Friday the 13th Vengeance 2: Bloodlines

Hardly a love letter to the original Friday films, this badly acted and completely loveless Spin-off. Jason is boring instead of the menacing killing machine we all love. The characters are utterly stupid, and there is not even the slightest trace of suspense to be found. I guess the people that gave this film high ratings, were involved in the making of this film. I give 2 stars only for a few nice kills, and the appereance of Thom Matthews. A sleep inducing mess. Compared to this movie Jason Goes To Hell looks like a masterpiece. Obviously the first part is even worse, so I won't even bother to watch that.

I don't know what I expected, I think I assumed the worst but I didn't think it would actually be this bad.

The acting is school nativity play level.

The visuals are bowling shoe ugly.

The script is terrible, it doesn't know if it wants to be super serious or comedic and some of the lines I have to assume were contributions from the writers kid because I struggle to believe that an adult wrote that.

Jason looks awful, when he turns to the side you can see these dreadful oversized plastic teeth that are so far from believable it looks like something out of a Hammer Horror movie.

And then the guy who plays Voorhees dad? Wow, don't ever let him in front of a camera again!

Plot

Elias Voorhees (C. J. Graham) is back and has plans for his undead son Jason Voorhees (Jason Brooks) that involve bringing an end to the Jarvis family once and for all.

Cast

Same creators, a few of the first films cast and Friday 13th Thom Matthews makes an appearance.

Verdict

I need to say two things straight out of the gate.

1) Friday the 13th Vengeance (2019) was quite frankly offensive, an absurdly terrible film that was an absolute insult to the fans and I couldn't wash the mental stain it left for weeks afterwards.

2) This is shilled into oblivion, I despise it when people do that. Check the reviews, check the profiles of those saying it's incredible, Jason is "Back" and the suspicious consistent director praise by name.

Right, now I have that out the way let's get to it. I expected more of the same, I expected this to be dire but surprisingly it wasn't and has a fair few bits going for it. Sadly those bits are held back by many of the flaws made in the first film.

Is it loyal to the source material? I suppose.

Is it very gory and has some interesting enough deaths? Sure Is the cinematography better than the last film? Absolutely

But here's the problem, much of the dialogue is juvenile and comes across as if it were written by a high school student, the acting ranges from average down to appalling, some people just shouldn't have been in this film or any film for that matter.

An example of how bad the dialogue is includes a moment where a corpse has donated his "Member" to science and we have a scene where it's removed and put in a jar. I can only assume this was meant to be comedic relief? It was stupid.

Bad writing, bad acting and shilled into next week. This is miles better than the first film but still not something I could confidently recommend to anybody, not even hardcore Friday 13th fans.

Rants

I hate shilling, I mean I really really really hate shilling. Last time I came across shilling this bad was the Fear Footage movies and to be fair that trilogy is on par with the first Vengeance movie, absolutely dire. I mean what is the point? I don't understand. And furthermore how stupid do they think people are? The wording is the same, you can tell it's the same people, they always fawn over the director by name which is very telling, they're always stupidly over the top with their praise and the profiles they come from have no other activity, minimal activity or just other reviews for coincidentally the same directors films. It's embarrassing, stop it.

Breakdown

Some decent deaths A few interesting lore moments Decent enough soundtrack Some very poor acting Terrible dialogue.

Excellent movie and a dignified entry into the Voorhees universe, even though it's "just" a fan film. The movie picks up right where the first one ended and even though it starts out a bit slow, it pretty soon transforms itself into slay fest -22. Jason kills people in a wide variety of gory ways and he looks fantastic doing it. Hands, machete, axe, scythe and arrows, this killer is no stranger to the art of death and this film really puts his abilities on full display. It is also loaded with guest actors. Some, friday the 13th alumni themselves and others are just various people from the field of entertainment. The FX in this flick, besides being gory as all hell, are slightly above average and did satisfy this old gorehound. If you haven't gotten around to it yet, I strongly suggest that you do see it. Particularly if you are a fan of old "maggothead", low budget gore and a brutal A F killer in a hockeymask. It's an intense ride.

With the tremendous challenges that face indie films, V2:B deserves rewatching much more so than many films on the big streaming platforms. On top of it containing a good balance of action, camp, fun-gore and characters, the tributing in this film to the series will draw you in to wanting to know more about it all. Special mentions: the performances of Kelly Tappan & Morgen Johnson - if the result of their work doesn't make you think 'That role was made for them'... see my opening comments and get back to me. And of course congratz to Jason Brooks and ALL of the VERY large crew and cast. The wrap party must have been a BLAST!