Camp Blood 2 (2000) — Triskaidekafiles

CAMP BLOOD 2

WRITER: Brad Sykes

DIRECTOR: Brad Sykes

STARRING: Jennifer Ritchkoff as Tricia
Garrett Clancy as Worth Milligan
Missy Hansen as Adrienne Palmer
Ken X as Shemp
Mark Overholt as Lance
Jane Johnson as Vanessa
Timothy Patrick as Todd
Courtney Burr as Patrick

QUICK CUT: Tricia heads into the woods to help film a movie about her life.

THE MORGUE

Tricia - Still messed up after the first movie. Relieved to be back out of the asylum, not so relieved to be back where all her friends were murdered. She’s not sure how crazy she is anymore.

Worth Milligan - A low budget movie director, who is your average sort of low budget movie director, although maybe not as sleazy. He has his sleazeball moments, but he could be so much worse. Will cut any corner if it saves a buck.

Shemp - Worth’s right hand man, a jack of all trades on the film, cameraman, and playing the Clown. He’s a drinker, and a perv, and plays jokes at the worst times.

Adrienne - Another young actress trying out for the movie. She’s quiet and friendly, and more than she seems.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Happy New Year, Triskelions! We made it around the sun one more time, and that means it's time to get hunted through the woods by some weirdo in a mask. So we are continuing our journey through the Camp Blood franchise, with number 2.

The movie picks up where the first one left off, a year later, with Tricia still in the mental institutiuon we last left her in.

Before we get back to her though, the movie has to remind us what it is, with a couple walking down a trail, and the boyfriend teases her about the existence of The Clown.

If that sounds familiar, it plays out very much the same as the opening scene of the first film. I'd have to do a side by side comparison, and I'm too lazy for that, but it even looks like the exact same trail in my memories.

As the couple enjoys a fruit juice, the infamous squawk of the asparagus whatchamacallit appears, signaling the coming of the Clown. You know, I have seen most of the movies in this franchise, and the bird noise goes away pretty quickly, and is never really explained.

I don't want to spend too much time on this cold open, so to get to what little point there is; the boyfriend sneaks off, puts on a clown mask to scare his girlfriend, and when he returns, he finds her already dead. Before he can do much else, the Clown arrives and stabs him, too. It's a solid enough way to set the stage.

Finally it's time to see what Tricia is up to, and right now, she's having a nightmare about being back in the forest and stalked by the Clown. She still gives good scream, too.

So far, this mask is the best actor in the movie.

Back in the really real world, Tricia wakes up in her padded room, as the doctor comes to get her, and tell her she has a visitor; a film director.

Worth Milligan is there to pitch to Tricia the idea of a movie about Camp Blood, telling her story, or at least getting out an alternative narrative to what everyone is saying about her. I dunno, a movie about Camp Blood? Who would watch that?

Not gonna lie, for 2000, this semi meta idea is...not exactly ahead of it's time, or entirely original, but it's a fresh enough idea. It's almost clever.

Within the Woods, eh? Interesting name for a movie…

Worth wants Tricia to be an integral part of the movie, involved in every stage, so when it all goes horribly wrong, he can blame her as the chief architect behind the movie...er, I mean, so she can get her story out.

Of course, there's the obvious problem of her being a mental patient. Her doctor says he'll oppose Milligan's attempts to get her temporarily released into his supervision, and...this goes nowhere. She decides to work with him after a bit, and there's no real fight, she's just out. I get wanting to get to the plot, but...

The movie then flashbacks to the first movie's setup and no, oh no, no no no, this movie better not be going Silent Night Deadly Night 2 on us. Christmas was LAST month.

We cut to Hollywood where Worth with his cameraman, and the movie's Clown, are casting for the part of Tricia. The actresses are universally terrible.

This is already a bit much or Tricia; she is being asked to pick the actor who looks most like a dead friend, Shemp in the clown mask, so she ducks out to catch her breath. While on the terrace, she runs into Adrienne Palmer - I see what you did there, movie - who is trying out for the role of Nicole.

Unfortunately, the director just cast the role, and gave it to the blonde with the big boobs, despite her objections to doing nudity. In a stunning turn of irony, Lola heads home and takes a long, naked shower for all of us to see.

That shit is like catnip for slasher movie villains, so the Clown shows up, they get into a fight, but he eventually kills her.

It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.

Lola doesn't show up for the read through the next day, and Tricia suggests calling in Adrienne. Since this is no budget filmmaking in a no budget movie, sure, that sounds great.

After Tricia calls Adrienne, she runs into the Clown, and runs screaming. Eventually she gets cornered, and pounces on the guy, and we find out it was Shemp playing a joke. Dude nearly got choked out for a joke.

We finally get into the woods, and are going to the same location as the original movie. Tricia wants to know why, and Worth just says for realism. That, and probably cheap.

Filming the movie gets underway, and it is low budget filmmaking at it's finest. Worth has Shemp actually punch an actress to teach her a lesson for mouthing of, and they break, while the PA goes to get lunch.

But Patrick never returns, because he stops to smoke some weed. The Clown, the real one, finds him and makes him the first victim of this camping trip.

The actors are getting restless, so the director goes to find Patrick, and tells Tricia to take the rest of the group to go make camp.

Worth returns with food - rather quickly I might add but whatever - and everyone gathers around a campfire for more flashbacks.

Everyone turns in for the night, except for Lance and Vanessa, who have some sex first. Again, catnip or camp slashers, so the Clown shows up and does them both in.

The next day, Tricia notices all the people that has gone missing, and tries to warn everyone. Unfortunately, Todd is all too willing to believe her, and accuses her of being the killer, what with her behaviour.

So Tricia immediately attacks him, and while I GET it, attacking the person calling you dangerous, violent, and crazy, doesn't really help your case.

She has had enough, and decides to leave, Adrienne follows suit, and even Todd goes with her, because there's no point in staying here in the woods.

Worth is the only one who stays behind, and it's not long before the Clown shows up to finish him off.

Tricia heads back to find Worth, feeling like he doesn't deserve to stay out here, especially if there's a killer, and uh, too late.

She runs back into Todd though, since at this point everyone is just aimlessly wandering the woods. She comments about how maybe she IS going crazy, and the dude cannot move fast enough away from her.

Unfortunately, he runs right into the Clown's waiting blade, and gets his throat slashed.

Todd died like he lived; in a pool of his own filth.

Next, Tricia runs into Shemp, who is so wasted, half his lines are just utter gibberish at this point.

He smashes her face with his bottle, and for a second you think he might be the killer clown from outer New Jersey, but no. He just wants to sexually assault the poor girl.

Tricia manages to run off before this becomes a whole 'nother kind of movie, and the real Clown takes care of the Shemp of it all.

Next, the Clown finds Tricia and knocks her out, surrounding her by all her dead...well, people she met a few hours ago.

Tricia starts freaking out, and various lines of dialogue from the dead people play, all the accusatory lines and calls of being crazy, hurled back at Tricia...well, and Shemp's drunken babbling, which is kinda perfect.

By now, you should have figured out who the killer is, since there's really only one person left; Adrienne Palmer. Making her the only character with a name made up from Friday the 13th related people, feels like a giveaway too, but oh well.

The reason for all this is two-fold; she's Harris' sister, and wants revenge on Tricia, as well as since she was turned away from the movie initially, she wants revenge on Worth and everyone for doing that to her.

Adrienne believes Harris was innocent, that Tricia killed everyone, and blamed Harris, making up the Clown story to save herself from being executed. The two argue back and forth, but it's kinda one's word against the other.

During all this, Adrienne has been spreading gasoline, and as the two yell back and forth, Tricia has cut herself free. They get into a fight, and she sets Adrienne on fire. Isn't this all the origin story of Motherface?

Tricia stumbles and screams her way away from the campsite, but like any good slasher villain, Adrienne is not quite dead yet, and grabs Tricia, looking a little extra crispy.

Both of the girls fight some more, until Tricia gets the knife and makes sure that Adrienne is dead this time. Extra sure.

However, before Tricia can leave, with her last breath, Adrienne hands her the clown mask, passing along the mantel like this is Halloween Ends or something. We’ll see how this plays out next year, I guess.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This one looks rough, especially for a Blu Ray. It’s the same sort of level as the first one, and while about what you’d expect for no budget movies of that era, it seems silly to put something of this low quality on Blu.

Audio: It’s fine, it does the job.

Sound Bite: When greeting Worth, "Tricia Young. Mental patient and suspected murderer. Sorry about the cuffs."

Body Count: A solid amount of death to be found here, even if some of them are random, and not very integral to the plot

1 - We find the girlfriend was killed off screen, at about three and a half minutes.
2 - The boyfriend is gutted shortly after
3 - Lola gets stabbed in her kitchen
4 - Patrick gets his hand sliced off
5 - The clown slices up Lance
6 - Then Vanessa gets stabbed through the face.
7 - The director gets cut
8 - Todd gets his throat slit
9 - The Clown cuts down Shemp
10 - Adrienne gets burned up by Trish

Best Corpse: The knife going straight through Vanessa’s face is a nicely executed gag.

Blood Type - B: Some good bits of blood, and makeup effects, and that burned up face is pretty great.

Sex Appeal: Some boobs with Lola, despite her objections, and sex later with Vanessa and Lance.

Drink Up! Every time Todd has to go to the bathroom…seriously, what was up with that??

Movie Review: This isn’t bad. If it came out in the 80s it would have been right at home. By 2000, it feels very dated. However, it’s option to be a little meta and be a bit about making a movie about the first movie, gives it a little bit of fresh air. That’s really just an excuse to get the people in the woods though, and they don’t do much with that idea. For a no budget movie, it’s fine, but there is a lot here that is not just a retread of slasher movies, but of the original, and not even in the context of “we’re making a movie about the first movie”. There’s a lot of by the numbers here, but the hints of attempts of being clever give it a little something. But it doesn’t outshine the first. Two out of five clown masks.

Entertainment Value: Tricia remains the highlight. Her slow unraveling, her screams, she is the core, and if anything works here, it’s because of her. Worth Milligan is an interesting character, but he could be sleazier. Shemp picks up the slack, but then goes too far, to the point of caricature. The kills are actually quite memorable for this level of movie, and almost worth seeing just for those. It’s again, not terrible for a movie of this budget and skill, but the first outshines it in almost every way. Three out out of five severed hands.