There’s a story to be written about Horror Franchises. The early period which was all about this years’ model and didn’t care about connective tissue, the cult movies whose entire hopes for financial success rests on having multiple films to sell, and the many films that peak with the original film and are only diluted by continuing the story of characters who should be long dead. The most successful franchise in terms of popularity is Scream. It doesn’t have the highest percentage of quality films (Evil Dead Franchise), the biggest box office (Conjuring Universe, Alien Franchise) or the most profit for the budget (Paranormal Activity), but it ranks pretty high on all those lists.
Scream 2 is a continuation of the original story, respectful to the lore and (more importantly) to the audience. It takes more time with the characters, which is fine, and it delivers the Horror/Thriller goods when it needs to. The visual and musical callbacks to the first film are welcome, and while the script is not as good as the first film, it’s still very smart about the easy mistakes slasher films make. It sets up situations so the characters are putting themselves in danger because it’s the safer place to be, not the obvious life-threatening option. This also might be Wes Craven’s best job directing the cast and directing the viewer’s eyes to look for clues.
Leave A Comment