Better than the original

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2015)

I know my statement that "Scream 2" is better than the first "Scream" isn't a new one, but I have to jump on the bandwagon here because that is indeed the case. "Scream 2" is not only better than the original, it's one of the best horror sequels I've seen and the best self- aware movie I've ever watched. While the later films in the "Scream" franchise and the abominable "22 Jump Street" fail at the sequel self-awareness, "Scream 2" succeeds creating an enjoying, scary, and entertaining second installment to a franchise.
Opening up in a movie theater at the premiere of the film Stab, a movie based on the events of the first film, two college students (Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps) are brutally killed by someone dressed in the same costume as the original killer. The two college students just so happen to attend the same college as Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), the main character of the first film. Along with Sidney are several characters returning from the previous film including her friend Randy (Jamie Kennedy), police deputy Dewey (David Arquette), and ruthless news reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Also appearing as either victims or suspects are Sidney's new boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell), her friends Hallie (Elise Neal) and Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), and the man that Sidney wrongly convicted of murdering her mother, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber).
While self-awareness is something I usually hate in movies because I think it makes them hypocritical, "Scream 2" does it right. For one thing the movie doesn't use self-awareness to cover for itself because it's a sequel. Along with that, though, the movie has a few clever inclusions to it to make it look like a typical sequel. A lot of the time, sequels are just the original redone in a different way. With the inclusion of people watching scenes from Stab, the audience is literally re-watching the same movie as the first one. Another example is Gale's cameraman Joel (Duane Martin) knows that to survive he has to get away before anything happens. He leaves the film half-way through, only to return at the end, unharmed and thus surviving the movie. The only time the self-awareness comes off as hypocritical is when a sorority girl named Cici (Sarah Michelle Gellar) hears a noise and starts searching the house after she already had the bright idea to leave it.
One thing the movie did was develop the characters more. In the first movie, Gale and Dewey are hinted at having some sort of interest in each other, but it's not anything important. In the second film, they expand on that idea to give them a deeper connection. The movie also displays the effects of the first film weighing heavily on Sidney, with minor things like slight differences in her characters actions and way of thinking to more extreme things with her not fully trusting Derek because of her boyfriend from the first movie's inclusion in the murder spree.
This movie had a lot of scary and suspenseful moments, the best being when Sidney is rehearsing the play she's in and with all of the effects and extras dancing around on stage with fake weapons and creepy masks, she either sees or imagines the killer running around on stage trying to get her. This movie also carries on the use of elaborate red herrings that the first movie used, making you think it could be anyone. And while this movie does do that, the knowledge that this movie is a sequel makes you wonder whether or not they're going the same route or not.
"Scream 2" is a well thought out self-aware horror film with a lot of attention placed into the atmosphere of the movie. The movie is aware that it's a sequel and that sequels are usually inferior to the original, but the people behind the movie worked to make it better. They did more with the characters, they didn't hit rewind with the story, they let the events from the first film actually effect the story, and made a suspenseful, scary movie all at the same time.