# Scream 2 (1997)

### reviewed by
Ben Hoffman

                                SCREAM 2

If there is anything I abhor most in scary movies is when the director stoops to using sudden loud noises to frighten the audience. You know the kind I mean: a door slams shut but it is only the wind; a loud crash but it is only the cat knocking over a flower pot. It would be nice if directors thought up something new with which to scare us. Even the use of masks, as in this film, is an easy ploy..

What SCREAM 2 does have going for it is that it does have a bit of humor. Kevin Williamson does write well. One of the questions he raises are about the media and its influence on serial killers. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

SCREAM, the 1996 film, was really nothing much until word of mouth made it a must-see film with the young who do not find real life scary enough. That warmed the hearts of those whose job it is to follow the box office.. Banking (sic) on that phenomenon, it was logical to expect a SCREAM 2.

Some of the characters who were in the original now return for the sequel: among them are Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) as a student. The original's Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) has now become a security guard

From the original there are also Cotton (Liev Schrieber) who had been wrongfully convicted of murder, and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) who wrote a book about the Woodsboro murders in SCREAM and whose book has turned into a movie, STAB, which is apparently the cause of new murders by a slasher.

Do not try to guess who the killer is as you will have no clue. (I hate that in movies!) If you like gore and blood and slashings, this is the movie for you. If that genre turns you on, hey, you will love every moment . . .even if there could have been a bit less mayhem, a bit fewer deaths.

Others in the cast are Randy Meeks, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laurie Metcalf, Elise Neal, Jerry O'Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, Duane Martin, Rebecca Gayheart and Portia De Rossi.

     It helps if you like this genre.

                        Directed by Wes Craven.

                            A DIMENSION FILM

     2.5 Bytes

     4 Bytes = Superb
     3 Bytes = Too good to miss
     2 Bytes = Average
     1 Byte  = Save your money

                         Copyright 1997               Ben Hoffman

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