Director: Don Coscarelli
Year: 1988
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: USA
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After thinking the threat is over, a survivor and his friend join up with a woman he holds a strange psychic connection with that allows them to continue to track the Tall Man's nefarious journey through the countryside as he carries out his mysterious plans for world domination.
Review:
This is a rare example of a sequel with more to offer than the original. The first and perhaps most important element helping this one along is the fact that there's just a relentless assault of action in this, which not only makes the film incredibly enjoyable but also continues to the next scene and builds on it logically, as a vast majority of that is how this one manages to mix together action and suspense beautifully. That starts with the opening scene, which plays off the ending of the first one in great detail It is pretty terrifying, a bit unsettling, and answers its questions which is another rather nice quality, and features some great action leading into the battle around the house and the race to get out before the massive explosion.
Other great action here including the great encounter at the mausoleum where they see the Tall Man bringing the demonic beings into the graveyard to remove the bodies for his plans, a fun moment where the disturbed priest tries to complete the protection ritual right in front of the funeral guests for a fine scene and their first assault in the town where the demonic minions arrive and attack them in the store basement before seeing the false scare afterward which is quite fun.
Also, other really great action scenes here come from the freeway chase that's normally not present in horror films which is a real highlight while setting the stage for the final confrontations in the mausoleums which make for some creepy action. The two shootouts are nicely handled, and the many explosions are also very impressive to see and hear throughout here while setting up more of the Tall Man's mystery and quest to continue his way of building the army of beings in the supernatural dimensions.
That is impressive to see which also applies to the fact that this is easily the goriest of the whole series. From the new gold spheres that bore basketball-sized holes into the body and emerge in full display oozing streams of blood from the wound, to having faces melt off and being riddled with bullets and shotgun blasts tearing massive chunks from the body, this one has more than enough to really satisfy gorehounds as not too many of them will be disappointed. None of it is done off-screen as this makes the gore much more realistic by having different kinds of gore. Together with the impressive special effects, this proves to be one of the greatest in the series. The only issue is the lack of reasoning for the girl to be included in the storyline which is wholly unneeded and drags the first half down, but that doesn't detract from the other positives.
Overview: *****/5
One of the most impressive and enjoyable follow-ups that manages to enhance the setup of the original into more enjoyable and frantic efforts, this movie has something for everybody. Whether you are a horror fan, a gorehound, or a fan of the original, any kind of movie fan at all should find this movie. Uncensored is always better, but this movie is so good it doesn't matter in what form you see it.
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