Scream 2 (1997) is the sequel to Scream (1996), again directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. After the Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is at college in Ohio. A Hollywood movie about her ordeal, Stab, has just opened, and a copycat Ghostface starts killing again. Like the original, it mixes slasher violence with comedy and whodunit, this time turning its satire on the rules of sequels. It was made in a rush, rewritten after an early internet leak of its script, and released less than a year after the first film. It grossed $172 million, nearly matching its predecessor, and drew positive reviews.
At a glance
| Release date | December 10, 1997 (Hollywood premiere); December 12, 1997 (US) |
| Director | Wes Craven |
| Writer | Kevin Williamson |
| Based on | Characters created by Kevin Williamson |
| Starring | David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O’Connell, Jada Pinkett, Liev Schreiber |
| Runtime | 120 minutes |
| Rating | R (US) |
| Budget | $24 million |
| Box office | $172 million |
| Franchise | Scream: sequel to Scream (1996); followed by Scream 3 (2000) |
Plot summary
At a sneak preview of Stab, a film based on the Woodsboro massacre, Windsor College students Maureen Evans (Jada Pinkett) and Phil Stevens (Omar Epps) are murdered by someone in a Ghostface costume. The rowdy crowd thinks Maureen’s dying cry for help is a publicity stunt. The press descends on Windsor, where Sidney is studying alongside her roommate Hallie (Elise Neal), her boyfriend Derek (Jerry O’Connell), fellow survivor Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) and Derek’s friend Mickey (Timothy Olyphant).
Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) arrives to protect Sidney, and reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) comes to cover the story. Gale also tries to stage a reunion between Sidney and Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), now cleared of her mother’s murder and looking for fame. After sorority sister Cici Cooper (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is killed, Gale notices the new victims share names with the Woodsboro dead. Randy concludes that the killer is someone Sidney already knows and is patterning the murders on a movie sequel.
Spoiler section: the ending
Randy is dragged into a news van and killed, Dewey is stabbed, and Hallie is murdered. In the campus theater, Mickey unmasks himself and shoots Derek. He wants to be caught so that the trial will put movie violence on trial. His partner is local reporter “Debbie Salt” (Laurie Metcalf), who is really Billy Loomis’s mother, Nancy, out for revenge. She shoots Mickey to take the credit herself. Cotton arrives and turns on Nancy. When Mickey revives, Sidney and Gale shoot him, and Sidney fires a final shot into Nancy. Dewey turns out to be alive, and Gale rides away with him in the ambulance.
Production and behind the scenes
When Williamson sold Scream, he included two five-page treatments for sequels to show buyers they were getting a franchise. After a successful test screening, Craven was contracted to direct them. Dimension greenlit the sequel in March 1997, while Scream was still in theaters, and gave it a budget of $24 million, up from $15 million. Craven hesitated, worried about being “trapped” by the franchise, and Robert Rodriguez was approached as director. Craven decided he couldn’t hand it over, so Rodriguez went to make The Faculty. New cast members were drawn largely from popular TV series. Gellar was in between seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and agreed without reading the script. Metcalf had just finished Roseanne. Tobey Maguire reportedly turned down the role of Mickey.
Early in production, an extra leaked the full script online, revealing the killers. Williamson rewrote much of the ending, the killers’ identities and the roles of Randy and Joel. Pages revealing the killer were given only to the actors involved, on the day of shooting, and scripts were printed on copy-proof paper. Williamson later said the leaked version was a “dummy draft,” one of three decoy endings, including one in which Dewey was the killer. Filming began in mid-June 1997 and lasted nine weeks in Los Angeles and Atlanta. Agnes Scott College and UCLA stood in for Windsor College, and the Stab premiere was shot at Hollywood’s Vista Theater. To get an R rating, Craven deliberately submitted an even gorier cut. The MPAA passed it.
Release and reception
After its Grauman’s Chinese Theatre premiere on December 10, 1997, Scream 2 opened on December 12 in 2,663 theaters. It was considered so strong that Tomorrow Never Dies and Titanic moved their release a week later. Its $32.9 million opening set a December record that lasted until 2000, and it grossed $101 million in the US and $172 million worldwide. It holds 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus calls it “a gleeful takedown of scary movie conventions,” and 62 on Metacritic, with a “B+” CinemaScore. Janet Maslin, who hadn’t liked Scream, called the sequel “so sharp—pardon the expression.” Roger Ebert found it “about as good as the original,” though gorier. Randy’s death was widely criticized. Campbell won the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance.
Legacy and influence
Scream 2 is a sequel about sequels. In a film-class scene, students argue over whether any sequel has ever topped the original. Variety, which had been scathing about Scream before its release, decided this one was “certainly worthy of being part of that debate.” Twenty-five years later, Scream (2022) would spell out the rules of the “requel.” The Stab film-within-a-film became a running thread. The Stab fans in Scream (2022) are angry about its eighth installment. The film’s script leak is described as the first time a film was seriously affected by the internet. Production security was tightened afterward, with closed sets and non-disclosure agreements, and the series kept up the secrecy. Scream (2022) also used multiple script versions and alternate scenes. Marco Beltrami’s score developed the first film’s themes, but critics noted that some of its most memorable music came from Danny Elfman and from Hans Zimmer’s Broken Arrow score, used in place of Beltrami’s work. Scream 3 followed in February 2000.
Trivia
- Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler were approached for the opening sequence.
- Tori Spelling plays Sidney in Stab and was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star.
- Working titles included Scream Again, Scream Louder and Scream: The Sequel.
- Williamson’s early draft featured four killers, including Derek, Hallie, Cotton and Nancy Loomis.
- The soundtrack album reached No. 50 on the Billboard 200.
- Roger L. Jackson returned as the voice of Ghostface.
Related links
- Ghostface and Sidney Prescott (characters)
- Scream franchise
- Scream (1996), Scream 3 (2000) and Scream (2022)
- Wes Craven (director) and Kevin Williamson (writer)
- Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox (cast)
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eng1njONZ-Q
Go Behind the Screams
Check out these behind-the-scenes looks at how Scream 2 (1997) was made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK4qCa9rXrA