A Personal History of Horror Films in 101 Quirky Objects #57: Joel’s video camera in Scream 2 (1997)
by Vince Stadon
“Now I'm gonna do what any rational human being would do, and that is to get the fuck outta here.” – Joel
Irony. It was everywhere in the ‘90s – the culture was steeped in it. Back then, it wasn’t cool to just like things: you had to like them ironically because you were clever, and culture was dumb. And the culture knew this, reacted to this, and created things that commentated, ironically, on the irony. It felt like we were all in an Alanis Morissette song, but, ironically, not “Ironic” (1996).
It was all a bit sneery and tiresome. This is one of the reasons I agree with legendary screenwriter William Goldman when he said that the ‘90s were the worst decade for film. Some tremendous films were made in the ‘90s, but they were the exceptions. When I heard Oliver Stone (taking flak from Quentin Tarantino for Stone turning Natural Born Killers into a political commentary) bullishly responding by stating that he’d stand by his own body of work any day because, unlike Tarantino, his work has heart and depth… well, you could probably hear me cheering from several streets away. In short, I value sincerity and heart, and I’ve little time for smartarse irony.
Scream became the poster child for postmodern, ironic movies that comment on their own genre in a way that’s supposedly clever. A surprise monster hit from a production company owned by the loathsome Weinsteins, it spawned a raft of sequels and copycats, the best of which is Scream 2, a film rushed through production so that it hit cinemas within a year of its predecessor, and the only film in the series that I enjoy. Here a few things I like about it:
- Sarah Michelle Gellar watching Nosferatu (1922) on her TV
- David Warner being quietly menacing as a drama teacher
- The two Ghostfaces side-by-side taking a piss in the urinal
- The tense sequence in a crashed police car where Neve Campbell’s plucky heroine Sidney Prescott climbs out of the back seat into the front seat, then over the unconscious Ghostface, and finally through the car door window
- Timothy Olyphant and Laurie Metcalf giving it everything they’ve got (and then a little bit more) as wide-eyed loon killers. God love Laurie Metcalf. Olyphant, by the way, has to (over) play a wide-eyed loon who is on a killing spree because he wants to get caught and then mount the ironic defence that, ironically, violent films made him an ironic spree killer. A motive so cretinous that, ironically, Laurie Metcalf’s character – fashioned after Pamela “Mother of Jason” Vorhees from Friday the 13th (1980) – tells the audience that she thinks it’s a bloody stupid motive and promptly shoots him.
The Scream films are essentially gory slasher whodunnits, but none of them work effectively as whodunnits because it’s usually bloody obvious who dunnit, and it doesn’t matter anyway because nobody has much of a character and all the gory murders are pointless. And that’s fine, I love a good slasher full of pointless murders. I think the problem with Scream as a series is that element of smartarse irony creates a barrier between the film and the audience. My reaction is not to engage with Scream, but to shrug through it. In this regard, Scream 2 is no better or worse than any of the others, and I shrugged throughout, but I think my shrugs were softer and kinder. I love horror films, and I want to be soft and kind to them. Without irony.
The smartest character in Scream 2 is Joel, journalist Gale Weathers’ new cameraman. To say he’s reluctant to take on the job would be an understatement. He does not want to be in Scream 2. He half-heartedly films a few things, but as the bodies pile up, Joel puts down his video camera, hails a cab, and fucks off out of the movie. I loved that. I loved learning that Joel fucking off out of the movie was an idea put forward not by celebrated smartarse Scream writer Kevin Williamson, nor by "Master of Terror” Wes Craven, but by the actor playing Joel, Duane Martin. It’s a brilliant idea. Joel stops filming and puts down his video camera. Joel quits Scream 2. Joel goes home.
The ironic ‘90s are a long time ago. The Weinsteins are thankfully no longer involved in making films. There’s talk – there’s always talk – of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake. Sarah Michelle Gellar probably saw a screening of Robert Eggers’ wonderful new version of Nosferatu (2024). Oliver Stone is still making political commentary with heart and sincerity. Quentin Tarantino is not. Alanis Morissette continues to release albums, and on tour she is still singing “Ironic.” And, after a fallow period, there are new Scream films coming out roughly every couple of years for me to shrug through.
More obvious picks for an object to represent this film: the "Ghostface” mask; the Stab poster; the fake daggers from the production of Troy; any number of phones; the carton of popcorn; the copy of The Woodsboro Murders by Gale Weathers
Scream 2 (1997); 120 mins; US
Directed by Wes Craven; Written by Kevin Williamson; Produced by Wes Craven, Cathy Konrad, Marianne Maddalena; Cinematography by Peter Deming; Music by Marco Beltrami
David Arquette (Dewey Riley); Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott); Courtney Cox (Gale Weathers); Sarah Michelle Gellar (Cici Cooper); Jamie Kennedy (Randy Meeks); Elise Neal (Hallie McDaniel); Laurie Metcalf (Debbie Salt/Nancy Loomis); Timothy Olyphant (Mickey Altieri); Jada Pinkett (Maureen Evans); Liev Schreiber (Cotton Weary); Duane Martin (Joel)
© 2025 Vince Stadon
