Scream 2

     The movie Scream 2 follows the story of Sidney Prescott who is now in college. The film brings back a few characters from the first film including: Randy, Gale, and Dewey. Throughout the film they are trying to catch a copycat of the men who tried to kill Sidney in the first of the series. This movie series touches on a lot of the points mentioned in Carol Clover’s writing.

     Carol Clover writes in Her Body, Herself about the difference between men and women's deaths in slasher films. She says that the deaths of women are "filmed at closer range, in more graphic detail, and at greater length." Several scenes from Scream 2 support this claim. First is the scene in the movie theater; the woman, Maureen, is stabbed repeatedly and eventually stumbles in front of the screen covered in blood for the entire audience to see. Next is Cici’s death. The scene begins with her

alone in her sorority house and she eventually is chased upstairs where she is thrown through a window onto the balcony. Once on the balcony, the killer stabs her multiple times then throws her several floors off the balcony. Last is Hallie’s death. The killer stabs her repeatedly with blood going everywhere.  In all three of these scenes the camera shows the knife penetrating the women and the scene is drug out unnecessarily so, especially compared to the men’s deaths.

     Clover writes about men’s deaths in slasher films saying it is “always swift; even if the victim grasps what is happening to him he has no time to react or register terror. He is dispatched and the camera moves on. The death of a male is moreover more likely than the death of a female to be viewed from a distance, or viewed only dimly.” Once again, Scream 2 supports this multiple times. First, again, is at the movie theater. Unlike his girlfriend’s death, Phil is killed alone in the bathroom. His actual death scene only lasts a matter of seconds and you never see the knife enter his body. Second is Randy’s death. In his death scene you

only see the reflection of the killer lifting the knife up after stabbing him, but you never get to see Randy until they later find his dead body. Last are Sidney’s “body guards.” The first guard’s death is very quick; instead of being penetrated with the knife, his throat is slit. The second guard’s, however, is drug out, but the killer doesn’t kill him directly. The killer instead drives the car with the guard on the hood until they crash, sending a pipe into the guard’s head. In contrast to the scenes involving women’s deaths, the men’s scenes are very quick and not as gorey.

      The “terrible places” in Scream 2 are walled-in, womb-like areas that are also occupied by the killer. One instance of the idea of the “terrible place” in the film is the scene in the cop car. Sidney and Hallie are trapped in the back of the cop car while the killer is driving. They are locked in from the outside and the barrier between the front and back seats keeps them confined in the small space. A second “terrible place” in the film is in the scene where Sidney kills Mickey and Billy’s mother. As she enters the stage, walls immediately are placed around her, keeping her from backstage and forcing her to face the killers.

    The key weapon used in the film was a knife, mainly by the killers. The women who are killed are stabbed more than once with the knife, while the men are either never shown being stabbed or only stabbed once. In the scene where the killers are revealed, this is the first time a gun is used. Mickey uses a gun to shoot Derek and later Billy’ mom shoots Mickey. Gale and Sidney also use guns to kill Billy’s mom and Mickey. The knife is used to represent a phallic extension of the killer’s body, while guns are typically used by the victims.

     Sidney represents Clover’s idea of the “final girl” perfectly. Throughout the movie she is 

represented as this strong, not overtly feminine character. Rather than dress and act like the girls in  the sororities, she chooses to stick to her own sense of style and be pretty covered up for most of the movie, never being sexualized. In the scene where she comes face to face with the true killers, she does not back down. Sid switches from the role of the victim to the role of the attacker by fighting back against the killers. She crushes Billy’s mother by dropping the lights on her, then Sid and Gale both shoot Mickey when he comes back to consciousness.