Don't Watch w/o Seeing "Scream" First

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2001)

"Scream" reinvigorated the slasher movie, a narrow genre to begin with, and one that I thought exhausted. It's sequel, "Scream 2" is very similar to its predecessor in substance and style. Strong character development, clever dialogue, large dollops of humor, and of course lots of scares marks this as way above average. Unfortunately, "Scream 2" has two significant difficulties for viewers. One is that it's almost a mirror image of "Scream". Instead of high school, it's set at a college, but the characters, and set-ups are almost identical. You don't have to see both movies, one is enough. The second problem is that if you haven't seen "Scream", "Scream 2" won't make a lot of sense. The plot follows the survivors of "Scream" to college, where, of course, the carnage begins anew. There are tons of backwards references that don't stand-alone very well, and as for the who-dunnit aspects of the movie's conclusion, knowledge of the original "Scream" is an absolute necessity. Therefore, only rent "Scream 2" if you've also seen "Scream" and want more of the same. It's exactly what you'll get.