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Wednesday, December 3, 1997

Everyone's buzzing about who the killer is in the sequel to last year's horror hit, but the stars of 'Scream 2' are keeping things hush-hushBy Stephanie Sheh

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With the pressure of finals week coming, most Bruins are probably ready for the midnight yell. But this winter break Wes Craven wants you to scream, not from finals stress, but because everyone's a suspect.

In "Scream 2," opening Dec. 12, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) once again are plagued by the killer, or killers, in the ghost mask. This time, though, the old gang and several newcomers are running down the steps in Kinsey 51, dodging the knife-bearing maniac.

The cast make their way into the Grand Ballroom at the Essex House for their morning interviews, some bubbly, some groggy, but all ready to discuss how shooting the film was at times just as mysterious as the movie itself.

"I think the movie actually is better than the first one," admits Cox dressed in a suit with a stylish scarf tied around her neck. She leans in. "Well, it's at least scarier. It's more complicated, but I also think that the characters are so much richer this time."

Cox isn't the only one to feel "Scream 2" surpasses its predecessor. Kennedy, who returns as the quirky yet lovable and still virginal Randy, also feels this second film is better. Craven set out with the goal of making the sequel worthy of the first.

"It had the likelihood of being very good," Craven says of why he chose to direct "Scream 2." The master of scary movies passed on directing the first five sequels to his original "Nightmare on Elm Street." "Secondly it was written by the same author (Kevin Williamson). We have a continuation of that intelligence and vision. And basically this was seen as a trilogy so it was very very different by nature than a typical (sequel) situation.

"It's more like a whodunit social commentary couched in the framework of horror film," continues Craven, resting his chin on his hand. "The second film was scheduled to be a continuation of the same characters, which is if you think of most of the sequels ­ the one I'm associated with is 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' ­ the continuation is the bad guy and all the other characters are discarded. In this you are taking a rooted character of Sidney Prescott and Gale and all the other characters and showing how they are changed by the first film's events. So it's really a much more sophisticated and interesting thing to me as a director to participate in."

After she survives the Woodsboro killings, fully equipped with a best-selling book, Cox's bitchy tabloid reporter returns even bitchier. And she's got a new look.

"This time I figured that she has a little money and she's producing, I think she looked at Vogue and tried her best to imitate what she thought was in fashion that just wasn't quite right," Cox says. "I mean the streaks (in her hair) were not right. So it's a little tacky."

Continuing in the trend of changes, Sidney's boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell) isn't abusive this time around. (This is not to say that he may not be the killer. Remember, everyone's a suspect.) He treats her well, so well that in one scene he serenades Sidney with "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" a la "Top Gun."

"I really got into it, but mind you I had to re-record that whole thing," says bright-eyed O'Connell while his co-star Elise Neal, who plays Sidney's roommate is laughing, recalling the incident. "I remember I went in one evening and Wes Craven was like, 'Ah, Jerry? We have to re-record your song, it was a little off-key.' And I said, 'Uh, really?' And when I heard it played I was totally off-key. I don't (know) where I was and I'd give you the letters of the keys I was in but I didn't even know."

O'Connell, who couldn't believe he did that scene sober, then turns to Neal and says, "I must have drove you guys crazy there."

She smiles, "It was making us laugh 'cause if you had have been on key in as many takes as we did of it, it would've been (boring) but because you were just going for it and you had no idea we were like really laughing."

The atmosphere on the set was just as fun and laid-back. Cast members would often hang out after filming and go partying in Atlanta, where the majority of the film was shot, though Bruins will recognize scenes in both Kinsey and Kerckhoff.

O'Connell attributes the wonderful time he had working on the film to Craven and his ability to create a comfortable environment on the set. O'Connell, an admirer who actually wrote several essays on Craven in NYU film school, was excited to work with the horror movie genius.

"When you first meet him you don't know what to expect," O'Connell says. "You go in there with a handful of garlic, but he's such an intelligent guy. I just think he's such a mild-mannered, intelligent actor's director."

"He's such a great director," Cox agrees. "He lets you do what you want to do. He tells you when he doesn't want you to do something. He comes up with the most amazing ideas. He's funny. And he sets the nicest tone on the set."

In order to get the performances needed, Craven kept the identity of the killer/killers a secret to most of the cast members.

"Wes said that everyone was a suspect," recalls Kennedy, scratching his tousled head of hair. "He all wanted us to have like shaky personalities.

"The looks that we had in the beginning of the movie, we all had like these crazy looks. Remember those pork chops I had?" asks Kennedy, turning to co-star Duane Martin, who plays Cox's jittery new cameraman. "I had like these long pointed sideburns and I had a whole goatee and we were all going to be like these freaked out kids on drugs a little bit."

Some cast members didn't receive all of the script and others didn't receive the final pages until well near the end of filming. The fact that they didn't know who the killer was required the actors at one point or another to suspect themselves.

"The crazy thing is when you go, 'Well, Jesus, maybe I'm a suspect. Wait a minute I'm definitely I'm a suspect.' And you think, "There's no way I could be the suspect. There's no way.' And when I got those pages in the envelope I ripped them open."

O'Connell is talking about the envelope containing final pages of the script on which were further precautionary measures. For example the script was on a special paper.

"I don't know if you've ever seen the stuff. It's wicked," O'Connell says animatedly. "It's got like a big brown strip down the middle. Un-xeroxable. I mean we had to wear decoder glasses just to see them. You know, it was delivered to our house by armed guards. I swear to you. You know, it was really really spooky. I felt like James Bond."

The secrecy surrounding the script made it difficult for the cast members to even read the script before signing onto the project.

"They sent me like one page," Martin recalls. "It was top secret. I was like, 'What am I going to do with one page? And I don't like horror movies. When do I die? During the credits?'"

O'Connell jokes about the difficulty in obtaining the script. "They said, 'You can get a script but you have to go to Fort Knox or you have to go to an obscure prison in Korea.'

"Every other project I've done since this is like boring," O'Connell continues lightheartedly. "Now when a messenger comes to my house and drops the script off he's not caring a gun. And everyone's like, 'Okay, yeah this is your next project. Here's your script.' And I'm like, 'You gotta give me the whole thing? Just save the ending. I don't want to see it.'"

FILM: "Scream 2" opens Dec. 12.

Photos courtesy of Dimension Films

Liev Schreiber and Neve Campbell appear in "Scream 2."

Sarah Michelle Gellar, like the rest of the actors who appeared in Wes Craven's "Scream 2," didn't find out the identity of the killer (or killers) until late in the shooting of the movie.