Scream 2: Scrapbook Sequels Suck!

There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to create a successful scrapbook sequel.

Number 1: The clipping count is always bigger.

    Number 2: The drawings are always much more elaborate- more blood red, more faces- "eye candy".

        And Number 3: Never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the spelling of Sidney is correct.         

Cue the loud slicing sounds of scissors tearing into paper! We've got a Scrapbook Sequel to see!

With my scrapbooking skills put to the test for the first Scream, teen me had to make sure there was a scrapbook for the eventual sequel. Thankfully, Scream fans did not have to wait too long. Debuting in theaters on December 12, 1997, fans waited just under a year for a sequel. It was a long wait. Time had moved much slower. I was trying to consume whatever I could about the sequel.

What would the story be? Who would be coming back? Why would Sid and her friends be dealing with another Ghostface killer? 

Before the movie even came out I had begun production on the Scream 2 scrapbook. At least some of the pages. This scrapbook was an ongoing love that evolved before, during, and after the film's release. On a quick bunny side trail, I was absolutely obsessed with Gale's streaks. Holy moly I wanted that hairstyle so bad. I had even cut my hair like hers. This was all serious business.

A peek at some of the greatness inside! As with the first scrapbook, I totally repurposed one of my school folders for something of true importance. Who cared about grades when pop culture was calling?

I don't know that I stressed it enough in my previous post, but during this time, I was combing through the Sunday newspapers and clipping out "posters" of the movies I either loved or wanted to see. The winner for most clippings was of course the Scream movies. Scream 2 clippings were fun because they'd mix up the floating cast of character heads. 

Scream 2 boasted a larger cast, faces that were oh-so-familiar with a dash of mystery. Who were they? What was their connection to the original surviving characters? Who would die? One of the joys of the Scream franchise has always been who will be behind the ghost mask. I certainly was curious, but I was always far more excited to see who would make it or not. Take for instance Sarah Michelle Gellar. My goodness I was so obsessed with her thanks to Buffy, and I was ready to see her take on Ghostface! I was devastated when I realized those Buffy fighting skills were not going to be put to good use.

It was a Sunday in November, or maybe it was October, but the Scream 2 trailer was set to debut. On Fox if I recall correctly. Sometime in the evening. Earlier that day I rode with my first love Adam and my dear friend Pandora as we headed to the Renaissance Festival. I had made it very clear though, "We can't stay all day, I need to be home in time for the Scream 2 trailer." Yes, I was that friend. Making memories at a festival was not as important as watching the Scream 2 trailer. My priorities have always been messy. It's why I'm almost 40 with no husband, dream home, or children. But I have Scream scrapbooks!

Anyways, that whole day at the Renaissance Festival was a mess. Some weird guy kept following me around and hitting me with pebbles from a sling shot. Adam was busy looking for some silver jewelry to give to his latest crush, which wasn't me, so I was totally in my feelings. And Pandora, well, she met a tall dashing goth pirate prince who wanted her to stay the night with him at the camp grounds. We kept trying to talk her out of it and wanted to leave as a trio, but she used a pay phone to call her dad, got permission and then ran off with her swashbuckling prince. They would go on to date for a long time, if memory serves.

Anyways, Adam and I drove home together, and normally I would have been in heaven while stuck in a car with a man I was smitten about for over an hour drive. All I could think of though was, "Are we going to make it in time? I can't miss this trailer drop!" I mean, there was no YouTube in 1997. I had one shot. 

Adam delivered. He got me home in time. We rushed into my room and flipped to the proper channel. The actual time left for the trailer was not much, but it felt like forever. My eyes couldn't leave the screen when it came on. I was glued like a Lee press on. It was simply everything. Adam didn't seem too impressed, but we made plans to be there opening night.

The poster was great. I loved the set up, everything seemed sleek with a sense of more, more, more. Opening night was a big deal at my local small town theater. It was like everyone at my school had planned to see Scream 2 at the same showing. The line was so long, it meandered its way outside. I drove my friends crazy with the insistence that we arrive as early as possible. We were the first in line. I know I drive people crazy with my antics, but there's a reason for that. We got to pick great seats!

The opening delivered a similar sense of fear and dread, much like the first one. I think what made it scarier was that it took place in a theater. I was in a theater too, watching Jada Pinkett Smith sit there, unaware that the killer was disguised as her boyfriend... My goodness it was so damn scary! I had also realized that some of my peers who did not like me very much were scattered throughout the same theater I was in, they probably would have enjoyed stabbing me in my seat too, and that added a whole other level of fear to the experience.

I love Scream 2. From beginning to end it is a really fun horror movie. Once the lights turned on and the theater cleared out, I found myself eager to hear what my friends thought. They were not as thrilled as I was, and teen me was not ok with that. Like, had we seen the same movie? I became very protective of this movie. I'd read the reviews in the paper and want to argue with the critic over their less than stellar critique. I'd still cut the review out and add it to the scrapbook, anything Scream 2 was meant to be with me. Side note, as I would mature I would become more Zen in my approach to people not caring much for the things I loved.

More clippings. My clipping craze even extended to the ads for the soundtrack in the weekend edition store deals from Circuit City, Best Buy, and Target. No one could stop my need for holding onto numerous versions of the same image, you'll be seeing much more of this theme below.

More review clippings. I opted for tape instead of a glue stick for the scrapbook. Now everything is yellowed with age and I look the tiniest bit like a lunatic. My motive is simple, the movies made me do it.

This list was super important to me. Upcoming horror that I was super excited to see in the theater. Some on this list were just as loved as Scream 2, others didn't quite make the cut. That shot for shot Psycho remake was a choice huh? I remember watching Vince Vaughn on screen with those masterbatory sounds and I was like, is he doing what I think he is doing? I think that was my first movie to really have awareness that masterbation was being acknowledged on screen. Anyways.

More reviews, this one was from Entertainment Weekly I believe. I have gone through phases of holding onto magazines in their entirety or chopping them up into pieces that suit my collector ways. Some issues will always stay in tact, the ultimate Final Magazines, ready to survive another day and blog post.

Loved this piece so much. A break down of Wes Craven's work. Give me a list of movies that someone has made with year and everything, and I am just flat out hooked. And some clippings of A Nightmare On Elm Street for sale at various media stores. 

Behind the scenes with Elise Neal. I loved her so much in this movie. I hated that Hallie died, and I had so many fights in my head about the way it went down in the movie. It just didn't seem possible that Ghost Face could just slide on out of that car and hop around whatever construction mess was going on that quickly. I just refuse. She should still be alive and best friends with Sidney.

More articles. I wish I could locate my Fangoria issues that covered Scream 2, I have them somewhere and I just adore them. Those I never cut up, because some things must be sacred. I believe this article came from a film magazine, like Empire or something. I don't recall. I tried to take a photo below that would make it easier to read, if you feel so inclined.

Iconic. We've all seen these images floating around of this Rollingstone issue covering Scream 2. It left me with so many questions. Like, what the hell was Tori Spelling doing in Scream 2 since she was mentioned in the first one. Like, would she be playing herself or a character that looks like Tori Spelling? Was Ghost Face going to show up in Hollywood and stab Tori? I needed answers!

And then I read the article and the whole movie within the movie was such a fun twist. I'll admit it seemed a bit much at first, but then seeing it on screen and realizing what they were doing, it just added a whole other level of fun. 

The images in the magazine were pretty gory, but I appreciated the celebration of horror. The blood looked sort of real while also looking like a jelly glaze on those honey bun treats you could get at the school vending machine. Side note, those things were so damn good. I would get one at the cafeteria some mornings. Not the breakfast of champions, but I loved the yumminess of it all. I also felt so cool, like, there I was eating this pastry treat for breakfast. As if to say, "I like good snacks and I'm approachable, but my snacks are not healthy so I'm kind of a bad chick." No one was paying attention.

I tried to capture the articles along with the photos, but my plan did not exactly work out as expected. Enjoy the jelly gore photos though!  

With so many of my favorites showing up in the Scream movies, I became obsessed with any magazine that featured any cast member. I also totally adored Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was so cool and I loved her style. Her whole vibe was life goals for me. After my love affair with Gale's hair in Scream 2 I eventually moved on to the style on SMG. Honey, I thought I was so damn chic and cool, ready to dazzle the entire world. Or at least a date.

Let's pause and reflect on this red velvet slip dress. As much as I complain about some of my fashion choices in the '90s, I forgot how fun slip dresses were to wear. I feel like I should one day write about all the fashion choices I have made through the years. I have teased about my tube top phase that dominated much of my wardrobe from the ages of 19-22, but I am just not sure what to do about that. Maybe some secrets need to stay buried in the past?

Anyways, one of the things I loved about SMG was her kick ass nature in Buffy. I mentioned this earlier, but seeing her die in Scream 2 was a lot to process. However, nothing compared to her role as Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer. My goodness I just wanted her to keep running! Those damn fireworks causing a distraction. I can't even think about it. It's too much. I become really emotional when I think of how her death went down in that movie.

I must share though an amazing podcast I follow. I've gone on and on about him before, but it never hurts to sing the praises of Mark O Estes. He has this amazing podcast called Midnight Social Distortion and in one episode he and guest Tamon Kane give a fantastic memorial for Helen Shivers. Listen to it by clicking here. The episode was such a delight. I can't stress enough about how great Mark and the podcast is. If you love horror, you will enjoy his podcast. He is so cool.

Next we have a sign of when one's obsession goes too far. This magazine clipping in bright colors would get torn out of any magazine I flipped through. I have like 9 versions of this magazine page, all saved for the scrapbook. I have no idea why. It makes no sense. Perhaps I had this irrational fear that one page would get torn or ruined, so back up pages would somehow get me through life. I don't know. The movie made me do it though.

Up next were some Scream 2 postcards. I think I was at a music store or something and they had a stack of them to take for free. That's the worst thing you can tell me, because I took three. I wanted to take more, but I had to be clever with how I grabbed them. If I took the whole stack the cashier would notice, so I pretended to take one, only to lift up three in the process. I wasn't playing. This was serious business.

Nothing really new image wise aside from the top. This was promotional for the movie being released on pay-per-view. 

The back of the postcard was asking us to scream again. I was down. There have been rankings and such for the Scream movies with Scream 2 occasionally being described as a crappy sequel, but in all honesty I loved Scream 2. I didn't think of it as a sequel in the typical sense that we think of movie sequels. This was a continuation for me, like watching a soap opera, only instead of seeing these characters 5 days a week, it was fast forwarding a moment in time to see what they were currently up to. This film and later additions to the series would be a reminder that horror movies, especially slasher fare, were not just cut 'em up stories with an ever growing body count. I mean, yes, there was an ever growing body count, but the connection to the characters and their futures was very different in this series compared to most other horror films. When a horror movie can capture that level of investment, it just adds to a very enriching experience.

I mentioned this book in my previous post about Scream, and it is appearing again because it had a sneak peek at some photos from Scream 2. The filming was essentially back to back so when the book was released there was already some interesting stuff to share, which helped with my scrapbooking.

I had so many questions about these pictures. It only contributed to the anticipation. For example, if a hair on Gale's lovely streaked head was harmed, I was ready to fight.

Now on to some sketches. I simply could not escape that Scream 2 poster layout.

Unlike the Scream Scrapbook, a Scream 2 Scrapbook did not get a flashy breakdown of the movie with memory-written lines and images from my favorites scenes. Instead I pieced together what I could from images before the movie's release and some that were drawn after.

It was all part of an effort to celebrate my obsession for this movie, but it also was feeding something else. Something hidden just beneath the skin that needed to be cut out. More on that in a bit.

Far from happy with my other scrapbook pieces, I also took it upon myself to cut up the VHS images in those weekly ads from places like Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target. It made no sense. I just felt this urge to hold on to as much as I could. Again, this was during a time where you couldn't just walk into a store and be like, "Oh Scream 2 magnets! Scream 2 books! Scream 2 figures!" I was a desperate teen in love with a frighteningly fun movie and I wanted as much physical items I could find. I did have the Marco Beltrami soundtrack, but even that felt like it wasn't enough. Maybe I just have issues with never being fully satisfied by things?

Anyways, Scream and Scream 2 were doing more than providing entertainment and a slight obsessive collector mentality with scraps of paper. Soon I began devising my own horror stories that I no longer wanted in my mind, I had to have these ideas spill across the page. Much like a lot of inspired fans, I began writing my own horror tales. Some had some pretty cool ideas, others were just me writing Scream fan fiction set in the town I lived in. So, let's take a look at them. Below are four of the horror stories I wrote in 1998. Dear reader, prepare to eye roll and cringe yourself until you become part of the body count too.

Up first is Klub Killer. The cover was a total Scream knock off, but the story was all its own. The basic premise was that there was a group of friends who were club kids and they loved going to raves and night clubs, but pretty quickly the group of young adults found themselves being stalked by a masked killer. The opening involved one of their friends dying in the beginning, at a night club. I can't exactly recall the killer's motives but I vaguely recall the killer being an out of touch old person who thought the club kid culture was ruining society and he had set his sights on the group of friends. It was really cheesy, but as a teen I was also obsessed with dance music and wanting to go to night clubs and raves, so it only made sense to have a horror movie set in that scene.

 

My next story I wrote was my personal franchise. I wanted my very own 10 part slasher series and so I came up with the very basic titled slasher saga: The Axe Murderer. He walks. He talks. He stalks... Y'all. The level of cheese. I loved it though. Basic premise was that a group of teen friends are driving home late from a party. Story takes place in a small town. As they are driving home there is a roller rink they will be passing, and inside the roller rink one of their class peers is ending her shift and finds herself fighting for her life from an axe wielding maniac. She races out into the road as the teen friends are driving by and essentially they all get caught up into this whirlwind mystery of who is trying to kill the roller girl. They all bond and connect as they each become a target from the axe murderer. He takes them down one by one, roller girl appears to be the final girl but dies near the end. One of the teens, her name was Tatum (I know, I know) she and her boyfriend survive. The killer turned out to be an abusive ex of roller girl, and it ends with him getting arrested.

There was a sequel. With cover that was totally ripping off Scream. I couldn't help it. Tatum and her boyfriend were in college, they had a new group of friends and they ended up going on this winter getaway to a cabin in the snowy mountains. Unknown to them, the killer from the original magically escapes prison and goes on the hunt. He stalks them at the cabin and Tatum swears something is wrong but her boyfriend and friends think she is suffering from the horrors from the first story. They all leave the cabin and once back home, the murders start happening again. Tatum realizes she is not crazy but it may end up being too late. This had everything needed to be a long running series, I had stories outlined for at least 8 Axe Murderers, but they were never completed. Everything just became too convoluted. For the level of cheese though, I had so much fun visiting this world and creating these group of friends. It was a bit slasher meets Fear Street.

The final horror story I wrote was the one I felt most proud of even if it caused two of my friends to groan in annoyance ever so loudly. I never liked people reading my writing as a teen, but I was so excited about this one that I shared it with two friends and it was just... it was a dumb move on my part. I wanted to write a slasher story about Freddy Krueger before he became the king of nightmares. "Before he got you in your nightmares, he got you in your reality." Buckle up kids, this is gonna be a straight ticket to the boiler room. This was set in the '70s. Nancy and her parents were part of the story. Nancy was younger in this tale and essentially had a cameo, so she was not as much a part of the story as her parents were. Either way, something scary was happening, kids and teens would go missing here and there. The story opened up with a pretty terrifying scene of a little kid and his big sister alone in a two story house. Freddy is hiding in the closet watching the little kid sleep but the little kid can't sleep because he feels there is someone in the closet. The kid tries to scream for help, but Freddy gets him and then goes after the older sister.

Their brutal murders make the town news. The four friends are shook as is the whole community. In an effort to avoid any danger, they stick together and on a night of partying they stumble across Krueger's lair and they fight for their lives with Freddy attacking in the shadows. The teens escape and police are called, they swear up and down that they were attacked by the school janitor. The four friends are ok, and a trial soon begins. With a lack of concrete proof the whole thing becomes a mistrial and Freddy is free. 

Humiliated at being caught and hellbent on revenge, Krueger goes after the four remaining teens one by one until there is a big showdown at the high school late one night. The main girl survives and is rescued by an angry mob that descends on the high school taking Krueger away where they torture him before burning him alive. 

The final scene takes place some time later, the main girl is asleep in her bed, and the wall behind her begins to ripple and move until the outline of Freddy emerges, much like the first film. She wakes up, startled but then falls asleep again. Freddy emerges from the wall clawing at her and she screams for help, lunging out of bed. Thinking she is fully awake, she stands up while Freddy underneath her bed drags her under into dreamland.

I wrote the story as a way of honoring the other films and lore of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and it was something I completely flipped out over when I was a teen. it was pure fan fiction, but it was a story that I would have wanted to see on tv.

Anyways, I write all of this to essentially say that the magic of Scream 2 was pretty big for me. It was an entertaining film that continued my love for horror and fueled my imagination to write my own scary stories even if they were pretty corny. It was a pretty exciting time during an era of my life that was much less so. 

Scream 3 would come out some time later and sadly there would be no more scrapbooks, but I have continued to enjoy each Scream movie that gets made. The most recent Scream was such a blast to watch, I feel like the franchise has some new life in it. I am hopeful for a Scream 6, which at the time of this post will begin filming this summer and I just learned that the new Scream will be released on blu-ray on my birthday, so I know the absolute perfect gift to get myself. I'm totally flipping out.

I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for taking the time to read this goofy mess. I really enjoyed looking back at all these items. Never go too far, I am working on more posts for 2022. All My Toys will be back with what I am hoping will be an amazing swan song. Stay tuned!