7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
Away at college, Sidney Prescott thought she'd finally put the shocking murders that shattered her life behind her...until a copycat killer begins acting out a real-life sequel! Now, as history eerily repeats itself, ambitious reporter Gale Weathers, deputy Dewey and other Scream survivors find themselves trapped in a terrifyingly clever plotline where no one is safe--or beyond suspicion!
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie KennedyHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 52% |
Mystery | 28% |
Teen | 25% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
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.
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 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.
2000
1996
Scre4m
2011
2023
25th Anniversary Edition
1997
Collector's Edition
2005
Collector's Edition
1998
2001
Final Cut
2000
Director's Cut
2005
1998
Halloween 8
2002
2000
2009
2017
2010
2022
1987
Unrated
2012
2019