Synopsis
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A group of camp counsellors is shutting down a campwhere gruesome murders happened years before. They goof around, have sex, and areslaughtered by a masked maniac. Bloody Murder 2 is 90% shameless Friday the 13th plagiarism:the location is “Placid Pines” instead of “Crystal Lake” and the killer is “Trevor Moorehouse”instead of “Jason Voorhees,” but my God, even the number of syllables is the same. The other10% is stolen from Scream: a li…tle bit of parody and self-referentiality, and some mystery as tothe identity of the killer. (If you believe any of the suggested suspects are actually guilty, you’llprobably find the film startlingly original.) Some decently gory murders, but the only realsurprise is how utterly without shame some filmmakers are.
Audio
The mix is both 5.1 and 2.0, but the use of sound effects is so minimal that you hardly noticein either case. The surround function is almost entirely limited to the music. There is virtually nosense of environment created. The sound, nonetheless, is clear and clean.
Video
Strike one: the picture is cropped to 1.33:1. Strike two: several shots are extremely grainy.Strike two-and-a-half: there’s some murkiness too. Otherwise, the flesh tones and contrasts arepretty good, as are the blacks (most of the time).
Special Features
Mostly trailers: for Bloody Murder, Bloody Murder 2, Wendigo, Legion of the Dead and ThePool. “Jump to a Bloody Murder” is three sequences from the first film in the series. Finally,there’s a photo gallery. So not too much here. The menu has an elaborate (and loud) main page.The intro and transitions are scored and animated too.
Closing Thoughts
Friday the 13th was hardly the most original idea in the first place. But this really takes thecake. I suppose, though, if you’re nostalgic for the campfire massacres, and Jason in spacedoesn’t do it for you, you’ll feel right at home here.
Special Features List
- Trailers
- Photo Gallery
- “Jump to a Bloody Murder” Excerpts from Bloody Murder
