Director: Scott Derrickson
Year: 2025
Country: USA/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Still traumatized by their experience, survivors of an unusual serial killer try to move on with their lives, only to be continually tormented by the killer as he targets the younger sister of his previous target, forcing them to uncover the secret of the killer’s power to stop him for good.
Review:
Generally, this was a disappointing and somewhat underwhelming sequel. Among the better features of this one stem from the rather fun setup involving the race to uncover the identity of the killer and what’s going on with him stalking the new survivors. The fact that this one takes full advantage of the trauma left behind from the original and preys on that with the killer returning from the afterlife and using the phone calls to psychologically undermine and unravel the survivors to become easier targets is a solid enough way of going through with reviving the killer one more time. That we get some backstory on his series of rampages over the years that ties in the connection with the camp where they’re staying and what it all means, especially with the phone calls present and the tormenting nature of what’s going on involving the younger sister, this gives everything a solid touch that expands on what we know from the previous film and carries it along into a new setting.
That leads into the more controversial aspect of the different encounters with the killer coming together with a series of impressive attacks to target and torment the younger sister. Taking far more influence on the jarring, discordant atmosphere of the phone calls being made and the threatening nature of the threatening messages urging her to give in to her powers so that she becomes just like her mother, these scenes are intriguing enough in concept, while also setting the stage for the later interaction to have some sense. The different flashbacks showing why she’s important and meaningful to his rampage are certainly handled well enough as well, effectively creating an eerie tone as they’re executed with enough supernatural shenanigans to offer up a hint of the otherworldly nature of what’s happening as they’re trapped in his domain during these sections.
However, it also highlights one of the main drawbacks with the film in that it’s spread so few and far between in the film that it’s quite possible to forget we’re in a supernatural genre thriller at points. The majority of the first hour here is taken up with coming-of-age drama nonsense involving the group coming together to get past the trauma of what happened, adjusting to getting to a normal school life, and only occasionally are we dropped into the interactions with the killer in such brief moments that they feel more like intrusions in this story, more than the main selling point. With these scenes focusing on teen drama in the first half before turning into an investigation of the killer’s backstory and connections with the remote lakeside camp, the answers get filled in enough so that there’s some emotional stakes in the final fight, but with that being the majority of the action present, the pacing suffers from the lack of more traditional stalking present.
The other issue here is that, for a film about a murderous being seemingly returning from the dead to target the survivors of his previous massacre, there's such a feeling of indifference to his interactions that a lot of this comes off dull and dragging. The fact that very little fear is generated by the killer and his interactions with the rest of the crew, beyond the few minor bits of interaction in the dreams, makes this feel quite lacking in terms of urgency towards stopping the killer, so it manages to feel quite lame. Without that constant interaction as we’re following the other characters, who are incredibly bland and not that interesting as it tries to create some drama in their personal lives, which also highlights the weak pace, it creates a rather bland setup where we don’t have much of any fear from the killer, which all come together to lower this one overall.
Overview: ***/5
A fairly underwhelming and problematic sequel, there are some likable factors here that get overwhelmed by the series of issues that hold it down overall. Those with an interest in this style of mainstream genre fare, those who enjoyed the original, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
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