Scream 2

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Rating 3


Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson

Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rebecca Gayheart and Portia de Rossi


“I didn’t have to push very hard because we fell in love with her, too. It’s a juicy little part and she’s rocking. I want her in every one of my movies because you know when you hire her to do a job she’s not going to be in her trailer complaining about everything. She’s going to be right out there giving you the tenth take in the freezing cold.”
Kevin Williamson (talking about Sarah Michelle Gellar)

‘Scream 2’ was released in America in December 1997 and took $172 million at the box office, making it the fourteenth biggest box office hit of the year. Sarah Michelle Gellar comes in for quite a lot of criticism online and her films are often alleged to have been flops, commercially as well as artistically. I fully accept that the box office success of a film is no indication of its artistic worth but I’m just putting the record straight.

Gellar is not a big star and I have serious doubts that she will ever join the ranks of the so-called Hollywood ‘A-list’. However, overall she actually has one of the best box office records of any female actor working in Hollywood at the moment. Having said that, I appreciate that she is not the actual reason why films like ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ and ‘Scream 2’ were successful at the box office. She does bring a fanbase with her, but she is certainly not the over-riding factor when assessing the box-office performance of genre films like this; films that already have a built-in audience. In any case, at the time these films were made Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt were undoubtedly equally well known and popular.

Gellar’s role in ‘Scream 2’, playing Casey ‘Cici’ Cooper, is a small one, but it’s also one of the highlights of the film. I like it but I do think it’s just a bit too knowingly clever-clever at times. For me, it’s not close to being as good as the first film, which, of course, has the added attraction of Drew Barrymore, who I have a great deal of time for, and a rollicking, over-the-top performance by the wonderful Matthew Lillard.



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