This time around, we have four new films and one oldie. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Frankenstein” which just came out on Netflix. Next, we’ll watch an international film, “The Elixir” and also “The Mannequin,” which are also new releases. Finishing up the new stuff this week, we’ll take a look at “Black Phone 2.” Last, we’ll continue our Godzilla coverage with “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” from 1993.
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Mainstream Films:
2025 Frankenstein
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz
Run Time: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Basically, Dr. Frankenstein assembles a man out of corpse parts and brings him to life. But it’s not a smooth process and things get complicated. This version follows the original book somewhat closer than the classic Hammer and Universal film versions, and it goes much more into the moral and emotional complications. Beautifully filmed and directed, it’s long but entertaining. We both thought it’s really good.
Spoilery Synopsis
Prelude
In the farthestmost North, in 1857, we open on a ship frozen in the ice. The men work on the ice with axes. They are on a mission to find the North Pole. The men report an explosion and fire about two miles away, and they go to investigate. They find a wounded man who’s lost a lot of blood. They bring the unconscious man back to the ship, but there’s something else out there on the ice. They shoot it repeatedly, but that has little effect. It clearly wants the injured man, and it threatens to capsize the huge ship all on its own to get to him. The men shoot the ice beneath the monster and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
The sick man, Victor, says the monster will come back for them, “It can not die. I made him.” As he recovers, he offers to tell the captain his story.
Chapter 1: Victor’s Story
Victor’s father was a wealthy baron and a surgeon who was away much of the time, leaving Victor home with his mother. The father was abusive, but also taught Victor all about medicine. Something goes wrong with his mother’s pregnancy, and she dies. The baby, William, survives and soon becomes the father’s favorite. His father explains that “No one can conquer death.” Victor then decided to become the greatest doctor of all time.
At the medical school, Victor demonstrates a machine he’s made that animates bits and pieces of a corpse. It’s quite a demonstration. The other doctors call it an unholy abomination.
Mr. Harlander comes to visit; he saw the demonstration. Victor’s brother, William, is coming for a visit as he’s planning to be married. Harlander is something of a doctor himself, and he’s got new information about the nervous system that can help Victor– and financing as well. Harlander is making obscene amounts of money from weapons dealing because there’s a war on.
Victor meets William and his fiancee Elizabeth, who looks exactly like Victor’s dead mother. Victor and Elizabeth start arguing right away. Harlander rents a scary old castle for Victor to do his work in, and it’s… excessive. They start assembling equipment and looking for bodies– even before they’re hanged.
Meanwhile, Victor starts stalking Elizabeth. He pretends to be a priest to take her confession– nope, they’re just playing a game; they’re actually getting closer as William is busy managing the assembly of the lab. It’s a lot of work, and Victor is taking him for granted as he steals his gal away at the same time.
Harlander catches on to the affair and tells Victor to hurry up before the funding dries up. The war is having one final battle, and Victor gets his choice of all the good body parts. He gets down to the business of assembling the perfect body with Harlander photographing and documenting everything. Harlander reveals that he’s dying of syphilis and wants to be “included” in the experiment - put his brain in the new healthy body. Victor says there’s nothing left of Harlander that’s not infected, so he won’t do it.
It’s finally finished, and just then, a thunderstorm approaches. Victor gets the body into the machine and gets everything set up. Harlander, angry about being rejected, threatens to ruin everything, and Victor kills him accidentally. The lightning rod collector piece is damaged in the struggle, but Victor has no time to fix it.
Lightning strikes, and all sorts of things happen– except the body doesn’t live. It failed. Victor goes to bed.
When he wakes up, the creature is standing next to the bed, very much alive. He’s tall, gray, and scarred all over. He shows it around the castle, and it all goes pretty well for a while. Then he chains it up like a prisoner; he never considered what to do after the creature came to life.
Weeks pass, and the creature learns some things, but he still doesn’t speak other than to say “Victor.” He cuts himself and heals almost instantly. Victor’s a rotten parent and teacher. William and Elizabeth arrive for a surprise visit, and she meets the creature accidentally. She thinks Victor has been abusing and neglecting it, and she’s nice to it.
One night, Victor is beating on the creature and sees just how strong it really is. He blames Harlander’s death on the creature, telling William that it’s violent and dangerous. Victor sends William and Elizabeth home and then burns the lab, the castle, and the dungeon. With the creature still chained up inside. The whole castle explodes and collapses, and Victor loses a leg in the blast.
Back on the ship, the monster arrives and breaks in. The captain wants to hear his side of the story.
Part II The Creature’s Tale
We continue with the fire. He broke out of the chains and got out of the castle through the drain. It’s a rough fall, but he survives and walks away. He finds the pile of corpses and body parts that Victor threw out and takes some clothing from one of them. He’s almost immediately chased by hunters and shot.
He goes off and hides in the barn of a farmhouse. The family in the farmhouse talk to the hunters. The creature sees and hears them through the cracks in the wall; he especially likes the old blind man, the grandfather. The creature watched and learned as the old man taught the little girl to speak and read. Each night, he did chores and made things for the family, but they never saw him.
There’s a wolf attack on the family’s sheep, and most of them plan to hunt them in the mountains all winter. They leave the old blind man home alone, and the creature eventually reveals himself to the old man. The old man is nice to him, which is a new experience for the creature. They have conversations, the creature reads books and gains a lot of knowledge.
The creature makes a return visit to Victor’s castle and learns what he really is. He also learns where Victor lives. When he returns to the old man’s house, the wolves have killed him. Just then, the family returns and stabs and shoots the creature repeatedly. It takes a while, but he gets back up, his wounds healed.
Meanwhile, Victor is back at the family home; William’s wedding is fast approaching. The creature has tracked him down and watches the house from the nearby woods. They finally meet, and Victor wants the creature to thank him. The creature, on the other hand, wants Victor to make him a companion. “I cannot die, and I cannot live alone.”
Victor, unsurprisingly, refuses to listen. Victor then shoots Elizabeth by mistake and the creature kills William. He carries Elizabeth out of the mansion and into a nearby cave. As she slowly dies, Elizabeth tells the creature that she’s happier dead and that she loves the monster.
The monster decides that Victor will regret his decision and the hunt begins. Victor chases the monster through the mountains up to the arctic. The monster finally catches him. The monster simply wants to die at this point, and he holds onto a piece of Victor’s dynamite to see what will happen. He goes boom, but that still doesn’t kill him. He starts healing immediately. This is where the men from the ship came into the story.
On the ship, Victor apologizes to the creature. They talk about life and death and unending life. The monster then forgives Victor as his creator dies.
The captain then allows the creature to leave without a fight. The creature walks out onto the ice and pushes the ship free from where it’s been trapped. The captain announces he will give up his impossible mission and just go home. The creature, on the other hand, walks off into the sunrise…
Brian’s Commentary
The visuals are amazing here, both colorful and drab at the same time. They change around the family dynamic with Victor and the crew, but it sticks pretty closely with the book for the major plot points.
Most of the effects are practical, and when the CGI does appear, such as with the wolf attack, it’s noticeably bad. Otherwise, it looks great, the acting is excellent all around, and even though it’s two and a half hours, it never gets boring and never slows down.
The ending is different from the book. It’s not exactly a happy ending, but it’s not like the book, either. I’m not sure why del Toro felt the need to change the ending, but he did.
Overall, it’s a very good movie, but it’s still not a perfect adaptation of the original book– but it’s close.
Kevin’s Commentary
The director pushed for practical sets, and they look great. Unfortunately, at least when viewed on a television screen, it makes the CGI use more noticeable. And we also noticed how multiple places - such as the lab, Captain’s cabin, and blind man’s house are all bigger on the inside.
It’s a long film, but it moves well, and I was never bored.
All in all, I thought it was a grand and satisfying version of the story. I liked it a lot.
2025 The Elixir
AKA “Abadi Nan Jaya”
Directed by: Kimmo Stambel
Written by: Agasyah Karim, Khalid Kashogi, Kimo Stamboel
Stars: Mikha Tambayong, Eva Celia Latjuba, Donny Damara
Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a frenetic attack of fast zombies that only has a short interval of getting to know some characters before it starts going full tilt. The effects and action sequences are all excellent. There isn’t a lot that’s very new here, but it’s well made and entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a big party for a circumcision ceremony. Ningsih and her boyfriend argue over him proposing or not. He’s about to do it when the phone rings. He has to go back to work and promises to return later. Suddenly, a car comes out of nowhere and crashes the party– literally. At first, they think the driver is drunk, but no, he’s a zombie. Credits roll.
Five hours earlier, the herbalist company makes some kind of new “medicine” and sends it to the boss by motorcycle courier. The courier drives through the place where they’re setting up the party for later. He arrives at the boss’s house with his sample.
Rud, Nes, and Han talk about a business arrangement with her father, Sadimin. Meanwhile, Karina talks to Sadmin, the boss, about his “sample” from the lab. She wants to go on another honeymoon with him. Nes won’t speak with Karina, and hasn’t for the past three years. Little Han complains to his uncle that his parents are always fighting; Rud runs the company for her father, who is retiring. The uncle, Bambang, seems to have a lot of guns in his bedroom.
Sadimin looks in the mirror after his sample, and he looks quite a bit younger– it works! As he has sex with his young wife, we see something nasty growing on his back. He then decides he doesn’t want to sell his company, which annoys Rud and Ical, who were hoping for a big payout. This new product, this elixir, changes everything!
As the family argues, Sadimin begins to throb and pulse. Soon, he’s screaming and puking all over. Everyone panics that the old man is dead, but then he sits up, fully zombified, and eats one of the servants. No, two of the servants. By the time he attacks Bambang, the rest of the family tries to intervene. The old man ends up getting shot through the head with an arrow.
The surviving servant, Aris, gets in the car to go report what happened. He’s covered in blood that Sadiman vomited all over him and looks like he got bit.
Back at the house, the dead servant, Pardi, also gets up, and he’s not looking good at all. As Nes and Bambang sit in the car, things spiral out of control behind them. When they go back inside, there’s blood and nastiness everywhere.
Meanwhile, Aris is fully infected in the car, leading to what we saw in the opening scene. Soon, the partygoers are all infected.
All the characters we know call each other and agree to meet at the chief’s house. Turns out, that’s where the party was, and by now, it’s all gotten way out of hand. Nes and Bang drive up and see what’s happening, but Rud, Karina, and Han are trapped inside the house. Bang drives the car away, leading the group of zombies away from the house– right into town.
Meanwhile, Rudi’s been bitten, and Karina and Han try to patch him up while hiding in an old farmhouse. Rudi knows he’s doomed and says goodbye to his son.
Bang and Nes arrive at the police station and try to explain what happened. Karina and Han meet Ningsih, who seems to be the only survivor from the party. The four mostly unarmed cops then go outside to investigate and end up joining the herd.
Ningsih’s boyfriend, Rahman, is the last remaining cop, and he ends up barricaded inside the police station with Nes and Bang. He calls for reinforcements, but they get wiped out as well. Nes and Karina call each other on the phone and make up for their prior arguments.
Rahman remembers that they have tons of fireworks that the police station has confiscated; maybe they can use those as a distraction. They’ve also got plenty of large guns and riot gear inside with them. They make a run for it, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The only thing that saves them is a thunderstorm; the rain seems to put all the zombies into a trance.
Meanwhile, Ningsih, Han, and Karina get out of the barn on a motorcycle, with zombie-Rudi in pursuit. Soon, most of the characters are together, trapped inside a truck. They end up driving right through the police station. Ningsih and Rahman get bitten, and Bang gets pinned by the truck. Rudi shows up and it’s a hand-to-hand battle between him and whoever’s left. Rahman finally proposes to Ningsih as they both die, and then Bang goes out with a… Bang!
Kenes, Karina, and Han get out during the explosion. Nes finds that she’s been bit and says she can’t come with the other two. She then walks off into a field and shoots herself.
Karina and Han ride the motorbike off into the countryside as the sun rises. We also see that the zombies are still following them.
We cut to the city, where Sadmin’s business partner receives the second sample of the new medicine. His wife suddenly looks so much younger…
Brian’s Commentary
Untested, unapproved herbal medicine. What could go wrong?
This one is Indonesian, and we don’t see much from there. That’s good because they were really able to take their time on the creature effects. It starts off like a soap opera with a family business and quickly goes in a whole new direction with the elixir.
It’s a little long, but it never drags. Overall, it’s pretty good!
Kevin’s Commentary
Once a fast zombie outbreak starts, it would be mighty hard to stop. As the folks in this movie find out. And just what the heck was in that herbal concoction they were selling?
I appreciated that this one gets to the action quickly and pretty much keeps going steadily with it. It’s very well made and entertaining in that fast zombie kind of way.
I’ve noticed that a necessary ingredient for characters’ reactions in this kind of movie is that they live in a universe where zombie movies don’t exist, so they have never seen one. It would be interesting to see a movie like this one where they have all seen movies like this one such as “Train to Basan” and “World War Z.”
I’d say that I liked it.
2025 The Mannequin
Directed by: John Berardo
Written by: John Berardo
Stars: Isabella Gomez, Jack Sochet, Lindsay LaVanchy
Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A year after her sister’s death, a woman returns to an old building to set up the artist space that her sister wanted. But it’s complicated by ghosts and stuff. Neither of us thought this was very entertaining. There’s a lot of talk and it’s kind of dull, even in the scary parts.
Spoilery Synopsis
Ruth, an old-timey model, stands for a photo shoot as Jack, the photographer, talks to her about big stars that he’s worked with. He then stops to take her measurements. He talks her into changing into another outfit. When she’s done, he kills her with an ax. He then poses her with her decapitated head on the body of a mannequin. Credits roll.
In the present day, two sisters, Sophia and Liana, look at the same building, now empty and ready to move in. Liana goes home and finds her boyfriend Peter, a ghost finder streamer, is finishing his show. They all end up going to Nadine’s big party tonight. Liana breaks up with her boyfriend after the party.
The next day, Sophia brings her friends Nadine and Hazel over to see the new workspace, and they all admire the creepy looking mannequin that came with the furniture. The two sisters then argue about their lives.
That night, working alone, Sophia gets a shock. So does Liana– her boss fires her. In the morning, Liana goes to the old building to look for Sophia and finds her in a puddle of blood. The police declare it a suicide.
One year later, the property manager calls Liana; he’s been storing all Sophia’s stuff. She’s taking over the lease. That night, Liana hallucinates seeing Sophia in the workspace. Nadine and Hazel stop in for a visit, and they aren’t happy that Liana just abandoned them last year. Eventually, they all make up.
Hazel spends the night in the workspace with Liana and has a nightmare. When she wakes up, things get worse for her. Liana wakes up and finds Hazel cutting herself.
Some time later, Nadine and Liana confront Hazel about her attempted suicide, which Hazel insists didn’t happen. This all ends up in an argument, and they all go to Nadine’s place. That night, Nadine cuts herself and then chases after Hazel with a knife. She then puts her hand in the garbage disposal. She loses fingers.
All three girls now realize something is going on. Who they gonna call? The ghost-buster, aka, Peter. He already knows stories about that old factory. It was built as a mannequin factory, but then Jack Bernard started using it as a photographic studio. Over the next few decades, other models died there. Each of the women were missing various body parts. He was eventually caught and killed himself, also in this building.
They all go back to the building, and Peter uses his ghost hunting devices to locate an ax. He then gets some loud jump scares and then puts blood on the mannequin, who hasn’t done a darned thing to him. He does a whole exorcism ritual over the mannequin. After, he says they need to chop it up and burn it; he uses the ax he found downstairs. Sure enough, the missing body parts are inside the mannequin.
Liana then attacks Peter with the ax, and he loses a hand. Hazel and Nadine pull her out, screaming. We then see that the building manager is Jack’s own grandson, and he knew about everything all along.
Liana, Nadine, Hazel, and Peter go to Sophia’s grave. At the building, the manager brings in a new tenant for a photo studio. We see the mannequin, all glued back together, in the corner…
Brian’s Commentary
Jump scares that involve nothing beyond sudden loud noises are cheap cheats. Loud music is not scary.
So they found a mannequin full of old body parts and no one bothered to call the police? Right.
It’s really dull. Most of it made no real sense, but the primary sin is not to be boring, and this one didn’t quite pass that mark.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s a good thing they used loud music to let us know when to be startled and scared.
The whole situation was unsettling and disturbing, but I thought it was a story on the thin side that was too stretched out with a lot of time spent on people yakking about stuff. Luckily the main character had an ex who was a ghost-hunter podcaster who could research the building history and show up with his ghost detecting electronics.
It’s a bit less than an hour and a half long, but it seemed much longer.
1993 Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II
Directed by: Takao Okawara, Kazuki Omori
Written by: Yutaka Izubuchi, Wataru Mimura, Shinji Nishikawa
Stars: Masahiro Takashima, Ryoko Sano, Megumi Odaka
Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
While humanity is putting together a mechanical answer to Godzilla, Rodan hatches - as well as a baby relative of the giant lizard. It’s loaded with science fiction science, monster battles, human drama, and collateral damage. The effects keep getting a bit better with each movie too. We both thought it was entertaining fun.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on scientists looking at the severed robotic head of King Ghidorah. It’s 1992, and Japan has recruited a bunch of scientists to build a fighting machine, Garuda, but it was ineffective. They used the head of Mecha-Ghidorah from the future and learned how it worked to build an all-new, much improved fighting machine. They call it Mechagodzilla. Credits roll.
Kazuma, one of the scientists, explains things to Yumi about Garuda. He gets reassigned to “G-Force.” There’s lots of training, including martial arts, before he gets to study Godzilla.
Meanwhile, some men find dinosaur bones on an island. It’s a Tyrannodon. There’s also an intact egg. And an empty egg shell. Azusa is one of the scientists, and she sees a giant flying reptile on the cliffs above the camp. It makes the egg glow. It must have come from the second egg, gotten irradiated, and mutated just like Godzilla.
Suddenly, Godzilla shows up and shoots his laser breath at the flying monster. They fight for a while as the scientists scramble around trying to not be killed. The fight is still ongoing as the humans fly off in their helicopter, along with the egg.
Professor Omae studies the egg; will it hatch? Kazuma comes to visit; he’s a fan of Tyrannodons, and Azusa finds him irritating. The egg’s color changes depending on its emotion. Also, it’s listening to the scientists’ voices, and it’s very attached to Azusa.
Miki, from the previous few films, arrives with Kazuma. She wants the professor to get her psychic children to identify an object Kazuma took from the egg. It’s encoded with music, and when they play it, the egg gets upset– and hatches.
Turns out the egg isn’t one of those flying dinosaurs, it’s a small version of Godzilla! Miki names it a Godzillasaur, and it seems pretty nonviolent. Miki jumps; she senses Godzilla, the big one, is approaching and attacking the city.
The Mechagodzilla team runs to the machine, but Kazuma is AWOL. They prep and launch the giant robot, which can fly. They head toward Tokyo, where Godzilla is. They battle on and on as Godzilla searches for the little one, which is moved to a safe room. Godzilla eventually just wanders off empty-handed.
Kazuma is reassigned to manage the parking lot. The baby goes to live in a special zoo while the humans repair Mechagodzilla. Kazuma suggests a way to improve his Garuda machine to work with Mechagodzilla.
Kazuma shows Azusa his new mechanical flying Teranodon, and they ride it around the zoo. Miki brings the whole class of psychic children to see the baby, and they sing a song for him. The song excites the baby, and far away, Rodan also wakes up.
The military wants to use the baby as bait to lure Godzilla to an uninhabited island. They want Miki to go along inside Mechagodzilla to oversee the project. Azusa needs to go along to keep the baby calm.
Before they can do much, Rodan attacks the city. When the baby gets upset, Rodan comes to protect him; they’re half-brothers, as the general points out. Rodan grabs the container holding Azusa and the baby.
Mechagodzilla is launched again, as is Garuda, a big spaceship-looking flying fighter. Actually, Kazuma has stolen Garuda since he helped design it. Rodan quickly knocks Garuda out of the sky, leaving Mechagodzilla to try alone. The big machine eventually knocks out Rodan. It’s all fine now.
No, because Godzilla chooses this moment to show up. Mechagodzilla has taken a lot of damage, and not all the weapons work anymore. The real Godzilla beats the machine easily.
Garuda comes back online, and Kazuma gets back in the battle. Garuda lands on Mechagodilla’s back, making it “Super-MechaGodzilla.”
The scientists have determined that Godzilla has a second brain deep inside his torso, and they order Miki to blow it up, which she doesn’t want to do. When it goes Godzilla cannot walk.
As Godzilla lays dying, the baby gets angry and breaks out of his container. He roars and wakes up Rodan again. Rodan lands on Godzilla and transfers power into Godzilla, reconstituting Godzilla’s brain. Rodan then dissolves.
Super-overcharged Godzilla gets up, and he’s not happy. Really not happy. Mechagodzilla’s armor plating starts to melt and soon explodes.
Azusa gives Baby Godzilla a tearful goodbye, and all the humans fly off in a helicopter. Azusa tells Miki to telepathically contact Godzilla and convince him to take the baby away. They both march off into the ocean until next time…
Brian’s Commentary
The creature effects in this one have jumped up several levels. There’s a bit of CGI, but nothing looks cartoony. This one has more monster action than any of the previous films, but it’s all entertaining, not just men in suits jumping around.
This was a good balance of the fighting monsters and the high-tech weapons. This is one of the better ones.
Kevin’s Commentary
There’s just no defeating Godzilla, at least not permanently. The collateral damage in this one seemed especially heavy - and the model work keeps getting better.
It was noticeable with this one that it wasn’t a purely Japanese cast, they added in a few international helpers.
It was a very good entry in the series, well put together. I liked this one a lot.
2025 Black Phone 2
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Written by: Joe Hill, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw
Run Time: 1 Hour, 54 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Four years later, Finn and Gwen are back and struggling with the trauma of the previous movie. The Grabber is back too, sort of. They, along with a few new friends, all go to a camp where they get snowed in and scary stuff happens. This seemed like a bit of a reach to make a second movie, but here it is. It’s not too bad, but the story is on the weak side, and we weren’t very pleased with it overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 1957 in the Rocky Mountains. Hope stands in a very remote payphone in the mountains. She talks to the person on the other end about a dream; she got the phone number from her dream. The call gets creepy and she walks away. Credits roll as we see action shots of many icy cold places.
It’s now 1982, about four years after the first movie, and we watch Finn beat up a kid on the playground. The other kid picked on Finn for the stories about him killing a serial killer. Gwen thinks all the fighting is bad. Ernesto likes Gwen, and he wants her to go see Duran Duran with him.
That night, Finn has a flashback to his time with The Grabber; he’s still not completely over it.
We cut to what appears to be a children’s camp in the past and then someone brutally killed children in the snow. Gwen has nightmares and sleepwalks; she’s not over it either.
In the morning, Ernesto brings Gwen some king of Tarot-like cards. She’s got a “spooky” reputation at school, and he thinks that’s pretty cool.
Gwen has another dream, and this time, she answers the Black Phone, and it’s Hope from 1957 that we saw earlier. The dream told her to call here. Gwen knows who that was; it was her mother calling from a youth camp.
Later, Gwen does more research. She finds Camp Alpine Lake; it’s a real place, and she wants to go. Their father knows about it, since their mother worked there.
Finn, Gwen, and Ernesto get jobs at the camp and drive there. The camp is pretty remote, and it snows all the way there. They are met there by Mando and Mustang; the camp’s been cancelled until the storm passes, and they’re the only ones who have shown up.
Finn hears the payphone ringing. “I’m sorry but I can’t help you.” Still, it’s very insistent. It’s the Grabber, Meanwhile, Gwen has dreams of dead people breaking into her cabin. Gwen then talks about her dreams and Finn’s phone calls with Ernesto.
In the morning, they talk to Mando about their mother, and he remembers her. Finn gets a call from a little boy who doesn’t remember anything. “We weren’t supposed to be here.”
Gwen finds out that Barbara and Kenneth, the people who run the camp, don’t like her. Gwen dreams about her mother getting a similar phone call to the one Finn got. Finney, on the other hand, talks to The Grabber on the phone and talks about what he wants. The Grabber wants revenge for what Finn did to him.
Meanwhile, Gwen gets picked up in her dream by The Grabber and thrown around the room. Mando, Mustang, Ernesto, and the others all see this happen.
The whole camp group gets together; this isn’t their first experience with weirdness. Gwen tells how the three boys died, and Mando recognizes all of it. The Grabber used to be a worker there when Gwen’s mother was there. Mando has been looking for the dead children’s bodies for decades. The Grabber got his start here at camp; he had his first kills here.
Mando is alone later when he gets a call over the radio from The Grabber. Suddenly, the lights go out. He goes to talk to Finn.
In the morning, they all go out to the frozen lake to clear the surface and look for the three boys’ bodies. They spend all day and don’t find anything.
Gwen dreams of her mother getting kidnapped by The Grabber. And she sees that it wasn’t suicide, The Grabber killed her. He then starts chasing Gwen all over the house and outside as well. He sabotages Mando out on the ice and really messes up Gwen, who is asleep in her cabin.
The boys yell for Gwen to fight back, and, in the dream, she does. She takes charge, realizing she’s the powerful one here.
Mando says he found Felix, one of the dead boys under the ice. Terrence, Gwen and Finn’s father, shows up in a snowplow to rescue them, but Gwen insists that they stay. She tells Terrence that his wife didn’t kill himself; The Grabber got her. She was onto the killer because of her dreams, and he found out.
In the morning, they all go out to the lake and continue to look for bodies. It gets dark with no luck.
Gwen falls asleep and sees The Grabber coming at her on ice skates. He gets Kenneth and Barbara, who totally had it coming. He attacks Finn next, who also fights back.
Gwen, in the dream, brings back The Grabber’s three victims to fight him. She whacks the killer with his own ac and then tears his mask off. With the bodies found, he’s powerless. They end up dumping him a hole in the lake, and the other ghosts drag him to the bottom.
Mando calls the dead boys’ parents for closure. On the way out, the phone rings, and Gwen gets to talk to her mother again. She says Gwen doesn’t have a curse; this is all a good thing.
Brian’s Commentary
So The Grabber is basically Freddy now, able to manipulate and attack from within a dream. Gwen could fight back in much the same way. They killed the baddie in the previous film, so they had to do something to bring him back; the “Freddy” stuff didn’t work for me, though.
No one got hypothermia from being in the water of a frozen lake? Actually, other than some injuries, no one died in the film at all, at least not in the present day.
It’s a very COLD movie. The scenery is dark and atmospheric, with every shot demonstrating just how cold it is in the mountains. The acting is fine, the setting is amazing, and the plot is thin, but workable. It really goes into the PTSD and trauma that the survivors of the first movie feel; the supernatural stuff almost feels like an interruption of the moody stuff.
I think it was probably better than the first one, which I found to be pretty forgettable.
Kevin’s Commentary
It pleases me that they brought back the same actors for Finn and Gwen, who were about 13 in the first movie and about 17 here.
I guess it would make a kind of sense that The Grabber would be able to exploit the supernatural channels himself that were used against him in the first movie.
The first movie was pretty forgettable. I had to look up our previous review for a refresher. I have no doubt I’ll be filing this one away too. I thought it drags and the stakes didn’t engross me much. And like Brian said, the Freddy vs Dream Warriors stuff didn’t work for me either. I’m going to go with liking it a bit less than the first one.
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