A great film but no classic

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 1999)

Scream 2 is glossier, sassier, slicker, classier and gorier than the original, but the elements that made Scream such a monumental film are lacking, not suprising as the film itself defines sequels as inferior. The intense and constant self-referencing that made Scream so talked about are exploited to the full, but this becomes irritating after a certain point, and you get the feeling it is all an excuse to give some glory to the whole Hollywood clique (why else would Courteney Cox refer to Jennifer Aniston) and to be honest was not the strongest aspect of the original. What made the original so strong was not so much the shocking nature of the murders but the randomness and unexpectedness of them, and more than anything the guessing game of whodunnit which very few people will have cracked. Scream 2, however, is nowhere near as clever, the murderers turn out to be coincidential characters who never would have been suspected and the final scene which could have been memorable turns into a bit of a farce. In terms of jumpiness, gore and beatiful women, Scream 2 rocks but otherwise it is a bit of a disappointment. The Scream saga will no doubt continue but by definition they will never scale the heights of the Scream itself.