollywood, with the exterior represented by the Rialto Theater inSouth Pasadena, California.[10]
Thesorority homes used by the characterCici Cooper and a nearby party were also filmed in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles.[10] The fictionalStab film was filmed inMalibu, California.[10]Agnes Scott College, just outside Atlanta,[11] andUCLA in Los Angeles were used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in the film.[12]
After Williamson transferred his script to the production, it wasleaked onto the Internet in full by one of the film's extras, revealing the identity of the killers and a large amount of the involved plot.[13] This resulted in the production continuing to film with only a partial script while Williamson conducted extensive rewrites, changing much of the film's finale, the identities of the film's killers and drastically altering the roles of other characters such asRandy Meeks andJoel.[13]
To avoid another such incident and prevent sensitive plot details being revealed through other means, the actors were not given the last pages of the script until weeks before shooting and the pages that revealed the killer's identity were only provided on the day the scene was shot and only to the actors involved.[6] The short production schedule onScream 2 and his work on other projects meant that Williamson's final script used for the film was detailed in some areas but lacking in others, with Craven forced to write and develop certain scenes as they were being filmed.[14] Following the script's leak, security around the production was significantly increased, with a focus on closedfilm sets and strict restrictions on what personnel could be present during filming and have access to the script, with all present required to signnon-disclosure agreements. The script itself was reprinted on specialty paper to preventphotocopying and was often destroyed after use.[4]
The incident was the first in which a film was significantly affected by an Internet leak.[15] In 2017, Williamson claimed the leaked script was a "dummy draft" that was crafted specifically to avoid leaked details.[16] Williamson claimed there were three dummy endings written.
"They were worried the killer's identity would be leaked, so we wrote several endings. Three in all, if memory serves, and when actors and potential crew members asked to read the script, we would send the script with the dummy ending ... There was even a fake ending where Dewey was the killer. They existed as a decoy and nothing more. Extreme measures, but we really wanted to keep the killer's identity a secret!"[16]
In an interview, Craven commented on the rushed six-month production schedule, with the film being expected ready for release on December 12, less than a year after the release ofScream, and Williamson forced to rewrite his script. Pages for scenes would often only be ready on the day of filming and others lacked significant detail, forcing Craven to develop them as the scenes took place.[14] Various titles were considered for the sequel at different points in the film's production, includingScream Again,Scream Louder andScream: The Sequel before the studio decided to simply useScream 2.[17]
Neve Campbell had been contracted to reprise her role as heroine Sidney Prescott in a potential sequel before filming had even begun onScream, her character being the only one from the original film guaranteed to survive and lead a new film.[18] Once production of a sequel was seen as inevitable, following the success ofScream,Dimension Films added sequel options for the actors whose characters had survived the previous film:Courteney Cox as ambitiousnews reporterGale Weathers,David Arquette as retireddeputy sheriffDewey Riley,Jamie Kennedy as film-geekRandy Meeks andLiev Schreiber asCotton Weary, the man exonerated for the murder of Sidney's mother.[18]Roger L. Jackson also returned to voice the character ofGhostface.
Having finalized the returning principal cast fromScream, the production approached their casting forScream 2 in a similar manner, seeking established and popular actors, largely sourcing from TV shows of the time. In interviews, the production staff of the film remarked that they found approaching and securing the talent they wanted significantly easier than it had been forScream, considering the financial and critical success of the film but also believing the prior involvement ofDrew Barrymore had lent the horror genre an element of credibility which made serious actors eager to become involved.[6]
New cast includedSarah Michelle Gellar assorority sister and film fanCici Cooper,Elise Neal as Sidney's friend and roommateHallie,Jerry O'Connell as Sidney's boyfriendDerek,Timothy Olyphant asMickey andLaurie Metcalf as local reporterDebbie Salt, later revealed as Nancy Loomis, mother ofBilly Loomis fromScream. Early in development,Alicia Silverstone andLiv Tyler were approached to appear in the film's opening sequence,[19] whileEric Mabius,Natasha Gregson Wagner andPaula Marshall all auditioned for unspecified roles.[20] According to Jamie Kennedy,Tobey Maguire was offered the role of Mickey, but he turned it down.[21] Many of the actors involved in the production, including Campbell, Cox, Gellar, and O'Connell were starring in their own television series at the time, allowing the production limited availability to schedule their involvement. Gellar in particular was in-between filming ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer and had only recently finished work on another Williamson-penned film,I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Despite the hectic scheduling, Gellar admitted in an interview that she agreed to perform inScream 2 without having read the script because of the success ofScream.[22] Metcalf had only just finished her nine-year run on the popular sitcomRoseanne when she began work onScream 2 and Craven was praising of her ability to portray the deranged Nancy Loomis.[12] To obtain the role of Derek, O'Connell and other candidates had to audition by performing a scene from the film where the character sings "I Think I Love You".[12] Olyphant's involvement as Mickey was his first leading role in a feature film. Despite scheduling difficulties, Craven took their desire to participate in the film despite their workload as a compliment to the film's quality.[6]
The cast was rounded out byLewis Arquette, father of David Arquette, as a local Sheriff in charge of investigating the new murders,Duane Martin as Gale'scameramanJoel,Jada Pinkett andOmar Epps asMaureen Evans and Phil Stevens, patrons of the fictional "Stab" film who become the film's opening victims, andPortia de Rossi andRebecca Gayheart as sorority sisters Murphy and Lois. Gayheart had auditioned for the role ofTatum Riley inScream and auditioned multiple times forScream 2 for the roles of Cici Cooper, Hallie and Maureen Evans before obtaining her eventual role.[22] Minor roles were filled by Chris Doyle and Philip Pavel as Officer Richards and Officer Andrews, assigned to protect Sidney, veteran actorDavid Warner as Sidney's drama teacher,Joshua Jackson as an unnamed film student, andNancy O'Dell as an unnamed reporter who would reprise the role in future installments of the series.Tori Spelling,Luke Wilson andHeather Graham played themselves as characters in the "Stab" films; credited as Stab Sidney, Stab Billy and StabCasey respectively. Spelling was cast based on a sarcastic remark by Campbell's character inScream that she would be played by Spelling in a movie based on her life. Craven remarked that she was a "good sport" about the joke and happy to take part.[12]
Craven had difficulties passingScream through the film-rating bodyMPAA to receive an R-rating to help the film remain commercially viable,[23] sending eight different cuts and requiring the direct intervention of Dimension Films founderBob Weinstein to eventually obtain the necessary rating to release the film without significant cuts.[24]
Eager to avoid the same experience onScream 2, Craven attempted to manipulate the MPAA by sending them a version of the film that had been edited to focus on and enhance the gore and violence present beyond what they actually wanted in the film, including reusing a clip ofOmar Epps'character Phil Stevens being stabbed in the ear three times, instead of only once as seen in the final film, and an extended scene ofRandy Meeks' death that showed his throat being slashed. Craven's reasoning was that the parts of the film they wished to keep would be more acceptable when viewed with the enhanced violence and so the MPAA would force them to remove the footage they already did not want to keep while passing the content they did want. However, the MPAA grantedScream 2 an R-rating for the more violent cut, as they believed the underlying message of the film was significant enough to warrant the violence.[22]
Marco Beltrami returned to helm thescore forScream 2, though there would be a late inclusion byDanny Elfman in the form of the choral track "Cassandra Aria" which plays during a scene where Campbell's character performs in aplay and again in the film's finale as "Cassandra Aria Reprise". Excerpts from the score of the 1996 filmBroken Arrow byHans Zimmer appeared in the film, in particular guitar work byDuane Eddy, for the character Dewey, replacing the tracks that had been developed for the character from the originalScream score. Beltrami would explain in an interview that the Zimmer piece was used as aplaceholder for Beltrami's incomplete score during atest screening. The test audience reaction to it influenced the studio to keep the Zimmer piece, reducing "Dewey's Theme", which Beltrami had composed to fill its place, to minor use during more serious scenes involving the character.[12][25] In 1998,Varèse Sarabande released a 30-minute album with music fromScream andScream 2, and in 2016Scream 2: The Deluxe Edition was released including the Elfman material and the complete Beltrami score.
Scream 2 held itspremiere on December 10, 1997, atGrauman's Chinese Theater inHollywood,[26] followed by a general release on December 12, 1997, less than a year after the release ofScream. After the unexpected success ofScream, by late 1997,Scream 2 was considered such a potential box office success that theJames Bond filmTomorrow Never Dies andJames Cameron's future hitTitanic were moved from their release date of December 12 to 19, so as to not face the film as competition.[17]
Scream 2 opened in 2,663 theaters and took $32.9 million on its opening weekend in box-office receipts, a $27 million increase overScream. It went on to gross $101.4 million in the United States and $71 million in other territories with a worldwide lifetime gross of $172.4 million. Its debut set the December opening weekend record until December 2000, being replaced byWhat Women Want (2000).[27][14][28] It also achieved the highest December weekend gross for two weeks until it was overtaken byTitanic.[29]Scream 2 enjoyed financial success on par withScream despite its rapid production time and issues with script rewrites, nearly matching the first film's total gross of $173 million.[30]Scream 2 is currently the third highest-grossing film in theslasher genre, again behindScream.[31]Scream 2 was the 21st highest-grossing film of 1997 despite competition fromblockbuster films such asTitanic andMen in Black.[32]
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 82% based on 132 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "As with the first film,Scream 2 is a gleeful takedown of scary movie conventions that manages to poke fun at terrible horror sequels without falling victim to the same fate."[33] OnMetacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[34] OnCinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[35]
BothGene Siskel andThe New York Times'Janet Maslin gave the sequel positive reviews despite their negative response toScream; Maslin remarked: "Scream 2 almost works as straight satire. It's so sharp—pardon the expression—that no pretty young things absolutely had to die."[36]Roger Ebert stated the film was "about as good as the original" but lamented that "[Scream 2] is gorier than the original, and that distracts from the witty screenplay."[37]Time Out London was mixed in its response, calling the film superior to most other horror films, but poor in comparison toScream,[38] whileVariety, scathing ofScream before its release, positively received the sequel, saying "[characters] ponder whether any sequel ever topped the original.Scream 2 is certainly worthy of being part of that debate."[39]Empire's Kim Newman echoed this sentiment saying "Some great comic—and terrifying—moments, but suffers for not being as original as the original" remarking that though the film had the same elements that madeScream a success, they were no longer surprising for having been inScream.[40]
There was, however, criticism over the death of the characterRandy Meeks played by Kennedy. John Muir, author ofWes Craven: The Art of Horror called the character's death the "most devastating moment of the sequel" and a "bad call", but praised the development of the other surviving characters fromScream, calling Cox, Arquette and Campbell's characters "beloved".[17] In contrast, Muir criticized all of the new characters inScream 2, believing they never attained the same depth of theScream cast because ofScream 2's focus on increasing thebody count and violence over the original, saying that the film's killer could literally be anyone, as the audience is never provided with enough information about the new characters to form an opinion about them.[17] Ebert also commented upon this, saying "there is no way to guess who's doing the killing, and everyone who seems suspicious is (almost) sure to be innocent".[37]
Scream 2 won few awards compared to its predecessor, with Campbell again receiving the most nominations and wins, having won two awards forScream. She received aSaturn Award for Best Actress nomination and went on to win aBest Female Performance.[41] Despite having only a brief cameo appearance as "Sidney Prescott" in thefilm within a filmStab shown inScream 2,Tori Spelling became one of the nominees for a 1997Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star, which was tied with her role inThe House of Yes.[42] The film also received Saturn Award nominations forBest Supporting Actress for Courteney Cox andBest Horror Film forScream 2 itself.
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Saturn Awards | Best Actress | Neve Campbell | Nominated |
| Best Horror Film | Scream 2 | Nominated | ||
| Best Supporting Actress | Courteney Cox | Nominated | ||
| MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance | Neve Campbell | Won |
Scream 2 was released in US territories onVHS on December 1, 1998,[43] byDisney'sBuena Vista Home Entertainment (under the Dimension Home Video banner). It was distributed in Canada byAlliance Atlantis, who had a pre-existing Canadian distribution agreement with Dimension/Miramax.Scream 2 was released onDVD for the first time in the US on July 22, 1998[44] with a Collector's Edition following on September 26, 2000, in "The Ultimate Scream Collection" and a separate release on August 7, 2001. The Collector's Edition featured additional material including outtakes, deleted scenes, the film's theatrical trailer, music videos of songs featured in the film and director's commentary. Both releases were undertaken by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Following the release of then series finaleScream 3, the three films were collected in "The Ultimate Scream Collection" byDimension Films on September 26, 2000, in abox set containingBehind the Scream, a shortdocumentary about the production of the three films and additional material includingscreen tests of actors involved in the films, outtakes and deleted scenes.
Scream 2 remained unreleased in foreign territories including Europe and Japan until February 26, 2001, when it was released simultaneously withScream andScream 3 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.[citation needed] Each film contained the additional content found in the Collector's Edition version of the US release, including deleted scenes, outtakes, theatrical trailers, music videos and commentary from each respective film's crew.[45][46][47] Additionally, the three films were collected together in a single pack as the "Scream Trilogy".[48]
In 2005, Disney sold off Dimension, which they had owned along with Miramax since 1993, before selling off the main Miramax label in 2010. The company Miramax and the rights to the pre–October 2005 Dimension library were subsequently taken over by private equity firmFilmyard Holdings that same year.[49]
Filmyard temporarily sublicensed the home media rights for several Dimension/Miramax films toLionsgate Films.Scream 2 was released individually and in a collection withScream andScream 3 onBlu-ray on March 29, 2011, two weeks prior to the theatrical release ofScream 4, byLionsgate Home Entertainment. In addition to the films, each release contained audio commentary, theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes footage.[50]
During March 2016, Miramax and the pre–October 2005 Dimension library were purchased from Filmyard Holdings by Qatari companybeIN Media Group.[51] In April 2020, beIN sold a 49% stake in Miramax toViacomCBS (now known asParamount Skydance). This deal gave Paramount worldwide distribution rights to the entire Miramax library and the pre–October 2005 Dimension library, and the rights to release future projects based on Dimension or Miramax film properties, with the company subsequently distributing several newScream films in the 2020s.[52][53]
Paramount later includedScream 2 in a collection titledParamount Scares, which included other horror films they owned,[54] in addition to makingScream 2 available on their streaming serviceParamount+.[55] The film was released on 4KUltra HD Blu-ray on October 4, 2022, byParamount Home Entertainment.[56] The 2022 home video reissue grossed $881,768 in sales.[57]
{{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help)
| Film |
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Television | |||
| Music | |||
| Parodies | |||
| Other | |||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
