Director: Jay Burleson
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Preparing for a big party, a group of friends gathers at a friend’s house to celebrate the town’s massive football rivalry game where they use the opportunity to score with their girlfriends, but when they find the festivities crashed by a supernatural killer must try to survive the night against the being.
Review:
This was a solid enough sequel if just a slight step down from the original. One of the bright spots here is the rather fun setup that introduces some workable storylines for this kind of film. With the introduction of the killer returning and appearing on the outskirts of town in a rampage that goes unnoticed until it’s too late serving this well enough to start the film, the continuation of the town’s obsession with the particular football game being played on that date and the build-up of the relationships at stake between the main group of friends present, these pieces all combine together to make the first half here quite fun. The few bits of the friends hanging out with each other and preparing for the game before the party show a genuine sense of friendship that’s quite effective at building sympathy for them which plays into the finish quite nicely.
That provides the basic grounding for the film to go through a solid series of stalking scenes with the killer’s brutality coming to the forefront quite nicely. With the encounters following suit of the first film with a slew of brutal, hard-hitting sequences that are made all the better for being practical effects. This one manages to strike just as impactful an impression here with the encounters and confrontations here. Featuring the first ambush at the farmer’s house, the later scenes stalking their parents, or later coming up to the house while everyone is unaware of him being there, this one starts off well enough while also setting up the rampage that takes place at the party where he starts taking out the group as they split off from the others at the party. These are usually fun enough and filled with enough action to make for a likable and wholly enjoyable time.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The main drawback to the film is much the same as an issue ins the first one in that the killer is somewhat more comical than he should be which makes him less imposing than he should be. Once again missing the sense of motivation for the rampage that was found in part one, here the whole thing is taken up a notch by the constantly utilized inability of everyone to notice he’s there with people looking at the scene he’s left behind and failing to notice or react to the obvious unnatural look of the scenario causing them to fall victim. These features combine together to make this killer feel quite underwhelming which is somewhat disappointing, much like the low-budget nature of this one standing out which is pretty frequent throughout here despite not being overtly detrimental but still stands out enough to hold this back.
Overview: ***/5
A solid if somewhat problematic follow-up, there’s still quite a lot to like here that it serves itself quite nicely which is overall enough to make this one just a bit below the original. Those who enjoy this kind of hardcore indie slasher fare, liked the original, or are not bothered by the flaws should give this one a shot while those who aren’t into those factors should heed caution.
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