Scream 2

Originally published on 07/11/21 on Letterboxd

On the sequel as both shallow recreation and heightened tactility. So much of this film occurs through some some sort of lens; glass panes, video grain, theatre curtains. Where the first film was concerned with the knife ripping through the facade that it's just a game ("you cut me too deep"), Craven's sequel constantly focuses on the mechanics that move the knife into flesh in the first place. The spatial construction of the scenes here exemplifies that, with wide open greens and barriers of steel in cop cars that reinforce the notion that everything's going to be alright even when you can see shadows creeping at the edge of the frame, echoing Carpenter's Halloween (which the first film very obviously echoes, making craven's elaborate metafiction even more impressive). The key to all this is the climax, where Sidney becomes the director, tearing down the elaborate special effects until the stage, the very concept of the performance, is eliminated from the equation, at which point it becomes what Craven always hones in on as the foundation of his horror: blood and tears.