Rushed into production after "Scream" hit blockbuster status at the box-office, "Scream 2" is a better followup than it has any right to be, especially considering that the script wasn't even finished when filming got underway. Two years after the events of "Scream," survivors Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) are now students at Windsor College, happy to have the tragedies from their past behind them. When two classmates, Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Phil (Omar Epps), are murdered at an advance screening of "Stab," based on Gail Weather's book, "The Woodsboro Murders," it is only the beginning of a whole new killing spree that finds Sidney the prime target. "Scream 2" is wit-filled and a whole lot of fun. It's also sometimes breathlessly suspenseful, as when Sidney and friend Hallie (Elise Neal) must climb over the knocked-out psychopath in order to escape from the back of a police car. What the picture, directed by Wes Craven, sometimes lacks is the sense of freshness that the original picture displayed. The cast is at the top of their games—Laurie Metcalfe (best-known for TV's "Roseanne") deliciously plays against-type as news reporter Debbie Salt—but the high body count and lack of remorse leaves one a bit jaded. "Scream 2" is the weakest entry in the trilogy, but it's still smarter than the majority of horror films that get released each year.