Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp
**/**** Image D Sound C-
starring Katy Woodruff, Kelly Gunning, Amanda Magarian, Tiffany Shepis
screenplay by John Stevenson
directed by Rob Spera
by Walter Chaw Amateurish, awkward, and bordering on genuinely offensive, Bloody Murder II: Closing Camp surprises by actually being a nice walk down '80s slasher flick memory lane. Shot on a zero-budget by Rob Spera (the man behind the infamous Leprechaun in the Hood), the picture is packed with some nice gore, a great deal of nudity, and almost no aspirations towards cleverness. Save one Scream-influenced exchange about the dangers of flashing skin and being African-American in this genre, Bloody Murder II is a mindless series of sadistic stalking/slashing sequences that pick on the nerd, the slut, and the jock while a virginal heroine (with a blood tie to the masked murderer, natch) tries to unravel the mystery in time to save herself.
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Set at an all-too-familiar remote mountain camp locale ("Camp Placid Pines," ha-ho!), Bloody Murder II sets up its killer mythology around a campfire, offers a brief false alarm, and then proceeds into a nice bit of splatter wherein the only sympathetic character in the entire film has his legs hacked off as he's trying crawl to safety. A dream sequence with chainsaw death amuses, an arbitrary shower scene reminds of the same in Funhouse--the film's general disregard for originality and basic human decency recalls a time when exploitive dead-teen garbage was actually exploitive.
It's not art, but at least it's honest: When the comely lead, after discovering the maggot-ridden body of a compatriot, implores the bumbling constabulary, "Can I at least take a shower? I'm all muddy," you suspect that if not in the presence of greatness, you're at least in the presence of someone who knows what you're here for.
THE DVD
Artisan presents Bloody Murder II in an extremely poorly mastered fullscreen transfer; shadowy scenes are very murky and daylight scenes look two-dimensional. The DVD comes with 2.0 and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mixes that are nearly identical save for a few leaves crunching in the rear channels with the latter. Technically speaking, Bloody Murder II is bush league material.
Special features include a "Jump to a Bloody Murder" feature with three exceptionally tame kill scenes from the first film, a completely worthless photo gallery, the trailer for the film, and trailers for Bloody Murder II: Closing Camp, Le6ion of the Dead, Wendigo, and The Pool. Note that an animated introduction preceding the main menu feature upon first loading the disc pretty much spoils everything but the identity of the murderer. Originally published: March 6, 2003.
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