"Bloody Murder 2" review

Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp (2003)

Directed by Rob Spera
Writing credits John R. Stevenson

Katy Woodruff.... Tracy Hathaway
Tyler Sedustine.... Jason Hathaway
Amanda Magarian.... Sophie
Kelly Gunning.... Michael
Tiffany Shepis.... Angela

I thought this movie was going to be good but it turns out I was wrong. The first half of "Bloody Murder 2" was genius. The second half was brain melting lame. The DVD cover has a guy wearing a hockey mask and overalls thrusting a hook straight at you. Only one of those mass murderer fashion accessories was in this movie and it wasn't the hockey mask or the hook.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Slasher movies are not murder mysteries. Who cares who the killer is? All we need to know is that there is some nutball wanting to skewer his victims. Then the rest of the movie is their pathetic attempt to survive. People die gruesomely, one morally courageous person lives to battle the beast and slasher man survives for the inevitable sequel. Case Closed. Done and done. Slasher movie rules are written in Hollywood stone. Why do these sinners keep breaking the rules?

For the first half of the movie, I was very pleased. The slasher movie rules were being obeyed. There were bloody murders. Good. There were naked female breasts. Very Good. I must praise the "Bloody Murder 2" love goddess now. Thank you Tiffany Shepis, (Angela). She carries the weight for the other two slacker girls in the cast. Shepis is the only one to get naked. She has a shower scene with one guy and a get back to nature adventure with another guy. She IS the first half of the movie. I cry foul on the other two women. One even makes a point to look into the camera and say girls in horror movies always show their boobs and then die. Yeah? What's wrong with that? Her boobs were held prisoner under tight T-shirts yet they were never set free. She broke the rules. At another point, the main blonde character asks if it's OK if she takes a shower. Well, of course it's OK! Then the filmmakers decide to do the lame shower scene where they show her face, her legs, her back...everything but what you want to see. Take my advice: If you can't show the good stuff, ditch the shower scene entirely. It's lame, it's a foul tease and I felt like breaking the DVD in two pieces. Only Shepis understood what in the heck she was doing in this movie. Again, thanks for picking up the slack left by the other two quitters in the cast.

So then the second half of the movie starts and the movie dive-bombs. There are only so many false alarms I can stand. Is this person the killer or how about this idiot? The girls become junior league detectives. Clues are everywhere but the slasher is absent. Why wasn't Trevor or whoever chasing them around with his machete? I just don't understand why the filmmakers would willfully screw up a decent beginning and waste Shepis's fine effort. "Bloody Murder 2" could have been good but it died at its midway mark.

SCORE: 1.5 out of 4 for B-queen Shepis