After the massacre that occurred in the haunted house attraction, Blood Cove, a detective orders the place burned to the ground with the serial killer, The Skull still inside. Somehow, he escapes and begins offing the townsfolk one by one. The cops eventually catch up with him and toss him in jail, but it doesn’t take long for The Skull to break out and kill more people.
As he showed with the original, writer/director James Ian Mair once again proves he is more than adept at delivering suspense. He gives us a couple of fine stalking scenes where The Skull subtly lurks in the background for a while before choosing his spot to pounce on his prey. While the majority of the kill scenes are often rushed or weak (as is the case with the climax), the pitchforking/head stomping scene is pretty great. Mair also pulls off some rather atmospheric shots, which is admirable considering the time and budget he was probably working with. The opening sequence also pays homage to Halloween 4 (which is a nice touch) and the subplot about The Skull in jail reminded me a bit of Halloween 5.
At the heart of the film though is a sweet teenage lesbian love story. This stuff works because it seems like it is coming from a genuine place and the fact that there is a lot of chemistry between the performers, Autumn Reed and Erinn Swaby. Because of that, Blood Cove 2: Return of the Skull is a shade or two better than the original.
Troma president Lloyd Kaufman is the only “name” star this time around. He plays the comic relief mayor who is worried the murders will ruin his re-election chances. While his inclusion kind of goes against the grain of the sweet love story plotline, he is pretty funny, nevertheless. He also gets the best line when he says, “This is like something out of a Troma movie!”
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