Friday the 13th: Vengeance 2: Bloodlines

Hello! Welcome back to Mr. Pat's 31 Days of Halloween. If you remember, I didn't get to do any movie reviews because I was going back to school to get my Master's and I didn't have on time. I still got reviews out, but no videos. If you remember, the first video review I ever did was the fan film Friday the 13th: Vengeance. Now that we're back, I think it's only fitting that I do its sequel...

Friday the 13th Vengeance 2: Bloodlines

After watching this I had to check out my review of the first one because I don't remember much about it except that it was a bit underwhelming and I gave it a higher rating than it probably deserved. I wasn't too excited about this one despite my unapologetic love of Jason Voorhees, but I think I've reviewed a Friday the 13th movie every single year I've done this and I would be remiss if I didn't dive back into Camp Crystal Lake again this year.

After surviving their encounter with Jason, the Jarvis sisters still can't find their father, Tommy. The younger, Ashley, isn't going to let the 40-plus bodies from days ago stop her search and as soon as her older sister, Angelica's back is turned, Ashley goes right back to the woods, resulting in the immediate deaths of five more people out looking for her.

Meanwhile, Jason's father, Elias, played by CJ Graham who was Jason in Part VI, is trying to complete a Satanic ritual to bring back Pamela, who you know, is the vengeful mother of Jason, who was decapitated in the first movie. But Elias needs the Jarvis girls and Tommy for the ritual. He then enlists the help of a gravedigger, Walt, played by Tom McLoughlin, director of part VI, to kidnap the two and lure Tommy back because he escaped his prior imprisonment.

That's basically the story, it's convoluted and quite silly, but a Jason movie doesn't need to make sense. It also delves a bit more into Jason's backstory and explains a pothole that has hung over the series but always got glossed over for storytelling purposes. It answers the question, "If Jason didn't drown, how come he didn't leave the camp, find a counselor or reach out to his mom the many times she came back trying to sabotage the place or outright murdering people? There's a scene where Elias tells a young Jason that needs to kill people and make sure no one knows that he's alive. It wasn't necessary to explain why but I appreciate the effort.

OK, that's enough background, let's talk about the movie. It had all the hallmarks of a bad fan film, cringey acting, worse dialogue, and about 45 minutes in I was struggling and reaching for my phone... but then we get to the roadblock. There's a line of cars trying to get through a stretch of road that the sheriff's office has blocked off because of all the murdering going on. While everyone is complaining to the deputy about how they can't get through, there are cutaway shots of Jason watching from the woods. Suddenly our hockey-masked hero appears and starts killing folk. As I'm watching the carnage I'm not feeling it. A lot of the deaths are from people who ignored the gunshots and the crowd of people running away, allowing Jason to casually just walk up to their car and kill them. At this point, I'm starting to get a little annoyed until the camera cuts to Jason wielding a big-ass stop sign as a weapon like it's WCW vs nWO: Revenge. At this point, it clicks in my head, "Stop overthinking, just enjoy the insanity."

And I did, this movie goes so over the top that it's almost a parody. The victims act like balloons filled with red paint every time Jason kills them and each one gets more ridiculous than the one that came before. He rips out a woman's intestines and then chokes out another woman with the entrails! I found myself laughing at each absurd death the movie kept throwing at me. From this point on, the movie had me and I started to really enjoy it.

OK, outside of the kills, let's talk about other things I liked. Despite the overuse of the Kane Hodder head turn, this Jason is really good. I liked how he moved and the look of this Jason more than the Never Hike Alone one, which is high praise. The two sisters were much better this go around. The older sister, Angelica has an emotional scene where she finds out her BFF was killed and, in my opinion, she nails it. I felt bad for her, even if it went on a tad too long. Richie Ramone, the drummer from the "Ramones" plays a British drummer in a punk rock band and I liked how the movie went above and beyond to show how heroic the character was only for him to get the Samuel L Jackson, "We have to close off this pool!" death. I also loved the use of fog. Fog is an underutilized element of horror and it boggles the mind as to why. You can build so much tension and it just looks cool! I also loved Darcy DeMoss reprising her role as Nikki from Part VI and loved how silly her fight was, at this point the movie doesn't even care, it's just having fun. Another thing I loved came after the final fight. Tommy is giving the eulogy for the sheriff killed in the last movie. His name was also Jason and he was played by Steve Dash, who was the first to play adult Jason in part 2. The last movie, Vengeance was his final part before he died in 2018. At the end of the eulogy, Tommy calls him "The real Jason." I loved that tribute and it's fitting, that while he doesn't get the accolades almost all the other Jasons got, Dash's sackman is slept on by too many.

Oh yeah! One more thing I loved. My man Thom Matthews reprises his role as Tommy, which is awesome, but not what I loved. Jason is standing between Tommy and Ashley and deciding who to go after. Tommy keeps calling him trying to get Jason to come for him, but Jason isn't budging. That's until Tommy calls him "Maggot Head," and Jason gets all kinds of pissed off. I don't know why, but I love that that insult keeps popping up when Tommy Jarvis appears. I met Thom Matthews at a horror convention and he was sitting next to CJ Graham. It made me happier than it should to hear Matthews call Graham "Maggot Head" in real life. Truth be told, I silently giggled when that happened.

I don't have too many complaints because I shut my brain off and enjoyed the insanity, but I did have some things I couldn't ignore. The acting from the first group that gets murdered is annoying, almost all the dialogue was to build up to an annoying joke from the fat guy. I also wasn't a fan of how all the sound effects and music seemed to be ripped right from the video game. I understand why they would want to do it, but this is the sequel, there's no need to be lazy.

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would because the original didn't do it for me. In no way, shape or form is this a good movie, but it's not trying to be. The past references make a lot more sense than the first one shoehorning them in, the kills are better and more inventive and the roadblock scene is absolutely worth your time. It's free on YouTube, so go check it out.