Director: Adam Green
Year: 2010
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After escaping from the rampage the night before, the lone survivor of a serial killer's rampage finds herself involved in a rescue effort suffering from the same fate in the swamps.
Review:
This wasn't nearly as impressive as the first one but this is still a hugely entertaining and enjoyable slasher. Again, the best feature here is the ultra-high amount of gore on display throughout the film as the kills are just over-the-top, brutal and just plain blood-soaked goodness which is really dripping with the red stuff and just a blast. There's a much wider array of tools and weapons to be utilized here and a much bigger body count to dispose of, which allows for the film to get really crazy with the outlandish kills and gruesome bloodshed featuring more limbs being snapped off, heads pulled clean off their bodies, a chainsaw slicing through two victims at once and another hacked in half and then defleshed which is an amazing visual gag here.
Coming along nicely with that is the continuation of the film's usage of the old-school feel from the first one to so much of what occurs here. Not only is this one so concerned with that feel in the kills and make-up but also in the expanded role of the back-story here by giving a greater degree of details for what happened and really furthering the story nicely. Like most good sequels, this one manages to get a further understanding of the characters' backstory which handles some rather controversial topics here from the idea of him being an interracial being to how he was conceived which adds an extra layer to his character. This was an incredibly fun extension of the first one and really adds even more to him that gets brought up here. There's still a creepy swamp to use as the main location and with the rather frenetic last-half filled with carnage as this one gets some frantic action scenes filled with great brawls and stalking in the swamps to really make for a fun time, though there's some problems here.
This mainly comes in the fact that the beginning is wasted with far too lengthy a backstory for the killer which really puts the slaughter a bit too late into the film. Despite the film's incredibly well-done feel for making this fleshed out and more detailed for the killer's history, that ends up taking a larger portion of the film than it really should, leaving it's good stuff all at the end before it gets fun. Also, the film seems purposefully set-up on too many occasions to deliver the gore, never once appearing natural or logical in either execution or practicality and thus really stand-out for the wrong reasons. The original was renown for having a realistic tone to the set-pieces before going way over-the-top with their execution, yet here this one is somewhat contrived and doesn't really have that grounded feel that the original managed.
Likewise, there's not much to say about the acting here. It's really only the two leads, Danielle Harris taking over as Marybeth and Tony Todd as the hypocritical Reverend Zombie, who truly stand out. Danielle is a far more accomplished Marybeth who takes the fight to Victor here and becomes quite likable here with her spunk and tenacity. Tony steals the scene with his mannerisms and quirks and has the best lines here as his charlatan voodoo guru is truly hilarious to watch play out here with his being around far more often than his cameo in the original. However, the rest of the gang is nothing special and appear as the bland, prototypical gun-happy rednecks who are there only to be ripped to pieces graphically rendering them to be . Otherwise, this one was a lot of fun with plenty of solid points to really overcome those flaws.
Overview: ****/5
While it goes for some rather contrived moments at times that are too unbelievable to be as realistic as the first one, there's still plenty to enjoy here which is enough to really hold this one up over its minor flaws. There's a lot to like for fans of the series which makes it a no-brainer for them to dive into while those few not won over by the original might not like this one either.
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