The squandered potential of scream 2
Let me just start off by saying (as most fans do) I love scream 2. It’s not my favorite horror film of all time but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of it. So this is not intended to bash the movie in any way, shape or form. This is just me thinking out loud about how the film could’ve been even better than it already was & who should’ve been the real mastermind underneath that ghostface mask. Obviously, spoilers ahead for scream 1 & 2; you have been warned.
So we all know her motive for the murders was to get back at sidney for killing billy but how does this make any sense when you actually stand back & examine it with some objectivity? Near as I can tell, she does not give two shits about billy loomis. She abandoned her one & only son when he was just a kid & seemingly has had zero contact with him ever since. Meanwhile, she’s out there nurturing mickey to become this prolific serial killer, the likes of which the world has never seen before. Hell, she was more of a mother to mickey than she ever was to billy so why the hell would she go to such great lengths to try & avenge his murder? I’ve spent years trying to make some kind of sense out of it but I just cannot wrap my head around this warped sense of logic.
So who do I think should’ve been under the mask this whole time? Oh, that’s easy. It should’ve been a loomis, alright, but not her. Rather, what would’ve been an awesome twist is finding out the man under the mask is none other than Hank Loomis. Just hear me out. For starters, we have never had a returning character be ghostface before. They hinted at it a bit in scream six but ultimately never pulled the trigger on it. So just imagine how big of a shock that would’ve been to the audience at that time. Correct me if i’m wrong but even to this day, I don’t think any horror franchise has ever had a returning character turn out to be the killer before so it would’ve been such a badass reveal even today.
Not to mention he was the parent that stayed. He was the one left to raise Billy alone after she abandoned their family. If there is anyone in the world who had good reason to be pissed off at sidney for the murder of billy, it was hank freaking loomis. I mean you’d think they would’ve showed his reaction to finding out his son was a psychotic serial killer, especially considering he was integral to his motive, but instead he’s never seen or mentioned ever again (aside from a brief appearance in old footage in scream three).
It always just seemed so weird to me why he basically just vanished off the face of the earth after the first movie. Is it possible he moved out of woodsboro to some other small town to pursue a quiet life as a lawyer? Absolutely but it just seems so bizarre we never even get a passing reference to his life after the woodsboro murders. I’m not saying being a serial killer is hereditary or anything but I’m saying no one had more of a motive to try & avenge billy’s death than the man who raised him.
Maybe he was even responsible for the death of maureen. I mean obviously Billy & Roman took credit for it but I wouldn’t put it past them to lie about that just to piss of sidney. If he blamed her for the breakup of their family, that’s definitely a probable motive to murder her in cold blood. Admittedly, this might be a bit of a stretch but since we never actually saw her murder onscreen, I think it’s absolutely fair to speculate on what really happened. Plus, it’s just one theory so if you don’t like it, you don’t have to take it at face value.
Am I saying he was absolutely a secret serial killer? No but I’m just saying him being under the mask in the sequel would’ve made a lot more sense. I tried to conduct some research into why he never showed up in the franchise again & couldn’t find much but near as I can tell, he pretty much stopped acting not long after the movie premiered (whether by choice or not, i couldn’t say). So even if they has asked him to return for scream two, I have my doubts about him consenting to it (although he did technically keep acting until 2000 so he might have been up for it). But regardless, I think most of us can agree that scream two squandered quite a bit of its potential.