Scream’s Stab Movies

Stab 2

1998

Status: Released
Released: 1998 or 1999 inside the Scream universe
Runtime: 116 minutes
Studio: Sunrise Studios, Milton Films
Seen in: Scream 3
Distributor: Sunrise Studios

The Murder Continues

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Written by: Will Kennison
Produced by: John Milton, Don Crosby, Bill Birch, Floyd Malone, Fred Rifkin, Jerry Rapp
Music by: Dante Paltrow
Based on: College Terror: The Woodsboro Horror Continues… by Gale Weathers

The Film

Sidney Prescott is at college, trying to put the Woodsboro trauma behind her, when a new Ghost Face killing spree begins and her tragedy is turned into entertainment all over again. Sidney and her friends are dragged through another nightmare, while Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley work to identify the killer. It is another self-aware, fast-paced horror film, and it was sold as a terrifying follow-up to the first Stab.

Stab 2 is the second film in the Stab series. It adapts Gale Weathers' book about the Windsor College murders, called The Windsor College Murders on the 2000 Sunrise Studios website and College Terror in the Fandom history of the series and on the copies seen in Scream 4 and Scream VI. The studio's own summary is short: terror and brutal murders follow young Sidney Prescott to college.

Sidney (Tori Spelling) has moved on to college and is trying to put Woodsboro behind her when a copycat killer in the Ghost Face mask starts murdering students. The cast list on the Sunrise website shows the film sticks close to the real case. It has characters for Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens, the couple killed at the Stab preview, sorority sister Cici, Sidney's boyfriend Derek, her roommate Hallie, Gale's cameraman Joel and film student Mickey.

Gale Weathers, Dewey Riley, Randy Meeks and Cotton Weary all come back. Gale's book covers the real case, which SunriseSucks.com sums up this way: Mrs. Loomis and Mickey teamed up and killed Hallie, Phil Stevens, Cici, Maureen Evans, Derek, Randy Meeks and two police officers.

Randy's death is the part fans remember. Scream 3 makes clear the movie kills him off and that fans were angry about it. A fake Stab 2 trailer on the bonus disc of the Scream DVD box set shows a little more. According to the Scream Wiki, Randy explains the rules of sequels to Dewey out on campus, Cotton threatens him, and the movie's Mrs. Loomis kills him on the grass instead of in a news van.

No footage of the full film has ever been shown in a Scream movie. What is known comes from posters, the Sunrise Studios website, SunriseSucks.com, the trailer and dialogue in Scream 3.

Release & Reception

Released: 1998 or 1999 inside the Scream universe (sources disagree; see trivia)
Runtime: 116 minutes (Sunrise Studios tie-in website, 2000)
Seen in: Scream 3 (poster), Scream 3 DVD bonus features

Scream 3 shows that fans were upset about Randy's death. Tyson Fox guesses that Cotton Weary's killer is probably a Stab fan angry that they killed Randy in Stab 2. This mirrors the real anger fans felt when Randy died in Scream 2.

The Sunrise Studios history page calls Stab a smash series and promises Stab 3 is coming soon.

Deleted Scenes & Trivia

The Scream Wiki reports that the original Stab 2 poster seen in Scream 3 credits a director named Tom Fletcher, while the remade poster in Scream VI credits Robert Rodriguez. Unconfirmed, fan wiki only.
An early Scream VI script reportedly had Dr. Stone watching Stab 2 with Tori Spelling appearing in it. This remains unconfirmed.

Trivia

Release year: the Sunrise website and Dusty Penn's bio say 1998; Will Kennison's bio says 1999. The Scream Wiki gives December 22, 1999, and the Fandom history says 1998, the same year as the first film.
Runtime: the Sunrise website says 116 minutes. The Scream Wiki says 120 minutes.
Dusty Penn's Sunrise bio says he won Best Actor at the Moondance Film Festival for Hello, my name is... and that Don Crosby wanted to pair him with Amanda Oxens as the next Bogart and Bacall.
SunriseSucks.com's list of clues says Michael Neithardt was upset about no longer playing Cotton in the series, and that Sarah Darling dumped him after landing a role in Stab 3.
The galeweathers.com page on the Scream 3 site calls the book The Windsor College Murders, dates it 1997 and says it became the hit movie Stab 2. Later films call the book College Terror.
Unconfirmed, fan wiki only: the Scream Wiki says the DVD trailer uses Lori Thomas as Gale, Joey Garfield as Randy and Michael Neithardt as Cotton.
The film carries on the cycle the whole franchise runs on: adapt Gale Weathers’ latest book, exploit whatever Sidney has just been through, and turn each new Ghost Face massacre into another installment.

Confirmed on screen

Stab and Stab 2 were released in rapid succession, mirroring the way Scream and Scream 2 came out in the real world. The exact release date inside the Scream universe is inconsistent across the different timeline references.
It adapts the events of Scream 2, taken from Gale Weathers’ book College Terror: The Woodsboro Horror Continues… Her approach to titling books is notably straightforward.
Robert Rodriguez directed it while, in the real world, he was making The Faculty. His fictional Stab work ran alongside his actual filmography.
Tori Spelling, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Jolie, Christopher Speed and Craig Bierko all returned from the first film.
Early Scream 3 script materials suggest Christine Hamilton may have played Cici Cooper.
The film connects to fictionalised versions of Scream 2 characters including Hallie McDaniel, Derek Feldman, Mickey Altieri and Nancy Loomis. Those references sit at script level and are unconfirmed in the finished Scream 3.
After production wrapped, Christine Hamilton began a real relationship with the actual Cotton Weary, not with the actor Craig Bierko. Both Cotton Weary and Christine Hamilton were murdered by Ghost Face in the opening scene of Scream 3, tying the Stab franchise, its actors and the real Woodsboro survivors together into an escalating Hollywood tragedy.
Unlike the original Stab, which is shown at length in Scream 2, Stab 2 is never directly shown in a Scream film. It exists through posters, studio references, character details, promotional material and script-level trivia. A Stab 2 poster is visible in John Milton’s office, which places it inside the Sunrise Studios mythology introduced in Scream 3.
A trailer for it was eventually included on the Scream 3 DVD bonus features, mixing footage from Scream 2 with newly shot material. A few minor mistakes were made, like the lack of Tori Spelling as Sidney and Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie as Gale Weathers.

Unofficial

A running time of 120 minutes.
An actress called Lori Thomas as the Stab 2 Gale Weathers, which contradicts the Jennifer Jolie credit.
A tagline given as "The murder continues."

Connections

Adapts the Windsor College murders from Scream 2.
Scream 3: posters in John Milton's office and home; Tyson Fox's line about Randy's death; Christine Hamilton, a Stab 2 cast member in the script, dates the real Cotton Weary and is killed in the opening.
Scream 4 and Scream (2022): part of the Stab box set.
Scream VI: poster outside the shrine and College Terror in the shrine.
Preceded by Stab. Followed by the unfinished Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro and the released Stab 3: Hollywood Horror.

Sources

Cast & Production

Cast

Tori Spelling

Sidney Prescott

Listed on the Sunrise website; confirmed on SunriseSucks.com as playing Sidney in Stab and Stab 2.

Jennifer Jolie

Gale Weathers

Scream 3 establishes she played Gale in the first two Stab films, and the Fandom history of the series agrees. Parker Posey plays her in Scream 3.

Lori Thomas

Gale Weathers

Listed on the 2000 Sunrise website, which contradicts Scream 3.

David Schwimmer

Dewey Riley

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Joey Garfield

Randy Meeks

Listed on the Sunrise website. Scream (2022) later made Christopher Speed the Randy of the first Stab; whether Speed returned for Stab 2 is not confirmed.

Dusty Penn

Derek

Listed on the Sunrise website, which also has a bio for him.

Michael Neithardt

Cotton Weary

Listed on the Sunrise website. Scream (2022) names Craig Bierko as Cotton in the first Stab.

Sharon Batton

Cici

Listed on the Sunrise website. The Scream Wiki instead lists her as Nancy Loomis.

KC Storm

Mickey

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Lauren Velez

Hallie

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Melissa Breaux

Maureen Evans

Listed on the Sunrise website. The Scream Wiki instead lists her as Cici Cooper.

Henry Young

Joel the Cameraman

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Frank Harris

Phil Stevens

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Vivian Guzman

Sonia

Listed on the Sunrise website. The Scream Wiki instead lists her as Hallie McDaniel.

Angela Kong

Alli

Listed on the Sunrise website.

Christine Hamilton

Cici Cooper

Only in Scream 3 script material, not in the finished film, per the Fandom history of the series. Unconfirmed.

Crew

Jerry Rapp

Director (2000 Sunrise Studios website)

Robert Rodriguez

Director, according to the Fandom history of the series. The Scream Wiki says the Stab 2 poster made for Scream VI credits him.

Fred Rifkin

Producer (Sunrise website). SunriseSucks.com describes him directing on set.

Will Kennison

Screenwriter

Gale Weathers

Author of the source book

Don Crosby

Executive producer

Bill Birch

Executive producer

Floyd Malone

Executive producer

John Milton

Producer

Dante Paltrow

Composer

Production

The Sunrise Studios website made for Scream 3 lists Don Crosby, Bill Birch and Floyd Malone as executive producers, John Milton and Fred Rifkin as producers, Jerry Rapp as director, Will Kennison as writer and Dante Paltrow as composer.

SunriseSucks.com, the fake whistle-blower site made for Scream 3, tells a different story about the shoot. It says Milton and director Fred Rifkin had their worst fight on location at Columbia College. Milton had fallen off the rehab wagon, was partying with Harlan Kingsley and Michael Neithardt, showed up late and attacked Rifkin's choices. Rifkin tried to ban him, but Tori Spelling, a longtime Spelling family friend of Milton's, pushed studio head Don Crosby to keep Milton on set.

According to the same site, the cast split into two camps. Dusty Penn, on Rifkin's side, got into a covered-up scuffle with Neithardt. When Milton told Rifkin how to cover a scene with Tori and Dusty, Rifkin went after him physically and a production assistant had to pull them apart. Crosby then banned Milton from the set, and Spelling decided not to return for Stab 3.

SunriseSucks.com's list of clues says John Milton fought so much with Tori Spelling, a friend of director Jerry Rapp, that she would not return for Stab 3. It also says Milton and Rapp fought so much on Stab 2 that Rapp was fired from Stab 3, and that Dusty Penn and Michael Neithardt fought on the Stab 2 set. The site's Empty Chopping Block page says the studio kept a close eye on commissary chef Martin Stevens during the making and release of Stab 2.

In the real world, Stab 2 was never shown in Scream 3. A short trailer was made for the bonus disc of the Scream DVD box set, alongside other fake Sunrise Studios trailers.

Filming locations

Columbia College: Location shoot where Milton and Rifkin fought, according to SunriseSucks.com

Props and costumes

Stab 2 posters hang in John Milton's office and at his mansion in Scream 3, according to the Scream Wiki.

A Stab 2 poster hangs in the theater hallway outside the Ghost Face shrine in Scream VI.

Gale's book College Terror appears on her desk and in Jill's room in Scream 4 and in the shrine in Scream VI, according to the Scream Wiki.

Killers & Deaths

The killers

Mrs. Loomis (Stab version of Nancy Loomis)

Played by: Unknown (the Scream Wiki names Sharon Batton, but the Sunrise website lists Batton as Cici)
Motive: Adapted from the real case, where Billy Loomis' mother wanted revenge on Sidney for her son's death.
Death: Not shown.

Mickey

Played by: KC Storm
Motive: Adapted from the real case, where Mickey Altieri wanted a famous trial that would blame the movies.
Death: Not shown.

Deaths

Randy Meeks

Played by: Joey Garfield in the DVD trailer, per the Scream Wiki (unconfirmed)
How: Killed by the movie's Mrs. Loomis. The Scream Wiki says the trailer shows him stabbed outdoors on the campus grass. In Scream 3, Tyson Fox mentions fans being angry that Randy was killed in Stab 2.
Where: College campus
By: Mrs. Loomis

Maureen Evans

Played by: Melissa Breaux
How: Character is in the cast; her death is not shown
Where: Not shown
By: Not shown

Phil Stevens

Played by: Frank Harris
How: Character is in the cast; his death is not shown
Where: Not shown
By: Not shown

Music & Home Media

Dante Paltrow scored the film, according to the Sunrise Studios website and the Stab posters shown at the Scream VI Experience.

Home Media

The Sunrise Studios website lists Stab 2: Director's Cut and Stab 2: Behind the Scenes as upcoming DVD releases.
The Stab box set seen in Scream 4 and Scream (2022) lists the film as STAB 2: THE MURDERS CONTINUE.
Real world: a Stab 2 trailer is among the fake Sunrise Studios trailers on the bonus disc of the Scream DVD box set, reviewed by DVD Talk in November 2000.