Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laurie Metcalf, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O'Connell, Jada Pinkett and Liev Schreiber.
The film was released on December 12, 1997 by Dimension Films as the second installment in the Scream film series. Scream 2 takes place one year after Scream and again follows the character of Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her brother Jerry (Lillard), now students at the fictional Windsor College, who becomes the target of a copycat killer using the guise of Ghostface. Sidney and Jerry are accompanied by film-geek Randy Meeks (Kennedy), Jerry's friend Tom Scott (Shepard) retired deputy sheriff Dewey Riley (Arquette) and news reporter Gale Weathers (Cox). Like its predecessor, Scream 2 combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of comedy and "whodunit" mystery while satirizing the cliché of film sequels. The film was followed by two sequels, Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011).
Williamson provided a five-page outline for a sequel to Scream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise. Following a successful test screening of Scream and the film's financial and critical success, Dimension moved forward with the sequel while Scream was still in theaters, with the principal cast all returning to star, Craven to direct and Beltrami to provide music.
The film suffered controversy following its significant issues with plot information leaking onto the Internet, revealing the identity of the killers. Combined with the film's rushed schedule, the script was rewritten often; pages were sometimes completed on the day of filming. Despite these issues, Scream 2 earned $172 million, received several awards and nominations. The film also received positive reviews, with some critics arguing that the sequel surpassed the original in terms of quality.
Beltrami received positive critical reception for his score for evolving the musical themes of the characters created in Scream although some critics claimed that the most memorable pieces from the film were created by composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. Elfman's contribution had been specially written for the film, but Zimmer's score for Broken Arrow was controversially used in the film, replacing Beltrami's own work. The soundtrack received negative feedback from reviewers but achieved moderate sales success, reaching #50 on the Billboard 200.