Not that original but still OK

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2019)

This second "Scream" isn't nearly as original as the first which was a great and suspenseful take on slasher films. This one has the high school victim in the first film - Sidney - now in college studying film. For 99% of the people who major in this, a slow descent into obscurity and realizing that your life will be spent as an admin or working retail, not as a great director, should be revenge enough for anybody. But obviously our killer(s?) is/are not that patient.
The beginning is tight, at the opening of a film called "stab", patterned after the murders in "Scream", and you just know who the first two victims are going to be, although Craven's direction and the score make it a suspenseful when and where. The ending is good too, and it is different enough from the ending of the first Scream that you do wonder who is up to what, just like in the first. There are some tells though. There are some particularly - at that time - famous players in the film doing bit parts. Why? I'd say, watch and find out. Fortunately, this film was made 22 years ago so you are probably not going to know who was famous then and who is now because of subsequent events unless you are over 50.
The worst part is the middle. It is tedious. You've just got some predictable chases and cat-and-mouse games going on, and you feel like it is just there to fill time between the suspenseful beginning and end. Probably worth your time if you run across it, and probably you are not going to enjoy it if you haven't seen the original Scream first.