Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp

The infamous red-herring Trevor Moorehouse returns for round 2 with "Bloody Murder 2," a beefed up, sexed up sequel to the generally cheesy direct-to-video original. Everything you hated about (or laughed about) the original "Bloody Murder" is rectified here. Whereas the first one had zero gore, this one packs on the red stuff, especially with the first murder, which had me squirming in my seat. There is also an abundance of sex & nudity in general (props to Tiffany Shepis) that help enhance the enjoyment of the movie (don't feel guilty -- these flicks are pretty superficial to begin with). Heck, even the acting is better -- although I wouldn't go as far as to say it was good, just an improvement. The characters may have been a bit shallow, but at least they had some sort of definition. The story revolves around a group of camp-counselors closing up camp and celebrating. Tracy, one of the counselors, is the sister of one of the victims from the original, and her motives for returning are somewhat vague. Just like in the original, people start dropping off one by one, and yet the counselors still feel obliged to stick around and finish their work. The ending is somewhat sketchy and cliched, but overall, "Bloody Murder 2" is a triumph over the original, which was basically just a joke.

7/10

It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to make a sequel to a piece of garbage like the first picture, but for some reason they did and, happily, it is much better than the first one. It's amazing what a little nudity and gore will do to improve an otherwise unoriginal slasher flick, but it looks like the producers had enough sense to go for the lowest common denominator on this one with the result of a watchable, albeit generic, slasher flick. Nothing to rave about and the ending is totally stupid, but it delivers the goods for what movies like this are intended for.

This is a surprisingly effective slasher movie that's far better than the usual straight-to-video exploitation fare thanks to stylish direction and an eerie score. The movie is clearly influenced by '80s summer camp horror films like "Friday the 13th" and "The Burning," and it earns comparison with those cult classics due to an unusual respect for pace, composition, and performance. The suspense sequences are crafted with care and build to some pretty frightening payoffs, and the characters are well defined and well acted enough that we actually care about what happens to them. A creepy score helps matters along, as does expressive editing and a story that has its share of surprising twists. "Bloody Murder 2" is hardly original, but as an escapist thriller it delivers the goods.

I enjoyed this movie as a slasher not top rate movie film. There where however a few details that bugged me a bit. When Tracy is taking the shower you notice that she never took her earrings out. I don't know to much about jewelry as have never had earrings but I kind of assume that when you take a shower you would take them out? One other area was after they saw all these killings the girls still decided to split up. Also after one death had just been confirmed if I was the one running camp knowing what had previously happend I would immediately close the rest of the camp not wait around until more problems happend. Overall this is a decent movie but not one I will watch more than once.

Superior, but totally unremarkable sequel finds yet another group of youths heading for trouble when they unwisely ignore the warnings about rumored chain saw wielding serial killer Trevor Moorehouse. More blood, more guts, more sex, and more thrills then the original effort ever provided, but nothing we haven't already seen a 1000 times before. And done better at that!