After watching Bloody Murder (2000) last night, this sequel, which still has that low budget photography and cast of little-known faces -- besides the delicious Shepis -- who had short careers, is a bit better. It's no great shakes, but in comparison to the generic, dull, bland first film, this sequel, called Closing Camp on Tubi, at least offers more in the way of what slasher fans expect and anticipate. The twist regarding the killer still left me shaking my head. I guess I felt this time those involved in trying to mix things up desperately needed to come up with a twist that wasn't too obvious or similar to the first film. The boss over the camp counselors, for instance, would have been too obvious. But so would have been Mike, Tracy's boyfriend. Tracy is the sexy virgin who "just isn't quite ready", although Mike sure tries and fails a few times. Tracy's similar somewhat in looks to the first film's heroine, but she's a bit older and not as bland. Director Rob Spera couldn't get Woodruff naked, but she will at least wear booty jean shorts and body-hugging, waist-exposing shirts, and he makes sure his camera still ogles her. Shepis, on the other hand, is very much like Linnea Quigley in regards to frequent nudity. I'm glad Shepis isn't expected to continue that 18 years later. Anyway, Woodruff's Tracy won't put out for Mike so he takes advantage of Shepis' Angela's woe after she believes her beau has taken off without even saying goodbye (although he took an arrow to the throat, with the killer burying him with shovels of dirt). Spera -- the director of 1988's "Witchcraft", the first in a long line of very bad films in a series that has stretched far longer than it should have -- tries to incorporate some energy in the way he shoots action, and his variety of angles clearly prove he wanted to add some style wherever possible. At least the boogeyman of the film uses the damn chainsaw a few times, even if one's a dream sequence while another would seem to indicate the ghost of Tracy's murdered brother returned from beyond the grave to get revenge on the person responsible for his death. The final big sequence at the end just didn't work at all to me. It is that out-of-left-field twist, sure, but because the killer is just not significant until the end, the potency of his reveal leaves much to be desired. The ghost of Jason nonsense and need by those behind the plot to incorporate Trevor Moorehouse (his name constantly brought up to remind us that he could show up at any time) somehow, feeling very desperately shoehorned when Mike (and the camp counselor) is proven not to be the killer, left me feeling pretty much as I did after watching the first film: underwhelmed, rolling my eyes. But I will credit those involved in this film just not ripping off "Friday the 13th" so blatantly as the first film did. Woodruff and Shepis getting lots of screentime didn't hurt. The "strobe light" bathroom kill where the fluorescent light tubes blink on and off as the killer attacks a victim has never been effective to me...if anything, this has always been a nuisance or annoyance. I guess that kind of effect allows the director to use smoke and mirrors to get around the lack of budget necessary for that sizzle on the steak. 2/5
Camp counselors, preparing for the closing of the year shortly after the kids have gone, are picked off one by one by the supposed Placid Pines boogeyman, Trevor Moorehouse. Moorehouse is the mythic killer talked about in scary campfire stories, and is the one felt by many to be behind a slaughter of a group from five years back. Tracy(Katy Woodruff, showing off her incredible body in tight clothing)lost her brother Jason to the killer(..or, at least in her nightmares)and now must face him herself since it's clear that she is to be singled out as the chief heroine of this flick. Her love interest is Mike(Kelly Gunning)who might just be the killer, or is at least one suspect the plot offers us while another might very well be the group's boss, Rick(Arthur Benjamin). The killer wears a white mask and does his nasty work with the usual tools such as a machete(in the film's most inspired kill, a drifter on his way to college gets his leg cut off and thrown to the side), an old-fashioned stone, and a butcher knife. Most of the violence occurs to each victim when they find themselves alone often looking for another(**yawn**). Is this killer really Trevor? Or, is there a killer one of them..ala Ten Little Indians?
Almost a direct model of the Friday THE 13TH franchise for the exception of the mystery involving who the killer is. The red herring is an insult..a complete, unabashed rip from Friday THE 13TH. The stylish direction on a low budget can not compensate for the uninspired story-line which just doesn't freshen stale material remade in countless rip-offs over and over again. It does have Tiffany Shepis(becoming a cult icon for horror fans for she doesn't mind showing her terrific body in all it's glory), who portrays horny Angela, who loses one beau and immediately hops onto Tracy's man. The film doesn't really add anything new in the bloodshed-department, either. It does have a following, and I guess I've seen worse. Still, this is nothing more than a slasher retread. - March 2007
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