Alchemy Entertainment/Big City Pictures couldn’t generate enough revenue to sustain itself after only four movies despite its ambitious nature. Following the release of The Vault in 2001, Mel Johnson Jr. left the studio though Charles Band tried sustaining it. With Johnson gone, J.R. Bookwalter of Tempe Entertainment took over to produce a sequel to the label’s biggest hit, Killjoy. Rather than repeating the first film, Band and Bookwalter wanted to take the series in a new direction. Douglas Snauffer wrote the script, adding some inspiration from 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn, though he later regretted this decision. Unfortunately, the original actor Ángel Vargas couldn’t return for the sequel, so Troma veteran Trent Haaga replaced him. In her directorial debut was actress Tammi Sutton, who appeared in 2001’s Horrorvision and later directed six more films. After a short shooting schedule, Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil hit video stores in early 2002.
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Rating
Synopsis
Detention officers Denise Martinez (Debbie Rochon) and Lieutenant Harris Redding (Logan Alexander) must escort a group of juvenile delinquents. The group must spend 90 days at this location to help renovate a group home for fellow troublemakers. Unfortunately, their bus gets a flat tire on the way there, and they have no cell phone reception. Redding takes some of the delinquents to find reception when Raymon “Ray-Ray” Martin (Choice Skinner) finds a seemingly abandoned house. However, Ray-Ray gets shot by the home’s owner Lilly (Tammi Sutton), and the group manages to escape with him. They take refuge in the house of voodoo priestess Kadja Boszo (Rhonda Claerbaut), who says she can heal Ray-Ray. At the same time, delinquent Nicholas “Nic” Gordon (Austin Priester) asks Kadja to summon a revenge demon against the locals. She ends up calling the monstrous Killjoy (Trent Haaga), who soon wreaks havoc on our unlikely heroes.
Review
Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil does a lot to distinguish itself from the original, but it suffers from similar flaws. Like the first film, the pacing drags quite a bit, and it takes a while for things to pick up. Killjoy doesn’t show up until roughly 45 minutes in, but it gets much better once he does. Though Ángel Vargas’s performance is missed, Trent Haaga plays the demonic clown well and makes it his own. He doesn’t have the snappy one-liners of his predecessors, but he adds a menacing playfulness to the character. Not only that, but the makeup design is much better than how he looked in the first film. Admittedly, most of Haaga’s dialogue consists of laughing and chuckling, but it’s easy to see why he stuck around. Haaga would go on to play the character at least three more times.
Unfortunately, the rest of the cast doesn’t stand out much, but they serve their purpose well enough. The four main delinquents are mostly there as cannon fodder for Killjoy, but none of them are particularly annoying. Debbie Rochon primarily acts like she’s pissed the entire time, which fits her character, though she has some human moments. Admittedly, having the story revolve around a group of delinquents being reformed is a nice change of pace. Plus, the forest setting helps this stand out from the primarily urban environment of the original. There are some pretty fun kill scenes, though they’re not as wacky or silly as in the original. At an hour and seventeen minutes, the movie does feel padded at times, but it gets out relatively quickly. Overall, Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil slightly improves upon its predecessor while having some of the same flaws.
Buy Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3A77CHH.
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