Pop Culture | Movies | 90s
10 Facts About 'Scream 2' That Will Make You Miss Good Horror Sequels
1996's Scream was a massive, unexpected hit that not only caught audiences by surprise, but the studio as well. A self-aware horror movie that poked fun at the genre as much as it relied on it, Scream raked in millions of dollars and drew huge crowds, so of course a sequel was inevitable.
Anyone who watches horror movies will tell you that sequels tend to be awful compared to the originals, but Scream 2 actually played with being a sequel in some pretty interesting ways. We all love it to this day, but did you know any of these super interesting facts about it?
The identity of the killer was kept VERY secret.
Director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson did everything possible to keep the script from leaking the big reveal. The actors weren't told who the killer was until the end, they were only given the last 10 pages of the script when it was time to film them, and the script was printed on grey paper so it couldn't be photocopied.
This was all after the movie's original script actually WAS leaked onto the internet.
The "Stab" scenes had a separate director you've probably heard of.
Robert Rodriguez, of Depserado, Sin City, and From Dusk Til Dawn fame, was tapped to direct the scenes of "Stab," Scream 2's movie within a movie.
The script was pretty light, all things considered.
Apparently one of the pages of Williamson's script just read "Wes Craven will make it scary." We're pretty sure he was right.
Some of the actors didn't need much convincing to be in the movie.
Sarah Michelle Gellar agreed to be in the movie without even reading the script, due to the success of the original Scream.
The facts about your favorite scary sequel just get crazier from here...
The movie came out VERY quickly after the first one.
Williamson started writing the script while Scream was being filmed. Scream 2 went into production six months after the first, and was released less than a year later.
The voice of the killer was actually done on set.
That's right, that creepy voice wasn't added in afterwards. Actor Roger Jackson was actually hidden on set and speaking through the actual phone. All of the actors were intimidated by him, except for Sarah Michelle Gellar, who kept talking to him between takes.
There's some clever references to other things the actors starred in.
At one point Cici is on the phone telling her friend that "Sarah dumped Bailey." This is a reference to the show Party of Five, which starred Neve Campbell.
And some in-jokes to the first movie.
In Scream, Sidney gets asked who would play her if they made a movie of her life, to which she responds "With my luck, they'd cast Tori Spelling." In the "Stab" scenes, Sidney is indeed played by Tori Spelling.
And even some... less savory real-world events.
The reference to fake nude pictures of Gale being released online is a parallel to a real-world event, where fake pictures of Courteney Cox were circulated online earlier that year.
The original ending was very different.
Originally, Gale is killed by Cotton, Sidney and Cotton both fight to the death, and Dewey dies from his wounds. This was changed to allow for the possibility of another movie, and originally the movie ended with another Ghostface watching the group from the bell tower.