See No Evil 2 (2014)

Dir: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

As I liked the darkly quirky AMERICAN MARY, directed by the Soska sisters and starring Katherine Isabelle (GINGER SNAPS), I was intrigued upon learning that the Soskas' would be directing the sequel to WWE's 2006 slasher SEE NO EVIL. Having not seen the original I had to watch that first in case any important plot points carried over to the sequel (flashbacks to the original provide all the narrative carry over required from the original). The viewing left me wondering why anyone was creating a follow-up to a mediocre film from eight years ago.

The sequel picks up right where the first left off. The police are on the scene at the Blackwell hotel investigating the carnage and uncovering body after body stashed away by serial killer / hand of God Jacob Goodnight (WWE wrestler / fuckin' tall drink of water Glenn 'Kane' Jacobs returning to the role). A number of the dead, including no doubt about it he's dead, Jacob are taken to the city morgue.

Working at the morgue are med school drop out Amy (Daniel 'Is she officially a Scream Queen?' Harris), the secretly pining for Amy Seth (Kaj-Erik Eriksen) and the wheel chair bound Holden (Michael Eklund). Amy's shift is over and she's about to leave to meet up with friends to celebrate her birthday when the call comes in about the in bound bodies. Dedicated employee that she is, she cancels her party and stays to help out. As she's a good bud and state and federal laws be damned, Holden gets in touch with her friends and organizes a spur of the moment surprise party to be held in the morgue.

Meanwhile the definitely dead and won't be coming back any time soon Jacob is dropped off via ambulance and Amy and Seth wheel the corpse downstairs.

Once finished helping Seth knock out the bulk of the work, Amy heads upstairs to 'punch out' and is surprised by her over protective brother and her friends. 'Happy Birthday!', now let's get drunk. One of her friends, Tamara (Isabelle), turns out to be not only a serial killer devotee but freaky. Learning that the body of the killer Jacob is downstairs, Tamara and her boyfriend sneak off to pay the corpse a visit. Once in the presence of the corpse, Tamara's freak is all on leading to her and her boyfriend banging away mere feet away from of course he's dead Jacob.

Jacob doesn't take kindly to fornicators and shamblingly precedes to stalk everyone through the seemingly endless corridors and rooms of the morgue.

How's this for faint praise? It's a bit better than the original. Both films boil down to a group of youngsters being chased through one darkened corridor after another, not being able to exit the building while a seemingly unstoppable maniac snuffs them one by one. The Soska sisters do bring their own vision and touch to the slasher film genre. Amy is a spunky fighter unlike her hunky brother and at one point grabs a fire axe to aid in his rescue. Tamara is wonderfully played by an over the top Isabelle and her morgue scene would have raised me from the dead. There's a shocking twist on the final girl theme that caught me off guard and had me cursing the film makers for doing that to the character.

While I like what the Soska sisters brought to the film the frame is still a bog standard slasher.

**1/2 out of ****