I actually found this movie to be more engaging than the first one. It was interesting to go back to the time of Camp Nightwing and the Romeo and Juliet vibes were definitely stronger here, what with the Capture the Flag and the red and blue shirts to differentiate the two different towns.
Apart from Nick, I thought that the characters from Sunnyvale really weren’t developed at all, apart from being mean jerks. Right from the beginning, I had a strong dislike for the majority of the Sunnyvale characters. In stark contrast to the first movie, none of the characters were killed until they’d been developed enough for me to actually start caring about them.
While it was obvious how this movie would end, due to the first movie in the trilogy, there was still enough mystery to keep me invested in the movie. The slow advancement to the killer being revealed was enough to engage me in the struggles faced by the characters, both those involving the killer and those outside of the current situation they were involved in.
I did think that some of the choices made by the characters were stupid ones (taking pills that you have no idea what they are springs to mind), but they did make some good decisions where it really counted.
I found Cindy to be an interesting character, even though I found her hard to understand at first. In comparison to the others, I felt that she grew the most as a person. By the end of the movie, I really didn’t like Nick. While I could understand his reasoning, it didn’t really seem to fit with his actions as the Sherriff at the end of the first movie.
There was a lot of gore and violence in this movie; which was only to be expected, of course. But there was still the opportunity to learn some more about some of the past killers. For instance, Nurse Lane provided some good insight into her daughter’s tragic back story.
I did enjoy this movie a bit more than the first one. I thought the characters shown in this were better developed before the violence started. And I did feel really bad for Tommy, who seemed so confused about what was happening at the start. The killer’s hood in the first movie made a lot of sense while I was watching this movie.
All in all, I thought that this movie was engaging and I liked Deena, Josh and Sam’s appearance from the first movie. Though I did question what Deena had done about her wound from the end of the first movie. And the beginning scene of this movie, with the alarms going off, did a really good job of setting the scene. Plus, there were some really good elements of foreshadowing.
I’m looking forward to seeing the third movie in this trilogy, if only to find out the town’s true history…and in the hopes that Sarah Fier’s story isn’t just ‘evil for the sake of being evil.’
Ink of Blood 