Friday the 13th Vengeance 2: Bloodlines

The look is great. The sound and music is great. The cast is wonderful and the story is inventive. One or two small knit picks, but overall this was a wonderful additional to Friday the 13th. CJ Graham, Darcy Demoss, Tom McLoughlin, Thom Mathews all Part VI alumni returning to be a part of this. A few other notables as well. Jason Brooks wrote a fantastic script and really showed his abilities as a director AND he played Jason Voorhees! I would trust these people with any future project. What a great ride! It did not feel like nearly two hours. I also can't wait to have the DVD as part of my collection. This will be a multiple watch film for me.

I don't know what I expected, I think I assumed the worst but I didn't think it would actually be this bad.

The acting is school nativity play level.

The visuals are bowling shoe ugly.

The script is terrible, it doesn't know if it wants to be super serious or comedic and some of the lines I have to assume were contributions from the writers kid because I struggle to believe that an adult wrote that.

Jason looks awful, when he turns to the side you can see these dreadful oversized plastic teeth that are so far from believable it looks like something out of a Hammer Horror movie.

And then the guy who plays Voorhees dad? Wow, don't ever let him in front of a camera again!

Plot

Elias Voorhees (C. J. Graham) is back and has plans for his undead son Jason Voorhees (Jason Brooks) that involve bringing an end to the Jarvis family once and for all.

Cast

Same creators, a few of the first films cast and Friday 13th Thom Matthews makes an appearance.

Verdict

I need to say two things straight out of the gate.

1) Friday the 13th Vengeance (2019) was quite frankly offensive, an absurdly terrible film that was an absolute insult to the fans and I couldn't wash the mental stain it left for weeks afterwards.

2) This is shilled into oblivion, I despise it when people do that. Check the reviews, check the profiles of those saying it's incredible, Jason is "Back" and the suspicious consistent director praise by name.

Right, now I have that out the way let's get to it. I expected more of the same, I expected this to be dire but surprisingly it wasn't and has a fair few bits going for it. Sadly those bits are held back by many of the flaws made in the first film.

Is it loyal to the source material? I suppose.

Is it very gory and has some interesting enough deaths? Sure Is the cinematography better than the last film? Absolutely

But here's the problem, much of the dialogue is juvenile and comes across as if it were written by a high school student, the acting ranges from average down to appalling, some people just shouldn't have been in this film or any film for that matter.

An example of how bad the dialogue is includes a moment where a corpse has donated his "Member" to science and we have a scene where it's removed and put in a jar. I can only assume this was meant to be comedic relief? It was stupid.

Bad writing, bad acting and shilled into next week. This is miles better than the first film but still not something I could confidently recommend to anybody, not even hardcore Friday 13th fans.

Rants

I hate shilling, I mean I really really really hate shilling. Last time I came across shilling this bad was the Fear Footage movies and to be fair that trilogy is on par with the first Vengeance movie, absolutely dire. I mean what is the point? I don't understand. And furthermore how stupid do they think people are? The wording is the same, you can tell it's the same people, they always fawn over the director by name which is very telling, they're always stupidly over the top with their praise and the profiles they come from have no other activity, minimal activity or just other reviews for coincidentally the same directors films. It's embarrassing, stop it.

Breakdown

Some decent deaths A few interesting lore moments Decent enough soundtrack Some very poor acting Terrible dialogue.

I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical when I sat down to watch the 2022 movie "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines". But I am huge fan of the "Friday the 13th" movie franchise, so of course I had to sit down and watch this one as I had the opportunity.

And color me impressed. This 2022 movie really surprised me. It felt, looked and sounded like a true "Friday the 13th" movie, you know from around parts VI, VII and VIII era. And those movies are by far the better of the entire franchise. And "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines" felt like it belonged right in there. So thumbs up to the crew involved with the production and creation of this movie.

The storyline, as written by Jason Brooks and Kim Terreson, was entertaining, and again it was straight out of the "Friday the 13th" franchise. The storyline is simplistic and straight forward, and laced with an abundance of Jason Voorhees murder spree scenes, which is the reason for why we love the franchise, isn't it?

The acting in "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines" was good, and Jason Brooks - who wrote, directed and played Jason Voorhees - did a good job at portraying the iconic serial slasher. He had a lot of Kane Hodder's mannerisms nailed down, and while he was good, then he was no Kane Hodder. It is odd why Kane Hodder wasn't a part of this and donned the iconic hockey mask once more. It was a nice treat to see Thom Mathews return to the scene as Tommy Jarvis.

The music in the movie was good, and it was kept in the score similar to that of "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives". And it worked so marvelously in favor of the tone of the movie.

There is an abundance of brutal killing scenes throughout the course of "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines", and it certainly was sufficient to please a seasoned gorehound such as myself.

Visually then "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines" is good. I like the special effects and make-up. It was clear that it was made by people with a sincere love and admiration of the "Friday the 13th" franchise.

"Vengeance 2: Bloodlines" was an enjoyable and entertaining surprise, and I was really impressed with the production, the feel and sound of this movie. They definitely captured the essence and spirit of the late 1980s "Friday the 13th" franchise.

If you enjoy watching Jason Voorhees on the screen and enjoy the "Friday the 13th" franchise, then you seriously have to sit down and watch director Jason Brooks' 2022 movie "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines".

My rating of "Vengeance 2: Bloodlines" lands on an eight out of ten stars.

With the tremendous challenges that face indie films, V2:B deserves rewatching much more so than many films on the big streaming platforms. On top of it containing a good balance of action, camp, fun-gore and characters, the tributing in this film to the series will draw you in to wanting to know more about it all. Special mentions: the performances of Kelly Tappan & Morgen Johnson - if the result of their work doesn't make you think 'That role was made for them'... see my opening comments and get back to me. And of course congratz to Jason Brooks and ALL of the VERY large crew and cast. The wrap party must have been a BLAST!