Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: END CREDITS of Scream 2 (1:47:39-1:55:31)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 31 (End Credits) of Scream 2
Length: 7min 52secs


Cue inappropriate end credits song!

Randomly, this song that plays over the beginning of the end credits is, much like in the original, one of my favourite songs from the whole soundtrack. Along with D'Angelo's "She's Always In My Hair" from the opening scene, and "Your Lucky Day in Hell" by The Eels, Collective Soul's "She Said" is definitely a keeper. I know ranking Collective Soul alongside The Eels is considered sacrilege by many, but I just like it, okay? Reminds me of that great alt-rock period of the 1990s. Sigh.

Now, what I don't understand is what a song about an aging lush is doing as the big triumphant end scene. Anyone care to explain? Watch the video below, which features clips from Scream 2 interspersed. Using images of Neve Campbell's Sidney as they sing lyrics about "time isn't fair to a woman her age" and "she's seen better days" and you'll see how much they misread the lyrics. The video is so deliciously '90s though that I have to love it. Underwater ballet dancer putting on Ghostface mask!


Curious, too, that they chose a far more triumphant song choice to accompany the big end credits crane camera move, as opposed to the original which used a much darker track. If they never made another Scream movie then this would have been a very fitting ending. Apart from the lyrics.


I've said multiple times how wonderful and vivid the colours are in Scream 2, especially compared to the lower budget aesthetic of the original, so here is one last reminder.



Can we get a round of applause for Mr Craven and Mr Williamson, please? I think they deserved it after helping to bring the life one of the greatest ever sequels and one damn good film in general. I do still love that Kevin Williamson is perhaps the only horror film writer of the last few decades to actually be a name. Says a lot about the impact these movies had, I say. And even if Scream 4 didn't do the sort of business that everyone was hoping, the fact that so much press was made out of his return made me happy.


I like that the cinematographer gets the first credit title card after the screen goes to black. Like his own little ovation now that the curtain has closed.




The "return" of Ghostface in the credits has been taken by fans as meaning that he/she will be back. There was not one at the end of Scream 4. Make of that what you will.

Oh! It's time for the cast credits. For reason I get a real kick out of seeing these. One last reminder of all the awesome actors and characters. One last chance to go "awww" at their subsequent death.














I'm glad that Jamie Kennedy got upgraded to the main credits rather than the strange non-alphabetical order section that he was dumped in during the original's end credits. Meanwhile, would it had hurt them to add an extra slide for Omar Epps/Phillip Pavel/Christopher Doyle? I mean, they were all somewhat vital characters who died so it's almost like they're saying their deaths weren't important enough. They were just nothing characters. Hmmm.


And with that we are DONE! Complete! Finished! No more!

er... until we start on Scream 3. Oh Jesus. It will never end!

Scream:
Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33, End Credits

Scream 2
Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14. Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30

Beautiful Things

I love a juicy bit of celebrity nostalgia. I love an interesting "behind the scenes" look. I love a great poster. I love Madonna. Add all these together and you can just guess how much I loved reading this article at My Life as a Blog (link via The Film Experience) about the making of the poster for Desperately Seeking Susan in the the mid-80s.

It's written by a man who worked on PR for the somewhat iconic 1985 film and the creation of the actually very iconic poster. It's an ode to the world of celebrity in the 1980s (Madonna catching taxis!) as well as the lost art of poster design that Susan a perfect example of. You know, when actors had to be in the same room rather than Photoshopped from opposite sides of the globe. The piece explains the story behind costume designer Santo Loquasto's duel jackets of the film, has multiple amazing Madonna quotes (even if, naturally, she comes of as a bit of a bitch) and features a cameo by Andre Leon Talley so delicious that I'm positively salivating.

At one point, Ritts was shooting some sultry glamour shots of Rosanna posing against a cloth backdrop, when Madonna came over. After gaping at Rosanna for a minute she said, “You look so good I’d like to fuck you myself.” It was funny, but you could almost hear the air—sssssss!—slipping out of Rosanna’s confidence, as her moment was stolen, and it became all about Madonna. And come on! This was Rosanna Arquette, after all—a true fantasy figure for a good portion of the men in America! Moments later, Madonna grabbed the backdrop, commandeered the same pose… and Herb shot an image that became a famous poster.

I suggest y'all check the piece out, it's fascinating from so many different points of view.

Want more beautiful things?

How about this list of the 50 best title sequences from IFC Film. It's an exhausting list - get prepared to lose at least an hour of your day with it - that includes video of all the films with some great discussion going on, too. I think this moment from the article's introduction is quite truthful, although even serious films seem to have jettisoned the art of opening title sequences, haven't they?

Of course, the current fashion in big blockbusters is to skip the opening credits entirely: a studio name, the film's title, and that's it. That decision says a lot about these big blockbusters' priorities: screw mood and tone! Who cares about characters and themes? Let's get to the action!

I've included some of my favourites below.


The Naked Gun | Do the Right Thing


Charade | Taxi Driver


Seconds | Goldfinger


Warriors | Vertigo
If you asked me to pick a favourite, I would have to go with Taxi Driver, and it's a shame they didn't include any David Lynch intro's since his are always so good with their creation of mood through imagery and music. I actually think Gasper Noe's Enter the Void managed to trump every single one on the list - although I may be jumping the gun - just this past year. I didn't care for the movie, but those opening (and closing, which feature at the beginning?) is a "tour de force"



If, for a moment there, this entry was becoming a piece of "the lost art of something-something" then let me change that by noting that giant floating heads are still alive and thriving. The Book of Siberia has assembled a whole bunch of them together and, I'm sad to say, there are quite a few Australian films featured. I don't think any of these posters are anything, although I'd say my favourite was Breaking the Waves, since the way the images are illustrated has some lovely texture to it. Make sure to click on over for the entire compilation of giant floating heads!


The music branch at the Academy lost any chance they may have mad to make audiences care about the musical numbers when they failed to nominated the Diane Warren penned, Cher performed, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" for Best Original Song. The music branch hasn't had "taste" in a very long time, so why choose now to get some. I say that, of course, even though I think the film and the song are both legitimately very excellent, but even I can't deny that the general aura around the film is "omgsocamp!itmustbebad!!", which is a shame. Still, the film was one of only a few to actually insert its original songs into the film in the form of musical numbers and they still don't nominate it? And for "If I Rise"? A song that is, I think quite literally, air. There is nothing there to even be considered a song, right?

Oh well, how's this for... well, whatever it is? James Franco rehearsing a "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" number for the Academy Awards that will, unfortunately, never see the light of day. Yet another reason to think the Academy's music branch deserves a punch in the face for their incompetence.


It's still better than either of the four songs actually nominated thought (give or take "Coming Home" from Country Strong).

Let's end this with some more "beautiful things" that this entry originally started out as. I went to see "Hairspray" last night at the Princess Theatre. I had originally decided not to see it because, well, the movie is so good that I didn't feel like spending over $100 on seeing it performed on stage, and especially since I'd heard the production used LED screen sets rather than actually, ya know, sets. However, I purchased a couple of tickets at OnyaAid and, ya know, it was for charity!

I really liked it, of course, as one does with "Hairspray". It's hard to dislike, truly. I was a bit disappointed we had the understudy for Seaweed since "Can We Talk" hitmaker Tevin Campbell would've been a trip to see! Remember "Can We Talk"?


Amazing.

Still, my favourite part of the show was getting to watch Jack Chambers on stage for a couple of hours. Is this guy not just one of the most adorkable guys you've ever laid eyes on? Okay, well, for me he is. He was most definitely my favourite from the one season of So You Think You Can Dance that I watched. Why doesn't he realise we're meant to be together? Gosh, how rude! Naturally, I took a few cute screencaps from an interview he did with Undercover. It's what I do.







Okay, so more than a few. We're made for each other, can't you tell?

Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene: END CREDITS of Scream (1:40:29-1:46:29)

In this project I attempt to review the entire Scream trilogy scene by scene in chronological order. Heavy spoilers and gore throughout!



SCENE 34 (End Credits)
Length: 6mins


The end, or: Requiem for a Scream.

We've reached the end of our scene by scene dissection of Scream and while I can't say I had done so in the amount of time I had originally hoped, I'm glad I was able to finish it nonetheless. There was some who thought I'd give up after only a few scenes, but how wrong they were. Things such as the Melbourne International Film Festival and a month-long back-and-forth house-sitting expedition held up matters greatly and I ended up finishing a month behind schedule (I wrote the intro on June 23). I had anticipated that Scream would take a while because there's so much exposition to get out of the way, but then Scream 2 and Scream 3 are longer movies (120 and 116 minutes respectively compared to the 106 of Scream).

I have all but scrapped the idea of this project concluding on 14 April 2011, the release date of Scream 4, but who knows what will happen between now and then. Maybe I'll get some freakish creative wave and ride it on throughout the summer. Or, more likely, I'll sit here, my back sticking to my chair as I eat an icypole and think to myself "it's too hot to write about Sarah Michelle Gellar apparently being a bitch on set and inspiring the character of Sarah Darling!", but you never know.



I implore you to get up out of your seat (or off your bed or off the couch or whatever) and give these two men a rousing standing ovation. For reals. They deserve it.

Alas, in the tradition of Gale Weathers... back to me!

If I could do it all again what would I change? I'd do for screencaps for scene 1. To be totally honest with you guys, I hadn't intended on being so thorough as to have over 530 screencaps! If I'd know that I was going to have 66 shots alone from Tatum's death scene I definitely would have gone a bit overboard for Casey's opening sequence. You can probably guarantee that the Scream 2 opening with Jada Pinkett (do I call her that, as she was named at the time, or Jada Pinkett-Smith, which she has since changed her name to?) will feature a few more shots than Scream's. I'm not in a rhythm with how I screencap each scene so I can't exactly stop now.


I do think Soho's cover of "Whisper to a Scream", as heard over the end credits, is my favourite song from the, admittedly quite excellent, soundtrack (it's certainly a better compilation than the sequels, especially Scream 3, which was so strangely obsessed with heavy rock type music, blegh!).

I am looking forward to discussing Scream 2 with you guys. My favourite scene of the entire trilogy is found within it and, I gotta tell ya, I am looking forward to Laurie Metcalfe getting some blog love. That never happens!










I like these credit facial cards that they used. I especially like that several of them use images that I specifically mentioned as favourite shots of the individual characters. I'm looking at Arquette's so cute "she's with me!" moment and Kennedy's grape eatin' "working, thank you" reaction.

Speaking of Jamie Kennedy, why isn't he included amongst the first batch of performers who are all in alphabetical order. He's probably in it less than the others, but he is equally important.


Seriously, it bears repeating!

I don't mean to give short thrift to the rest of the production team, but I can't screencap every single credit! They're all deserving of a moment of honour though! As the credits come to their end, Dillon Dixon's "I Don't Care" plays and it's another of my favourites from the soundtrack - well, it's not on the physical soundtrack, unfortunately - that was actually written by Marco Beltrami, the score's composer.



Love this diss to "The Santa Rosa City School District Governing Board" since they forced the production to move to another town called Healdsburg to film the school sequences after they read the screenplay and decided it was too violent.


And that, they say, is that. Up next... Scream 2!

{fin}
Intro, Scene 1 Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4, Scene 5, Scene 6, Scene 7, Scene 8, Scene 9, Scene 10, Scene 11, Scene 12, Scene 13, Scene 14, Scene 15, Scene 16, Scene 17, Scene 18, Scene 19, Scene 20, Scene 21, Scene 22, Scene 23, Scene 24, Scene 25, Scene 26, Scene 27, Scene 28, Scene 29, Scene 30, Scene 31 Scene 32, Scene 33