After fifteen years of being locked away, a woman is released from psychiatric care to continue living her life no longer afraid of the doll-faced killer who attacked her, but when the murders start up again she realizes the killer is after her again and must try to stop his deadly rampage.
This was a rather solid follow-up. One of the better features here comes from the films' use of backstory footage from the original that ties everything together. There's a lot of the film recounting the original rampage which comes off rather nicely here, especially with the meeting held by the psychiatrist that gives the information needed to catch up on how the intervening years have been which enables this one to get caught up quite easily while the dreams and nightmares incorporate the footage from the original rather creatively. As well, the recurrent motive of laying dolls on the victims during his escape rampage to track her down continues to tie the films together nicely which aids the film quite well. In addition to this, the stalking scenes overall aren't so bad and have a solid indie charm to things. The sudden ambush shocks of the first few deaths are rather nicely handled with the obviousness of the outcome resulting in some suspenseful setups while the extended stalking scene in the house has even more creepy aspects when it becomes known that it's her rather than the nightmares. The finale, with the stalking through the house and the final confrontation revealing the truth about what he's trying to accomplish and how it affects them both considering the reveal that comes forth, generates some exciting scenes and gives this a lot to like in this style. There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the main drawbacks featured in this one is the rather unconvincing manner in which the escape occurs, which is a feature that highlights its low-budget origins rather easily. Given how the original rampage was treated in a dismissive manner yet only to help with her mental state in a somewhat unnecessary manner, the lack of urgency in these scenes serves to pad the running time out clumsily as the failure to respond to the danger in any way realistically stretches the credibility rather easily. That there's no one going around trying to report the disappearance or out actively stopping him just adds to this feel even further. As well, the film is quite obvious with its origins including the lackluster amount of gore and the guerilla-style indie approach, which should be expected here and not really be held too detrimentally against this one. The splashes of blood left beside the bodies aren't really enough to offset the one real gory kill here, and the overall aesthetic might put some off. The other real noticeable spot with that is the time-padding trip to the carnival fair that doesn't need to be there, features no real deaths, and just screams to be a montage inserted solely for that reason. These are really what keeps this one down overall.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
