Randy’s Rules of The Trilogy

Randy’s Sequel Rules (Scream 2)

This sequel-centric installment applies Randy’s Scream 2 rules to the Firefly trilogy, Terrifier 2, The Thing, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, tracking bigger body counts, more elaborate kills, and villains who refuse to stay dead.

Beloved, ranting cinephile Randy Meek’s rules are back, and we take another fun exploratory look into the films outside of the Scream universe that fit the mold of surviving the sequel from Scream 2 (1996).

After the recent plethora of college students found murdered and an unfavorable media rehashing of Sidney (Neve Campbell) and the Woodsboro events, Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) humorously gravitate from the televised Tori Spelling interview to all the whodunit possibilities.

Randy advises, “The way I see it, someone’s out to make a sequel.  You know, cash in on all the movie murder hoopla.  So, it’s our job to observe the rules of the sequel.”

“Rule One: The body count is always bigger.” – The Firefly Trilogy (2003-2019)

Terrifier 2 does fit this rule to the t = torture, however, hold onto that thought. I wanted to reexamine a brilliant sequel that often gets misconstrued by the body count. For years, I had assumed Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects had a bigger body count than its first film, House of 1000 Corpses. But thanks to researching Dead Meat’s Firefly Trilogy Kill Counts, Devil’s only had a death count of 6 more bodies with House 14, and Devil’s 20.

In fact, it’s the third installment to the series, 3 From Hell, that truly compensates for The Devil’s Rejects with a reversed original (House) 14 = (Hell) 41 total kill count.

Even though Devil’s felt like it had more kills, I think the look and the darker tone of the second film is grittier, straying away from the Rocky Horror Picture Show carnival vibe. There is more intensity in Otis’s (Bill Moseley) character, too, a longer buildup with his victims at the motel, more locations, and swarms of law enforcement pursuing them. Even Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) is spiraling deeper into what he hunts.

The Devil’s Rejects, by far, is the most intense, but 3 From Hell, the third installment, ends up with the biggest Firefly body count of macabre.

“Rule Two: The death scenes are always much more elaborate. More blood, more gore. Carnage candy.” – Terrifier 2 (2022)

Since I’ve already mentioned Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2, let’s really get into it. Utilizing the information with the help of the Dead Meat Kill Count again, the grizzly continuation of Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) and his flesh-ripping antics have a kill count of 27, where the first film (2016) had only 10 grizzly deaths.

For the well-received sequel, the already-impressive gore factors were cranked up much higher, with the special effects team delivering the gruesome goods when it came to showing us just how far Art could and would go, slaughtering with a smile. Leone has never been shy about pushing the boundaries of extremely graphic and memorable kills, but he had his work cut out for him to top Terrifier‘s VERY NSFW hacksaw scene.

For me, the death scene of Art torturing Allie (Casey Hartnett) beats all the goriest films we’ve seen in recent years. Even upon rewatch, I still have to cover my eyes.

“Rule Three (Part 1): If you want your sequel to become a franchise, never, ever…” – The Thing (1982)

Before he can finish explaining rule three, Randy gets interrupted by Dewey, who asks, “How do we find the killer, Randy? That’s what I want to know.” It’s often inferred that rule three then becomes about Randy’s understanding of one of the core slasher tenets (and what has made the Scream franchise so successful): “Everyone’s a suspect.”

In response to Dewey, Randy continues to delve into the suspicious and most unsuspecting individuals around them, even suggesting Gale (Courtney Cox) as an opportunist, raising more what-ifs. But one horror classic from another master of horror may explore this idea better than any other.

John Carpenter’s The Thing broke new frozen ground in 1982. For decades, it was a stand-alone film until Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s The Thing (2011) came along and became the prequel to how the Norwegian Antarctic crew and paleontologist Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) discovered the parasitic shape-shifter alien creature. Though heavily CGI’d, the prequel did perfectly tie into the continuation of the original storyline.

But there’s nothing like Rob Bottin’s horrifying effects to bring the absolute psychological horror of inconceivable events, distrust, and suspicion.

When the alien formation begins to inhabit and mimic each crew member’s body as a host, the group is trapped within enclosed perimeters, wondering who will be next.  Secluded from his breakdown, Dr. Blair (Wilford Brimley) even confesses to MacReady (Kurt Russell), “I don’t know who to trust.”

Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994) are also effective examples of Carpenter’s apocalyptic and psychological thriller style.  No one is safe, and trust is at the final throes of those inhabited or distrusted to survive.

An early alternative trailer for the film that gives us the entirety of Randy’s third rule before Dewey’s interruption, yet was omitted from the theatrical cut…

“Rule Three (Part 2): Never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the killer is dead.” – I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

This year gave us the long-awaited return to Scream writer Kevin Williamson’s other iconic horror franchise, I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The fourth installment in the franchise, sharing the same name as the original, is actually written as a sequel to the original 1998 sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The 2025 film takes place 27 years after the Tower Bay murders in the second film, when another hook-wielding killer appears and begins targeting a group of friends, one year after they covered up a car crash in which they killed someone.

In 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) try to move on with their lives following the horrific events of the first film. Still, they are plagued by the memories of their encounter with fisherman Ben Willis (Muse Watson), the man they accidentally ran over and left for dead, who also committed his own crime of revenge that evening.

Reluctantly vacationing in the Bahamas, Julie is with her new friends, trying to forget Ray. Yet, bodies keep popping up all over the island, and her love-stricken “helpful friend” in the chaos, Will (Matthew Settle), shares a disturbing connection to Ben Willis. Ray arrives in the torrential Caribbean weather just in time to save Julie from both Ben and Will.

This plotline of family revenge parallels Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) and Mickey (Timothy Olyphant), the freaky Tarantino student, in Scream 2—rebooted with Richie’s (Jack Quaid) family in Scream 6. 

It’s a cheeky reminder that the killer is never dead in franchise horror films… and if he/she is, there’s always someone ready to pick up the mantle and murder in their name.