I completely and utterly appreciate any modern day attempt to make a true B-movie fiasco, a “so bad, it’s good” cinematic atrocity, however, this very fine aesthetic tightrope which separates “good bad” from “bad bad” should only be walked by . . . well, I would state anyone but Michael Cooney yet, considering he managed to not only amble across said rope successfully with Jack Frost, he did so with grace and style. So what went wrong with his sequel, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman?
We really needn’t bother with a premise, for it is much the same as the original, only set on a tropical island. Interestingly, this is one facet of the film which Cooney manages to use to his advantage in that he issues the ol’ perpetually wind-blown scarf gag throughout the feature in the most ludicrous of locales, which is secondly only to his wryly granting us the very rare instance of a serial killer crying on camera (rarer than Jack Nicholson in tears), albeit, from the tear ducts of a snowman in a feature whose subtitle is unquestionably a candidate for one of the greatest in cinema history. Thus, considering the tone and lunacy of the original, i.e. a gross of killer snowballs whose only weakness is bananas (yes, that yellow phallic fruit), seems well in place in Cooney’s sequel, what could have possibly countered Cooney’s comic prowess to such a degree to merit a 3-star demotion within the span of only one film?
Cooney’s overriding error is not that he decided to make the film, but did so with only what appears to be 1/100th of the original’s already minuscule budget as the work appears to have been shot on a camcorder with the use of 60-watt lights for illumination. To add insult to superseding injury, Cooney also replaces a pivotal secondary character, Agent Manners, with a new actor (as opposed to writing him out of the script entirely–and, yes, any and everything with the exclusion of the titular character, is expendable in the feature). If it weren’t for the fact that Jack Frost is a cult classic, I would concur that switching faces could have been readily accomplished without missing a beat but, this in mind, I can only move onto the sad, sad note that even the original town’s name is misspelled in Cooney’s follow-up.
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman lapses from over-the-top black humor absurdity one minute, to asinine inanity the next, resulting in an unbalanced film which saturates its audience in equal portions of its trademark brand of stupidity and directorial indiscretions. In lieu of the aforementioned scarf gag and the very impressive subtitle, the horrendous production values greatly detract from the overall worth of the film, a deficit analogous to repeatedly dragging a wood rasp over one’s kneecap. We can only hope that Michael Cooney, if and when he decides to end the series, finds the resources to film on a technical level akin to his original and, if not, makes the wise decision to permit us to issue him benefit of the doubt as we conjecture what Jack Frost 3 could be like, as opposed to isn’t, as we graciously reflect back to the glory days of the original and conveniently ignore Jack Frost 2.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
