Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Scream 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

There has to be a sequel!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 24, 2011

When last we left semi-peaceful Woodsboro, California, large swaths of its teen population had been mowed down by Ghostface, the mysterious killer with a horror film fixation. Poor little Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who in the first Scream outing was an emotional wreck due first to her mother’s murder and then to her own victimization at the slashing hands of Ghostface, managed to come out alive, if only barely. Bruised, bloody but still standing, Sidney proved that sometimes—if only very rarely—sexually active teens actually do survive horror flicks. Scream 2 picks up in the wake of the Woodsboro killing spree, when of course the murderous rampage has become a media sensation due to a book by reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), which predictably has been adapted into a big budget film. The opening scenes of Scream 2 perfectly parody the amped up hyperbolic world of press kits and swag as the new film based on Sidney’s trials, Stab, opens with the theater handing out Ghostface costumes to everyone in attendance. Because this is Scream, we know it’s only a matter of time before the real Ghostface, or some murderous approximation thereof, is going to show up and start the killing spree all over again. Luckily, it’s not too long of a wait.

Art imitates life. . .and death.

If the first Scream set up the mirror’s eye formula of this franchise to a tee, giving us a roomful of savvy horror film buffs who could predict with a fair amount of accuracy what might be waiting in store for them, Scream 2 takes the idea to its mass media conclusion, with results that are often hilarious and frightening at the same time. This is a film that starts in a movie house and ends in a legitimate theater, and which also sees heroine Sidney pursuing a college career as an actress. Pretense and artificiality are the hallmarks of this Scream outing, and they give this second iteration a suitably “meta” take on the horror genre that allows the film to wink at its own conventions even as it’s scaring the living daylights out of you.

The opening gambit of Scream 2 lets us know immediately what a crazy wonderland of interlaced realities we’re in for in this film. On the screen of the movie theater where the opening scenes play out, we see the opening scenes of Stab, which are a frankly funny retake on the Drew Barrymore opening of the first Scream (with Heather Graham as “Drew,” replete with Dutch Boy haircut). But writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven play with convention here. They don’t just give us points of view of people watching Stab, they actually intercut (no pun intended) full screen scenes of Stab, the movie within the movie, with the actual film of Scream 2. Where are we? In a movie? Or in a movie about a movie? Or somewhere in between? It’s a fascinating technique for film theorists to probably over analyze, but it’s also a brilliantly effective way of throwing the audience off its game, keeping it just off kilter enough so that the first couple of murders are truly shocking.

Once we get back to Sidney and her seemingly never ending battle with Ghostface, things settle down, if only slightly. Since the first Scream at least seemed to have divulged who was behind the Ghostface disguise, the new appearance of another Ghostface is troubling and confusing. But Williamson’s screenplay doesn’t waste much time fretting about the backstory, and instead plunges us into a new round of nightmares, as Sidney once gain finds herself at the wrong end of a knife blade, without quite knowing why.

Because the first Scream managed to kill off so many of its participants, we have a new coterie of potential victims and suspects in Scream 2, and that may be this film’s one slight failing. Like the “red shirts” who used to populate (if only briefly) old episodes of Star Trek, the very savvy film buffs who flocked to the first Scream are the very types who will start whittling through the cast list to try to figure out who might be behind the mayhem. Only as occasional new stars fall victim to the killer do the choices become slimmer, but really savvy horror film buffs may miss at least a little of the element of surprise that made the first Scream such an innovative and enjoyable romp.

That one caveat aside, Scream 2 provides virtually the same lunatic frenzy of laughs and scares that the first Scream did, effortlessly gliding from setting up expectation, to delivery of a hoary cliché, to shattering that cliché with a newfound fright up its drooping black sleeve. Once again swaths of cast members are left disemboweled along the way (including at least one really unexpected death that may anger some first time viewers), all the while with surviving cast members reciting the “rules” of horror films to both their unobservant kin within the film as well as to the audience itself.

When the horror movie buffs of the first Scream proclaimed, “There has to be a sequel" in the party scene of that film, there were no doubt those who knew that a Scream 2 was all but inevitable, at least once the box office receipts started getting counted. What’s so unexpected about this sequel, however, is how well it maintains the tightrope act of the first film, expertly balancing hilarity and terror while referencing innumerable horror clichés along the way. If things are occasionally at least a little more predictable in this outing, that’s really no fault of either Williamson or Craven. Horror movie buffs are fast learners, at least when they’re not stupid enough to say “Be back in a minute.”

Scream 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream 2 looks just marginally better than the original Scream does on Blu-ray, with a nicely sharp and well detailed AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Clarity and fine detail are quite a bit better in Scream 2, though strangely color is not quite as well saturated. Flesh tones often seem just slightly on the ruddy side in this outing. While there are still some niggling issues with shimmer and moiré as there are in Scream, they're not nearly as prevalent here as they are in the first Scream. Black levels and contrast are excellent and while this film doesn't have the deep grain texture of the first film, it doesn't appear to have been overly scrubbed clean.

Scream 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Scream 2 boasts a robust lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, perhaps because I watched this film directly after the bracing experience of the first Scream, I felt this mix was just a tad less effective than the first film's was. There's certainly nothing major to complain about here, especially when taken on its own terms. Once again we're greeted by a riot of inventive sound effects, often with brief, effective blasts of LFE to startle, that surround listeners and place them squarely in the center of a very active soundfield. Misdirection is used sonically here as much as visually and the sound effects editors may briefly place a subtle "warning" creak or other sound in the left channel before something really scary jumps out from the right side of the frame. Dialogue is well positioned, clean and very well balanced with sound effects. Once again source cues and underscore are artfully handled, and the entire track sports excellent fidelity and lot of visceral punch.

Scream 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Craven, Producer Marianne Maddalena and Editor Patrick Lussier concentrates a little more on the nuts and bolts of filmmaking than the first Scream commentary with Craven and Williamson did.
• Deleted Scenes (SD; 4:09), (with optional commentary by Craven, Maddalena, and Lussier) offers a few extra snippets of savvy horror film buffs debating the conventions of the genre.
• Outtakes (SD 8:54) prove how hard it is to keep a straight face when someone in a Ghostface costume is stabbing you with a rubber knife.
• Featurette (SD 7:05) features interviews with Campbell, Schreiber, Arquette and a lot of the principal cast and crew, and talks about the journey from Scream to Scream 2.
• Music Videos offers Master P performing "Scream" (SD; 3:06) and Kottonmouth Kings performing "Suburban Life" (SD; 3:47).
• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2:16)
• TV Spots (SD; 6:19)

Scream 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Scream 2 is the rare sequel that almost completely lives up to the potential of its elder sibling. Briskly funny while at the same time brilliantly frightening, Scream 2 ups the ante by introducing a whole "meta" structure that makes viewing this movie almost an exercise in film theory. There are occasional missteps here, including the introduction of a slew of characters who instantly fall into either the victim or suspect categories, but otherwise this is a fine and fitting continuation of the saga of Sidney and her special friend, Ghostface. Highly recommended.