Scream 2 (1996) Rated R Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox Rating: out of

Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has gone off to college to study theater. Randy (Jamie Kennedy), the geeky guy who educated everyone about the methods behind movie slashers, is there too, studying film theory. When two students are killed at the premiere of Stab, a movie based on the book about the original murders, it seems a new killer is threatening the campus of Windsor College.

The suspects are plentiful this time around. Derek (Jerry O'Connell), Sidney's new boyfriend, is, of course, a possibility. New friends Mickey (Terry Olyphant) and Hallie (Elise Neal), as well as the returning Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette), are also credible killers. Even the now-acquitted Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) comes to campus and becomes a likely knife-wielder.

Now, even this film knows that a sequel, by definition, is bad filmmaking. Randy's film class debates the fact that most sequels are inferior to the original. Only a handful of sequels are named that can truly be classified as better than the first film: Aliens, The Godfather: Part II and Terminator 2. Scream 2's witty script, penned by Kevin Williamson, has some truly classic barbs toward the media, filmmakers and horror sequels. At least Williamson redeems himself for the poor script of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Where Scream 2 fails is in its climax. After trotting out suspect after suspect, the ending is a supreme disappointment. The original's climax was one of the best horror movie endings of all time. This time around, it's an extreme letdown that drags on for much too long. I wish this wasn't the case because the film starts off with the promise of being better than the original film. The wit and intelligence of the first film are there, they're just let down by the ending, which, to its credit, isn't a cliched ending you've seen before. It's just one you won't want to see again and, considering that a Scream 3 was recently announced, the unfortunate possibility that you will now exists.

Trivia: Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) can be seen playing Casey Becker in Stab, the movie-within-a-movie version of the killings in Scream. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)