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Everyone who survived "Scream" came back for the second instalment in Wes Craven's tongue-in-cheek slasher trilogy, which - just as the first movie had mocked the conventions of the horror genre - pokes fun at the clichés of Hollywood sequels.
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is now in college, where she is studying drama, dating Derek (Jerry O'Connell), and trying to put the Woodsboro murders far behind her. Unfortunately a movie based on the killings - "Stab" - is about to open, despite the fact that two unwary teens were butchered at the first preview.
In no time at all a new crop of victims are attracting the attention of the knife-wielding psycho in the ghost mask, among them Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Luckily, Sydney and her pals have the assistance of movie nerd Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), who tutors them in the ways of the sequel.
According to Randy, the body count in a sequel is always bigger and the deaths always more elaborate - rules that screenwriter Kevin Williamson takes to heart in a bloodsoaked follow-up that leaves few of the cast unscathed.
While the shocks come thick and fast, the real pleasure comes from the knowing humour and ingenious spoofing of genre tropes. There's even a nod back to the first film, in which Sidney jokingly remarked that, if a movie were made about her, she'd probably be played by Tori Spelling. And guess who plays Sidney in "Stab"?
Read a review of "Scream 3".
