Unleashed: 1997

What evil lurks: As clever as its predecessor, with an opening sequence every bit as horrifying. The self-aware references to sequels carry the film throughout and the scares are genuinely frightening and, in the case of the prologue, downright disturbing. Liev Schreiber gets a larger role here and he’s absolutely fantastic playing alternately innocent and creepy. Jamie Kennedy gets a little more love, as well, as Randy the genre expert who guides the cast through the rules of surviving a horror sequel. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson are still at the top of their game, delivering this solid follow up, where the suspense once more trumps the gore, only one year after the original. Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is again a strong heroine who fights back, and fights back hard, rather than being a whiny victim. And the movie-within-a-movie, Stab, is a hilarious send-up of the original.

Highlight from hell: Sidney and her friend, Hallie, must escape from a pinned police car… right over the killer’s unconscious lap.

Terrifying trivia: In Scream, Sidney laments the idea that Tori Spelling would wind up playing her in a potential movie. In Stab, the movie-within-a-movie of Scream 2, Tori Spelling plays Sidney.

Diabolical dialogue: “Bitch, hang up the phone and star-69 his ass!”

Son of: Scream (1996). Everything you need to know about this film is repeated in its sequel. Still, it’s a very clever kickstart to an ailing horror genre.

Shoddy sequel syndrome: As clever and as enjoyable as it is, at the end of the day it’s still more of the same.