Grim Reaper 2 (2022) by James Ian Mair

Director: James Ian Mair

Year: 2022

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

Arriving for his first day on the job, a new sheriff in a small-town heads out with a deputy to investigate a series of disappearances in the area which brings them into contact with a returning serial killer who attacked the town years earlier and must find a way to stop his crazed rampage.

Review:

As a whole, this was a pretty solid sequel. Much like the original, this one gets a simple enough and watchable storyline for this kind of effort as the random nature of the formerly-released killer coming back to haunt the town and picking up where he left off slaughtering a new group of residents. The concurrent storyline of the new sheriff trying to make a name for himself on the force and stumbling upon the murder spree interrupting his on-the-job training serves this quite well due to offering the necessary throughlines of the original while causing this to go about offering a new rampage. There's enough at play here to be worthwhile and workable for a genre effort like this which is usually enough to be likable overall.

Another big point here, much like the original, is that the culmination of this setup is to offer up a solid series of indie-style ambush sequences. These again feature the same style of shock encounters running across a random assortment of individuals while hanging out around the community while also including a few fun chase scenes as well. They're generally fun enough for what they are and also fix the issue with that film in having a bit more gore than before even if this part is still somewhat low for this type of feature. As well, the old issues are still here with the somewhat random storyline involving the killer stumbling upon nameless characters and the obvious low budget on display which all lower this one.

Overview: ***/5

An overall enjoyable follow-up that comes off quite well, this is a fun sequel that shows some improvement in several areas but also has some of the same drawbacks making this a pretty simple feature overall. Those that enjoyed the original, appreciate this style of indie slasher or are fans of the creative crew will like this the most while most others should heed caution here.