Every Kill In Scream 2, Ranked

Sequels have long been such a hotly-debated topic in movies that "Scream 2" has an entire scene where the characters debate their merits. As with all things "Scream," the conversation gets quite meta.

"Sequels suck," Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) insists. The other students in the class (including '90s faves Sarah Michelle Gellar and Joshua Jackson) continue to debate the topic at hand until the professor puts an end to it. Whatever your opinion, "Scream 2" is a memorable sequel.

The 1997 film — once again written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven — has Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) attempting to move on from the events of the first film, attending college alongside her peers. Things don't exactly go to plan, of course, as a new Ghostface arrives on the scene to terrorize the fictional Windsor College. Sidney is wiser and more savvy this time around, but that doesn't stop the killer from racking up a sizable body count. The violence is always amped up in sequels — as Randy eagerly points out — and "Scream 2" is no exception, graduating from seven kills to an even ten.

Even if none can compare to Drew Barrymore's opening scene or Rose McGowan getting caught in a garage door in the original film, many of the kills in the sequel bring substantial thrills. It isn't easy to rank them all, but read on and we'll take a stab at it.

Randy was a beloved character within the "Scream" universe, acting as both comic relief and the resident horror movie expert, teaching his peers the rules that might keep them alive a little longer. Because Randy played such an important part in the first film, his death halfway through "Scream 2" came as something of a shock. It's also a surprisingly anticlimactic and a bit mundane, making it a disappointing send-off for such a key character.

In the sequence preceding Randy's death, he is hanging out on campus with Dewey (David Arquette) and Gail (Courtney Cox) when she receives a call from Ghostface on her cell phone. They try to figure out who the call is coming from by grabbing phones out of people's hands, but this doesn't go so well. While Gail and Dewey are running around like maniacs terrifying the student body, Randy gets pulled into Ghostface's van. His 'help-I'm-being-killed' screams are drowned out by a group of students blasting music from a stereo.

What's most disappointing about Randy's death is the audience doesn't even get to see it; he's killed off-screen. When Gail and Dewey realize he's missing, they open the door of the van and discover Randy's bloody body inside. A horror aficionado like Randy would likely be quite dissatisfied with his own death scene; perhaps Randy's anticlimactic end is meant to offer some sort of twisted irony, but he deserved better.

It tends to be the case that in horror movies, the least-shocking deaths are those of characters the audience hardly knows. That's certainly true for Officer Andrews (Philip Pavel), who dies shortly after his introduction. Once the killings have started up again, Sidney and her roommate Hallie (Elise Neal) are provided with a protective detail. In what comes as a surprise to literally no one, the cops are totally useless in the face of a crazed killer.

They don't get very far before Ghostface catches up with them. After making some weird, inappropriate jokes to Sidney and Hallie, the cops are ambushed by Ghostface, who smashes through the window on Officer Andrews' side before quickly slitting his throat. It's a quick death, but an effective way to instantly shift the tone and remind the audience that no one's safe. 

Is anyone really sad to see Officer Andrews go, especially considering the way he was speaking to Sidney and the disregard he seemed to have for her safety? His death isn't anything to write home about, but it is an efficient way to plump up the film's overall kill count.

If there's anything fans have learned from the "Scream" movies, it's that you absolutely do not want to be friends with Sidney Prescott. In "Scream 2," Sidney's roommate Hallie learns this the hard way. 

On their way home from campus one evening, Hallie and Sidney are escorted by their security team; lo and behold, the cop car is stopped by none other than Ghostface himself, who slits the throat of one of the officers before impaling the other. After the car has crashed and Ghostface appears to be knocked out in the front seat, Sidney and Hallie make their perilous escape through a car window, trying not to awaken their unconscious assailant. For some reason, they decide not to kill Ghostface for good, or check to see who's under the mask.

Before they can run to safety, Sidney runs back to the car in order to unmask Ghostface; of course, he's now gone. He wasn't unconscious after all, and he uses the moment of distraction to come up behind Hallie and stab her repeatedly in the chest. Hallie would have probably died anyway, but by going back for one last look, she doomed yet another unlucky acquaintance. 

Every slasher movie has to have an inaugural victim, and in "Scream 2" the distinction falls to Phil Stevens, played by Omar Epps. Because the "Scream" films are extremely self-referential, "Scream 2" begins at the movie theater where a new film called "Stab" — a re-telling of the events from the first film — is playing. Phil has taken his girlfriend Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) to go see "Stab," even though she doesn't seem to be a fan of the genre.

While an unimpressed Maureen sits in the theater, Phil heads to the bathroom. When he sees that the urinals are occupied by two Ghostfaces — fake ones, of course — he goes into a stall. When he hears strange noises coming from the adjacent stall, he leans closer to get a better listen. This turns out to be the wrong move, as Ghostface — the real one this time — stabs Phil through the wall, leaving him bleeding on the bathroom door.

It's a mildly entertaining kill scene, but it also doesn't make a ton of sense. For one, how did Ghostface know Phil was going to go to the bathroom? Phil and his girlfriend Maureen are the film's first two victims, and they're presumably chosen because their names match that of Sidney's mom and Casey's boyfriend from the first film (Maureen and Steve). It's unsure how their murders could have been planned with any sort of reliable forethought, but at least the scene gets points for creativity.

One of the most disappointing things about "Scream 2" is the prevalence of guns, since stabbing was the name of the game in the first film. But, sometimes deaths need to be quick and easy, and that's exactly the case with Sidney's boyfriend, a lovable frat boy named Derek (Jerry O'Connell). On the surface, he's nothing but supportive of Sidney and her predicament, but she's never quite sure she can trust him considering what happened with her last boyfriend.

It's eventually revealed that the real killer is one of her classmates, Mickey, along with the long-suffering mother of Billy Loomis. Sidney finds Derek tied up in the school theater after he's been hazed by his fraternity brothers. Mickey's there too, and he begins to plant the seeds of doubt in her head that Derek has been in on it all along, causing Sidney to hesitate in freeing Derek from his bondage. Before Sidney can decide one way or another, Mickey shoots Derek in the chest, killing him.

It's certainly not the most creative kill in the series, but it is significant because of its impact on Sidney. It's pretty diabolical of Mickey to exploit Sidney's trust issues in this way, and the guilt she feels about his death is brutal. It's more psychologically ruthless than it is violent, but that's got to count for something.

"Scream 2" references the events of the first film in numerous ways; among them, the casting of Jada Pinkett Smith as Maureen. Like Drew Barrymore before her, Smith was a rising star at the time, having just broken through in "Set It Off" the previous year. So, casting Smith and then having her die in the first few minutes of the film (like Barrymore's character, she's actually the second to die, following her boyfriend) is a calculated move at subverting audience expectations.

What makes Maureen an interesting character is that she explicitly discusses her distaste for the horror genre. She also calls "Stab" a "dumb-ass white movie" and argues that "the horror genre is historical for excluding the African-American element." Sure enough, many have noted over the years that Black characters are often the first to die in horror movies, so having two Black characters discuss it, and then die themselves, is a comment on the trope even as it upholds the notion.

The meta nature of Maureen's death aside, it's also a well-executed kill scene. (Smith told Craven that she wanted her death scene to be "the most horrific death.") After Phil is killed in the bathroom, Ghostface returns in his place. Maureen thinks Phil has just gone and put a costume on, but she realizes something's amiss when she leans against him and finds blood on his jacket. Ghostface takes this opportunity to stab the woman with a knife, chasing after her as she tries to run away in a theater full of horror fanatics. She manages to climb up in front of the screen, bleeding profusely and letting out a bloodcurdling scream. This finally gets the bloodthirsty audience's attention, as the events of "Scream 2" are put into motion.

Some have argued that "Scream 2" doesn't have enough creativity in its death scenes. Most of the kills are just old-fashioned stabbings or shootings. Oddly enough, one of the most unique deaths in the film is of a character the audience doesn't really don't care about at all. 

When Sidney and Hallie find themselves in the back of a cop car being driven home by their protective detail, the cops turn out to be incompetent; after the first cop has his throat slashed by Ghostface, the second (Officer Richards, played by Christopher Doyle) comes to an even more violent end.

Officer Richards is able to evade Ghostface initially, but when he tries to shoot him, Ghostface drives the car into him, pinning the officer to the hood. Ghostface takes the car for a little joyride with Officer Richards as his unwitting passenger, and when he crashes into some pipes, Officer Richards gets one through the head. 

It's probably the goriest death in the entire film; the man's head is smashed into the windshield, with only his ear peeking through. Give the film credit for really going there — in an otherwise inconsequential death, it adds significant razzle-dazzle.

As the film comes to a close, Sidney finally learns that her classmate Mickey is behind the murders. But, surprise! He hasn't been working alone. 

His accomplice is Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), who recognized Mickey's sociopathic tendencies and used him to carry out her revenge against Sidney for killing her son. Like most killers in the "Scream" universe, Mrs. Loomis seems to have multiple lives. First, in a clever move on her part, Sidney uses the various props on stage to attack Mrs. Loomis, dropping light fixtures everywhere. She eventually succeeds in burying the Loomis matriarch with an avalanche of fake rocks, but it's not enough.

Mrs. Loomis pops up out of nowhere and attacks Sidney with a knife; she might have met her end right there, where it not for Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) showing up with a gun. At first, it seems like he's not going to offer much help, as he holds them both at gunpoint and seems to still be angry with Sidney for refusing to appear on TV with him. Mrs. Loomis tries to convince Cotton to shoot Sidney and not her, but Sidney knows what Cotton really wants.

When Cotton brings up an interview with Diane Sawyer, Sidney replies "consider it done," after which Cotton finally shoots Mrs. Loomis, and she does appear to be genuinely dead this time. This doesn't stop Sidney from shooting her in the head once more a few minutes later, but who can blame her for the overkill?

Timothy Olyphant is no Matthew Lillard, but he does a pretty great job playing sociopathic killer Mickey Alteri. Unlike Billy and Stu, Mickey doesn't really have a motive for killing, apart from the one Mrs. Loomis instilled in him — he just wants to be famous. 

But, alas, fame is not in the cards for Mickey, at least not while he's still alive. In fact, Mickey's death feels pre-destined, as Mrs. Loomis had always planned to kill him and frame him for the murders. She attempts to do just that, shooting Mickey multiple times in the chest.

But just like Billy Loomis before him, it takes several tries to kill him. As Cotton, Sidney, and Gail stand above what they assume to be two dead bodies, Sidney offers a warning: "They always come back," she says, handing Gail a gun. Sidney's right, of course, and just after she says this Mickey pops up behind them like a demented puppet. Sidney and Gail are ready for him this time, and they both turn to shoot him no less than ten times. His body flies into the fake rocks on the stage, and he finally dies for good.

Mickey's second wind is a clever throwback to the first film, and it's great to see Sidney and Gail have their girl power moment as they take down the killer like a couple of besties. It's no Drew Barrymore being gutted like a fish, but it's still satisfying.

Though there are a total of ten kills in "Scream 2," it sometimes strays from its slasher roots. There aren't a ton of "teenagers alone in a house investigating strange noises" scenes, which is a shame. Fortunately, there is one classic slasher home invasion scene, and it certainly packs a punch. 

The victim in question is a college student named Cici, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who had just been introduced to the world as "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" earlier that year. Unfortunately, Cici doesn't possess the same butt-kicking skills that Buffy does, so she doesn't survive her encounter with Ghostface.

The best part about this scene is the buildup. The entire sequence lasts over six minutes, which really gives Gellar a chance to shine. She's home alone in her sorority house and receives a call from someone she assumes is a drunk frat boy. Cici starts to get freaked out when the caller asks "Do you wanna die tonight?" and then proceeds to lock all the doors. When she starts hearing noises inside the house, she opens the front door, giving Ghostface the opportunity to sneak inside.

Ghostface finally appears, and Cici tries to escape, first throwing a potted plant at his head and then shoving a bicycle down the stairs. She makes it upstairs, only for Ghostface to push her through a window on to the balcony, where he stabs her several times. He then throws her off the balcony to her death. 

Cici seems to fall for several seconds, all while Gellar lets out an impressively protracted scream. Gellar's casting as Cici is as effective as the suspenseful trajectory of the scene itself, the best the film has to offer.