Director: Anthony Cousins
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
After the previous victims have disappeared, a film crew sets out to uncover the truth about what happened to the team of explorers who supposedly encountered a mystical frogman in a small town in the middle of nowhere, eventually finding themselves stuck in the same scenario as the previous crew.
Review:
On the whole, this was a fun and highly enjoyable follow-up despite a few small issues. One of the best elements is the incredibly strong setup, which offers plausible motivation for the trip back into the woods while still being a serviceable original genre effort. The whole thing about the original explorers having gone missing after the footage was recovered and released, turning into a phenomenon that spurs several other groups into looking for him as well, which eventually comes to a point with the new team looking into the story for themselves, with a special team that’s aware of the legend in the area and how it all relates to the original disappearances and encounters, works nicely enough in this kind of story. That allows for just enough backstory on the team with their own personal issues to deal with, as well as the second team that shows up, also looking to rid the creature once and for all in their team-up, to bring this together on their quest to find out the truth.
With this in play, the second half becomes a lot of fun, with the team going through the woods and looking to trap the creature to prove its existence once and for all. This is all about the encounters with the one team member looking to prove the recovered cult member is not leading them into a trap themselves, with the whole thing feeling like the trip is a ploy to become involved in the cult’s latest extracurricular activity by draining the life force of several captive individuals so that they can then be used to summon beings from a mystical dimension, involving the cult using the creature as the centerpiece of everything. Everything here isn’t all that realistic or logical, though, but rather, it tends to come out of nowhere and feel like a different film entirely, with weaponry and technology far more removed from the original's grounded, atmospheric take. It’s not inherently bad, but it does stick out considerably and lowers this one overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A likable enough but overall problematic genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that makes this a serviceable enough follow-up, but it has enough going on that keeps it from topping the original. Those with an interest in this style or approach, or who are fans of this one, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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