Clever follow-up to Wes Craven's horror franchise

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2015)

Wes Craven gained respect of horror fans with his 1996 hit slasher hit Scream, a film that reignited the slasher-horror genre with its originality and self-awareness. The following year, Craven continued the story of the masked killer with this entertaining sequel that continues the story. Neve Campbell reprises her role as Sidney Prescott who is now in college, and is dating a handsome heartthrob named Derek (played by Jerry O'Connell). Jamie Kennedy also reprises his role as Randy Meeks, the film-geek who's remained friends with Sidney after the events from the first movie. This film follows a copycat killer that is on the loose and taking the lives of others on college campus. Sidney must team up with her boyfriend Derek, and Randy, along with Gale and Dewey who also make their return from the first film, to survive against the killer's onslaught.
As this film is a sequel, there are quite a bit discussions between characters about sequels and what they are all about. Like this film, these characters are very self-aware of the strategies of surviving against a killer in a horror movie, and the script makes very clear. While this one may not level up the previous film, it still remains as original and thoughtful as the previous film came out to be. It still contains the scares, suspense, and bloodshed by the Ghostface killer, and the wittiness of writer Kevin Williamson's script. It also pays a good homage to classic low-budget slasher horror films from the 80s like Splatter University, Slaughter High, and and Graduation Day. Liev Schreiber makes an interesting appearance as Cotton Weary who was the accused suspect of Sidney's mom's murder in the last, and is released from prison after proved not guilty. Neve Campbell remains good as ever as Sidney, and the rest of the cast including Jamie Kennedy, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Jerry O'Connell, Timothy Olyphant, and Elise Neal are great as well.
Could this movie have done better? Sure. But overall, this movie did not dissappoint me. This movie is one of the few horror movie sequels that manages to level relatively close with its original, and shows while Wes Craven is such an amazing horror director.