In December of 1997, my birthday present came five days early. On December 12, Scream 2 opened in theaters and a group of friends and I made it our job to see it on opening day. Of course, we were only 12 and 13 so we had to do get sneaky when it came to actually getting in. We went to a local movie theater that was located inside a mall and asked someone who looked to be in their mid-twenties if we could go in with him and his crew. This was a much different time when a 12 or 13-year-old could do this and not worry about anything weird happening. He was more than happy to say we were with him and his friends and before we knew it our butts were in the seats. I had no idea what to expect from Scream 2 before it started but by the time it was over, it was all we could talk about. This was a sequel that did not disappoint and it just added fuel to the horror fire that had been reignited the year before with the release of the first film. 20 years later, Scream 2 still holds up as not only a great sequel but also as one of the best slasher films of all time.
The hysteria behind Scream 2 was palpable. Just a year before its release, Scream came out of nowhere for fans and critics alike. “Variety Magazine” famously said the film would be “D.O.A.” and after its opening weekend, that appeared to be the case. The film opened in second place (behind Beavis and Butt-head Do America) to $6.3 million and since horror was a dying breed at the time, this appeared to be just another example of one of its failures. What was apparent was that critics loved it (the film is currently 79% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and that was something that had alluded the genre for quite some time. As the film entered its second weekend, even the people behind the film were ready to call this one a lost but Scream did something that so very few films do: it actually increased over its opening weekend to $9 million. This was then followed by another increase in week 3 to $10 million and while the film never landed the number one spot, it became a huge word of mouth hit and went from being “D.O.A.” to bringing in the rebirth of the horror genre.
Scream would go on to gross $87 million during its initial release but was so popular that it was re-released in April of 1997 which pushed its domestic total to $103 million and $173 million worldwide. The film was the 15th highest grossing film of 1996 and it played in theaters for nearly 8 months (long enough for it to still be running while Scream 2 was starting production).
The success of Scream saw an immediate reaction from rival studios to jump on the bandwagon and create hip teen slasher films that could possibly duplicate the success of Scream. Columbia Pictures was up first with I Know What You Did Last Summer, written by the writer of Scream, Kevin Williamson. That film proved to be an immediate hit, opening to $15.8 million and maintaining the number one position at the box office for three straight weeks. That film went on to gross $72 million domestically and $126 million worldwide. This was proof that the success of Scream was no fluke and that fans were hungry for more. They were definitely in store for more because a teaser trailer for Scream 2 was attached to I Know What You Did Last Summer which proved that this latest slasher effort was merely the appetizer before the main course.
Scream 2 wasn’t actually thought up because of the success of the first film. Sure, it was definitely happening after the film made so much money but Kevin Williamson had already planned out a story for the sequel when he was shopping the original film. Williamson provided a five-page outline for a sequel to Scream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise.
While writing the script for Scream, Williamson also developed two five-page treatments for potential sequels. Following the release of the original film, Williamson would confirm that he had considered a sequel concept where the character of Sidney Prescott would now be attending college and a copycat killer would start a new series of murders. Dimension Films agreed to pursue the sequel in March 1997, by which point Williamson already had forty-two pages of the plot developed, which involved four different killers. Scream 2 would run into one of the first major snags in July of 1997 after the film had already begun production. After Williamson transferred his script to the production it was leaked onto the internet in full, revealing the identity of the killers and a large amount of the involved plot. This resulted in the production continuing to film with only a partial script while Williamson conducted extensive rewrites, changing much of the film’s finale, the identities of the film’s killers and drastically altering the roles of other characters. To avoid another incident and prevent sensitive plot details being revealed through other means, the actors were not given the last pages of the script until weeks before shooting and the pages that revealed the killer’s identity were only provided on the day the scene was shot to the actors involved. The short production schedule on Scream 2 and his work on other projects meant that Williamson’s final script used for the film was detailed in some areas but lacking in others, with Wes Craven forced to write and develop certain scenes as they were being filmed (These difficulties would become business as usual for the entire Scream franchise).
With such problems being presented, it’s probably good that the production had the primary players that made the first film so successful returning for the sequel. The aforementioned Wes Craven was back in the director’s chair and the success of Scream gave him a new lease on life as a horror movie director. His style is just as important as Williamson’s writing so it was essential to have him in place for the sequel. Not only was Craven on board for the sequel but Dimension Films wanted to keep him in their fold by giving him a contract to direct not only the initial sequel but a potential third film as well.
The next step was establishing the cast which would consist of returning and new faces. Neve Campbell had been contracted to reprise her role as heroine Sidney Prescott in a potential sequel before filming had even begun on Scream, her character is the only one from the original film guaranteed to survive and lead a new film. Once production of a sequel was seen as inevitable, following the success of Scream, Dimension Films added sequel options for the actors whose characters had survived the previous film; Courteney Cox as ambitious news reporter Gale Weathers, David Arquette as retired deputy sheriff Dewey Riley, Jamie Kennedy as film-geek Randy Meeks and Liev Schreiber as the man exonerated for the murder of Sidney’s mother, Cotton Weary. Also on board again would be the voice of Ghostface, Roger Jackson.
Securing new actors and actresses for the sequel proved to be much easier due to the success of the original film. The production approached their casting for Scream 2 in a similar manner as they did with the first film, seeking established and popular actors, largely sourcing from TV shows of the time. In interviews, the production staff of the film remarked that they found approaching and securing the talent they wanted significantly easier than it had been for Scream, considering the financial and critical success of the film but also believing the prior involvement of Drew Barrymore had lent the horror genre an element of credibility which made serious actors eager to become involved.
The new cast included Sarah Michelle Gellar as sorority sister and film fan Cici Cooper, Elise Neal as Sidney’s friend and roommate Hallie, Jerry O’Connell as Sidney’s boyfriend Derek, Timothy Olyphant as Mickey and Laurie Metcalf as local reporter Debbie Salt, later revealed as Mrs. Loomis, mother of Billy Loomis from Scream. Many of the actors involved in the production, including Campbell, Cox, Gellar, and O’Connell were starring in their own television series at the time, allowing the production limited availability to schedule their involvement. Gellar, in particular, was in-between filming of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and had only recently finished work on another Williamson-penned film, I Know What You Did Last Summer. Despite the hectic scheduling, Gellar admitted in an interview that she agreed to perform in Scream 2 without having read the script because of the success of Scream. Metcalf had only just finished her nine-year run on the popular sitcom Roseanne when she began work on Scream 2 and Craven was praising of her ability to portray the deranged Mrs. Loomis. To obtain the role of Derek, O’Connell and other candidates had to audition by performing a scene from the film where the character sings “I Think I Love You” by David Cassidy. Olyphant’s involvement as Mickey was his first leading role in a feature film and the beginning of a very successful career in film and TV. Despite scheduling difficulties, Craven took their desire to participate in the film despite their workload as a compliment to the film’s quality.
The cast was rounded out by Lewis Arquette, father of David Arquette, as a local Sheriff in charge of investigating the new murders, Duane Martin as Gale’s cameraman Joel, Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps as Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens, patrons of the fictional “Stab” film who become the film’s opening victims, and Portia De Rossi and Rebecca Gayheart as sorority sisters Murphy and Lois. Gayheart had auditioned for the role of Tatum Riley in Scream (which went to Rose McGowan) and auditioned multiple times for Scream 2 for the roles of Cici Cooper, Hallie and Maureen Evans before obtaining her eventual role (oddly enough she would go on to star in Urban Legend the following year). Minor roles were filled by Chris Doyle and Philip Pavel as Officer Richards and Officer Andrews, assigned to protect Sidney, veteran actor David Warner as Sidney’s drama teacher, and Nancy O’Dell of Access Hollywood fame, as an unnamed reporter who would reprise the role in future installments of the series. Tori Spelling, Luke Wilson, and Heather Graham played themselves as characters in the “Stab” films; credited as Stab Sidney, Stab Billy, and Stab Casey respectively. Spelling was cast based on a sarcastic remark by Campbell’s character in Scream that she would be played by Spelling in a movie based on her life. Craven remarked that she was a “good sport” about the joke and happy to take part.
With the cast and crew in place, filming took place over a nine-week period with a budget of $24 million (increased from the $15 million of the original). Atlanta, Georgia and Los Angeles would be the primary locations for the fictional Windsor College. 5 weeks were spent in Los Angeles while 4 weeks were spent in Atlanta for filming. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the fictional “Stab” film was filmed over three days in the Vista theater on Sunset Drive, Hollywood, the exterior represented by the Rialto theater in South Pasadena, California. Due to a large number of extras present in the scene, full details of what occurred were leaked onto the Internet shortly after filming completed which Craven cited as the production’s first experience of a major plot leak. The sorority homes used by the character Cici Cooper and a nearby party were also filmed in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles. The fictional “Stab” film itself was filmed in Malibu, California. Agnes Scott College, just outside Atlanta, and UCLA in Los Angeles were used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in the film.
Following a script leak early into filming, security around the production was significantly increased, with a focus on closed film sets and strict restriction on what personnel could be present during filming and have access to the script, with all present required to sign non-disclosure agreements. The script itself was reprinted on specialty paper to prevent photocopying and was often destroyed after use (These are tactics usually reserved for big-budget tentpole releases which make it being done on Scream 2 pretty unique).
Post-production on Scream 2 was actually much easier on Craven when compared to the first film. Craven had difficulties passing Scream through the film-rating body MPAA to receive an R-rating to help the film remain commercially viable, sending eight different cuts and requiring the direct intervention of Dimension Films founder Bob Weinstein to eventually get the necessary rating to release the film without significant cuts (he told them to view the film as a comedy which resulted in them going easier on the rating).
Eager to avoid the same experience on Scream 2, Craven attempted to manipulate the MPAA by sending them a version of the film that had been edited to focus on and enhance the gore and violence present beyond what they actually wanted in the film, including reusing a clip of Omar Epps’ character being stabbed in the ear three times, instead of only once as seen in the final film, and an extended scene of Randy Meeks death that showed his throat being slashed. Craven’s reasoning was that the parts of the film they wished to keep would be more acceptable when viewed with the enhanced violence and so the MPAA would force them to remove the footage they already did not want to keep while passing the content they did want. However, the MPAA granted Scream 2 an R-rating for the more violent cut as they believed the underlying message of the film was significant enough to warrant the violence (what a difference a year makes).
The final touch for the film would come in the form of music. Marco Beltrami returned to produce the score for Scream 2 though there would be a late inclusion by Danny Elman in the form of the choral track “Cassandra Aria” which plays during a scene where Campbell’s character performs in a play and again in the film’s finale as “Cassandra Aria Reprise”. Excerpts from the score of the 1996 film Broken Arrow by Hans Zimmer appeared in the film, in particular, guitar work by Duane Eddy, for the character ‘Dewey’, replacing the tracks that had been developed for the character from the original Scream score. Beltrami would explain in an interview that the Zimmer piece was used as a placeholder for Beltrami’s incomplete score during a test screening. The test audience reaction to it influenced the studio to keep the Zimmer piece, reducing “Dewey’s Theme”, which Beltrami had composed to fill its place, to minor use during more serious scenes involving the character.
The release of Scream 2 came less than a year after the original film on December 12, 1997. Despite script leaks and a rushed production schedule, the film was lauded by critics, even more than the original film. The film carries an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the original’s 79% and its consensus sums up the film’s appeal in the best way possible:
“As with the first film, Scream 2 is a gleeful takedown of scary movie conventions that manages to poke fun at terrible horror sequels without falling victim to the same fate.”
Scream 2 was expected to be such a huge success that the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies and James Cameron’s future box office behemoth, Titanic, were moved from the December 12 release date to the following week on December 19. It’s rare for any film to run from a horror genre entry which is a testament to the growing power of the franchise.
As expected, Scream 2 opened much higher than the original film with $32.9 million. The opening, at the time, would be great for any film but it was significant for the horror genre. Scream 2 broke December opening weekend records for its box-office takings and held the record until December 15, 2000, being replaced by What Women Want. The film would go on to gross $101.1 million domestically and $172.3 million worldwide. Some have commented that the domestic performance was lower than the $103 million of the original despite the larger opening weekend, but this was likely due to the increased competition from the films that originally fled Scream 2’s release date (Tomorrow Never Dies and Titanic).
After the success of Scream 2, we saw, even more, films that hoped to cash in on the teen slasher movie craze. Films such as Urban Legend, Disturbing Behavior, Halloween H20, & The Faculty, to name a few, were released to various levels of success during the post Scream climate. Two more Scream sequels would also follow with Scream 3 in 2000 and Scream 4 in 2011. Despite all these films that followed, it seemed clear that Scream 2 would be the height of this new party for the horror genre. Like most successes, these things come in waves and by 1999, found footage was on the way in with The Blair Witch Project and torture porn would creep in with the release of Saw in 2004. Needless to say, we haven’t had a proper throwback slasher film in a few years (although the horror/comedy/slasher hybrid, Happy Death Day this year did come close to emulating that style).
So why does Scream 2 hold up 20 years later? I think it’s because, despite all its setbacks during filming, the film that was delivered to audiences was made with complete and utter confidence. Despite its wink and nudge humor of proclaiming that “sequels suck,” it’s so competent in its execution that it could be argued that Scream 2 is better in some ways than the original. The sequel does lean more on satire which makes its first 45 minutes or so wicked smart and a joy to watch. The actors seem at home in the roles that they established in the first film and the new characters are fun additions (even if some are included to merely add to the body count). Much like the first film, Kevin Williamson had his finger on the pulse of what the genre needed at the time and what resulted is a film that can go down as not only one of the best horror sequels ever made, but also one of the best horror films ever made. Scream 2 is clever, scary and one hell of a ride that still resonates today the same way it did on December 12, 1997.
