I remember being really pretty disappointed with this one when it came out but its far less disappointing to me now, though Im still not as enthusiastic about it as the first one. And I think that was the source of my disappointment the first time around. I was just *so* impressed by the original Scream that my expectations for this were perhaps unreasonably high. And there are things I just would have liked to have seen done differently (e.g. what happens to Randy still doesnt sit well with me). I remember prior to its release a friend had an elaborate theory of what would happen here, in which it would turn out that Schreibers Cotton Weary character was in fact the master mind behind it all. I liked that better at the time and still do. Having said that, the spiral into real meta insanity is handled well, with the same razor sharp wit and attention to detail as before. I also like and admire more than ever how much these films are built on specific, sustained set piece sequences, almost even mini movies unto themselves. Theyre all impressive but I especially like the car crash sequence and this go-arounds Big Climax at the theater in which the full spectacle effect is put into play (that gets ramped up in the next film but here its elegant and precise). That works well to complement the tone as the end, when the lid comes off, is always flamboyant theatrical spectacle (Olyphant and Metcalfs secret selves here are presented as virtual performance as performance art). But there is a negative side to that, too. In the original film the hysteria matched the genuine horror implicit in the reveal, in the particularity of that betrayal and in the specific nature of the perversity revealed. Here its beginning to feel like a standard, generic type move, though I have little doubt that this did not get past Craven and Williamson and that the collapse into the generic is itself suggestive of much. Campbell also continues to impress (she *always* impresses me in whatever she does), deepening her character with careful gestures (e.g. Sidneys instinctive placing of her hand over her boyfriends bullet wound, for instance); its a portrait of a fragile, sorrowful character gathering necessary strength. But by the time we get to the end of this one there is a certain weariness setting in with the whole conceit inherent to these films, not because the inventiveness is unsuccessful but simply because its all predicated on such vast contempt (which is why Sidney has to survive, why we need her to--shes the last bastion of humanity in the midst of it all). Though the film goes to great lengths to implicate all of us, characters and audience alike, as cynics, theres really only so much of that kind of blanket condemnation and scorn we can take, whether its justified or not, before it threatens to overwhelm and become an anti-productive technique (we just shut down to it in other words). Also, it is interesting that despite attempts to suggest otherwise the films do make an ironic case for their own either deadening or mobilizing effects upon a killers mentality (I still enjoy the line about the villains meeting in a chat room for up and coming serial killers--the movie does have some very big laughs). The villains here and in the first film after all are movie obsessed. Still, as the Ulrich character said in the original, Movies dont create psychos, they make psychos more creative, though Im not sure how much that necessarily alleviates the issue.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 01:33:59 +0000
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