This sequel comes four years after the first which Scott Derrickson directed after leaving Doctor Strange 2 due to ‘creative differences’. I remember liking that film thinking that it was atmospheric and felt like a stripped down film. This definitely does have some of that.
The setup for this film sees Gwen travel to the Alpine Lake camp because Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) has been having dreams and in an attempt to cock-block Ernesto (Miguel Mora), Finn (Mason Thames) decides to join them. Due to a massive snow storm the camp which is due to have loads of kids ends up having Finn, Gwen and Ernesto along with Mando (Damian Bichir) who owns the camp, Mustang (Arianna Rivas), Kenneth (Graham Abbey) and Barbara (Maev Beaty). The connection to the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) is then revealed and that three children that the Grabber killed were never recovered and finding the bodies is what the film becomes about so that they are freed and the Grabber is defeated.
There are things that I liked about this film. Firstly the setting is perfect. The roads are snowed in and so there is this superb isolated feeling going on. The isolated feeling along with the snow means that there is a lovely atmosphere to what’s going on. Madeleine McGraw is the lead of this film and she does a decent job. This is the second mason Thames film I have seen in 2025 (the other being How to Train Your Dragon) and he gets a bit of a raw deal as he is involved in things but doesn't really do anything. The trailers make his involvement seem more substantial but sadly he does seem like a supporting character which is quite a step down from the previous film. The character of Barb is unintentionally hilarious because she is the bible bashing person who is reluctant to help because Gwen is being fowl mouthed and just has amusing lines pretty much every time she speaks.
The dad is sort of pointless. It seems like he is just there for the scene where we see him discover Gwen’s mom after she hung herself and they make a point to reference that he is a recovering alcoholic but it never plays into anything so there is no point to it and also he call in to his place of work to use their snowplough and that just seems to allow him to get to the camp to have a heart to heart to heart with his kids but his role is quite small. They also seem to suggest a romance between Finn and Mustang and I don't know if this got cut but it's never referenced again until a line from the dad at the end.
I got Nightmare on Elm Street vibes with this and I don't know if that was obvious during the previous film but it felt like the film leant into that a bit too much to the point that I was half expecting Freddie Kruger to pop up at the end. The main issue with the film is the run time. It’s 114 minutes and it felt like the film was about 20 minutes too long. Horror films shouldn’t be more than 90 minutes because the stories usually don't have a plot that can last longer than 90 minutes. It’s only 11 minutes longer than the first one and yet this one seemed that it was outstaying its welcome because the plot takes too long to get going. Ethan Hawke is fine in this although it's the mask that was memorable from the first one and it looks really good in this film. As the villain, the Grabber is very good and the fact that he is just out for revenge is a simple case of motivation. I liked that as it wasn't overly complicated, which is the sort of thing that could have happened in a sequel.
This is a major let down after the first one. I thought that they struggled to get the film started and when they did it felt like some of the characters were under developed and the film ends with the Grabber at the bottom of the like like Friday the 13th: The New Blood so there might be a third one which isn’t out the realms of possibility and if this makes enough money then we will get one and if they do something new with it then I wouldn’t mind but I’m done with the Gwen/Finn story. This is worth seeing but maybe when it makes its way to streaming.
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