Preamble

I’ll be honest: two posts in, I’m already feeling the daunting nature of this series. This is not because I don’t have much to say, but because I don’t want to cover old ground or repeat what I’ve said in a review. However, I’m not one to shrink from a challenge. With that said, what’s your favourite shot from Scream 2? Let me know in the comments below.

One Great Shot

By far and away, the best part of Scream 2 is Cotton Weary. His character and Liev Schreiber’s performance fuel the idea of an O.J. Simpson esque figure who may or may not be the person that the media painted him as. And the shot of Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) presenting Weary to an unassuming Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) begins this character exploration. When Weary is first revealed, Marco Beltrami’s score hits with a foreboding sting that hints at the character’s possible nefarious intentions. And Schreiber skirts the line between shifty and demure.

The shot is also interesting for depicting how the media can be exploitive via Weathers. Nearly every character she has come into contact with in the original feels spurned and used by her. And Sidney’s action of punching Weathers is a collective cathartic moment for audiences who hate the tabloid press in all its forms.

In fact, part of why the film works is that it plays with this dynamic and our preconceptions of these characters. Whilst there’s a clear gauge of how we perceive them through the court of public opinion, our perception of them (within the confines of a murder mystery) is murkier. Weathers suddenly seems innocent when helping Dewey (David Arquette) solve the case. Whereas, the one moment where Weathers sees Cotton in suspicious circumstances, our guard is suddenly up, thinking he’s the killer. In this way, Scream 2’s one great shot is a wellspring for the film’s themes.