Scream 2: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
By Jeremy Dick
Wes Craven – wescraven.com
3. Wes Craven manipulated the MPAA to keep the film violent
If there was ever an enemy of the MPAA, it’s the horror filmmaker. Problems with censorship and complying with certain demands for toned-down violence forces many to cut out scenes they don’t want to, just to maintain an R rating. An NC-17 rating is almost certain to kill your film dead in the water, so there’s often no choice for the director.
Wes Craven had dealt with these very things with the creation of Scream in 1996, and he wasn’t looking forward to going through the same drama for Scream 2. That’s when he had a brilliant idea— he would first shoot a version of the movie that focused much more heavily on the violence, including several especially violent moments that were never actually intended to make the theatrical cut. The plan was to first show the MPAA how much worse the film could truly be.
Ultimately, Craven had a shock of his own when the MPAA actually approved the more violent version for an R rating. It amounted to doing a bunch of extra work for nothing, but at least fans wound up with some more violent alternate scenes for the blu-ray.
Next: Spoiler alert!