Director: Richard Franklin
Year: 1983
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After being released from prison, the psychotic killer returns to his home by the hotel and tries to assimilate back into society but as he keeps getting reminders of his past life he fears he'll revert to his murderous ways and discovers a shocking secret that might affect his struggles to remain sane.
Review:
This one was actually pretty good. As a sequel to one of the most influential films ever, this really had the potential to fail, especially with the over-complicated plot and many twists and turns later on. However, the fact that the twists are sometimes pretty nice, and they come about pretty naturally, is fun to see how it had built up this tension of who the killer was as the back-and-forth nature of the story made it a real challenge to figure out who was actually behind it all. That alone is what makes the final third of the film a load of fun, in that everything that comes together is lots of fun with the true nature of their familial ties being revealed and the genesis of their plans going up in flames.
As well, the fact that so much of this one play on their ongoing psychological factors, ranging from the impressive series of phone calls and flash-glimpses of the mother walking around to the strange series of clues that suggest maybe he's been playing it off for the truth all along and he's indeed been crazy from the start. This creates an incredibly strong sense of tension in the later half of the film as it brings about a really clever and enjoyable series of setups that prove this series of plans which all make for quite a fun time as the running feature of whether he's truly healed or still under her influence that is only enhanced by the issues that crop up to derail the plan set into motion with the twists that arise due to that. There is some more blood and gore in here than what was allowed in the original, thanks to the time it came out, and makes it feel more like a concurrent movie and was a great feeling to finally see what could only be hinted at in the original, where the body count here is much more in keeping with the times.
This turned out really good as there isn't a whole lot to really dislike with this one. The pacing here is the biggest problem. The beginning does a good job of setting up the characters and relations, but then it introduces the needless subplots that hammer home what was already known beforehand. The second diner sequence was really unnecessary and could've been trimmed. The ending explanations were a little convoluted, and while they worked, it could've been done with some clearing up. There are a few little middling problems, but they're not all that detrimental to the enjoyment of the film. This wasn't as bad as it could've been.
Overview: ****.5/5
A generally decent follow-up to a classic, this one comes off as an impressive enough sequel that manages to be worthwhile and watchable and comes across as pretty fun. Those with an interest in the exploits depicted, who enjoyed the original, or are fans of the creative crew will want to give it a shot while only those who don’t appreciate these factors should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment