See No Evil 2 (2014) [Blu-ray]
Horror

A group of friends pay a late-night visit to the city morgue hoping to surprise Amy (Danielle Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (WWE superstar "Kane") unexpectedly rises from a cold sub- basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives and power saws in this blood-soaked sequel to See No Evil, directed by the notorious Soska sisters.

Storyline: A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise Amy (Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) unexpectedly rises from a cold sub-basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives and power saws. Written by Lionsgate

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 29, 2014 -- If there's any good news to be had with the largely formulaic if admittedly creepy See No Evil 2, it's that female filmmakers are as able to traffic in genre tropes as any guy. See No Evil 2 is directed by twin Canadian sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska, and they have a fine eye for gore traditions including unexpected jump cuts, lacerated skin and even dunderheaded fools backing directly into their assailant. The film itself is a fairly rote exercise in slasher fare, with a bunch of amorous young folks meeting their demise in the cheery environment of a city morgue. Well at least they're already where they need to be, so to speak.

See No Evil was not an especially esteemed horror property when it debuted in 2006, which makes this rather late arriving sequel a bit of an odd commodity. Once again the WWE's Kane (AKA Glenn Jacobs) is back as madman Jacob Goodnight. To quote a certain Monty Python film, Jacob isn't "quite dead yet" when he's delivered to that aforementioned city morgue, and after some nearby carnal activity evidently reanimates the psychopath, he's off to explore the green (and/or fluorescent blue) pastures of the morgue. The result is completely predictable if also undeniably squirm inducing and occasionally scary in a hokey kind of way. The film plays with humor reasonably well, but this is an obvious lo-fi effort that succeeds as much as it does only because it has no outsized ambitions.

Those wanting to pop something "new" on for Halloween will probably find enough gruesome killings in See No Evil 2 to provide the requisite adrenaline rush, but this is a pretty by the numbers effort that aims low and manages to find its target as a result. Technical merits are above average for those interested in the title.

[CSW] -1.6- Dull. Never quite gets off the ground. A lot of screaming but the shocks & frights fell flat. I was surprised at the lack of blood & gore. The first one was better but not by much. Lazy work here, sub-standard production all around, terrible slasher and not in a good way. Even the plot twist couldn't pull this out of the doldrums.
[V3.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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