ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2: Review By The Cryptkeeper: Resurrected

I was a huge fan of the first film. But not right when it came out. In fact, right when I finally got a chance to watch the first one, I found out a sequel was debuting soon. I reserved a copy and it was pretty much as awesome as I had expected it to be, seeing as though it was the same writer/director, Robert Hall. I love it so much because it makes the first one actually make sense. At the end of the first film, there is still so much mystery involving Chromeskull, and this one clears it right up (mostly) and then it'll make you want to re-watch these two films again, back to back.

**Contains *big* spoilers to the FIRST Laid to Rest film, and *small* spoilers for the beginning/middle of Laid to Rest 2... Nothing about the ending, however.**

Picking up right where the first left off, Chromeskull being picked up by some weird organization that it seemed as though Chromeskull works for. Like I said this is established very early in the film. This group of people pick him up, and try to bring Chromeskull back to life after they burnt his face in at the end of the first. Then, it cuts to the two survivors of the first as they're in a hotel room. They are not too frightened seeing as though they think Chromeskull was alone, and he should have been extremely dead. However, they do have to fear, because three months later, Chromeskull is resurrected, and all done with surgery and wants to kill... Except someone from the organization Chromeskull works for wants to be a Chromeskull killer as well... I will not delve too far into any specific story, because I really do not want to give anything away from this epic movie. But this little story about the Chromeskull wanna-be is extremely weird, random, and yet it feels so right. The writing of this sequel was dead on, logical, and very fluent.

The director, again, is Robert Hall, like I said. He does an even better job this time, in fact. Everything that was slightly sloppy in the first film (I mentioned a little editing was poor in some areas in my review of the first film) but Robert Hall got his sh*t together for Laid to Rest 2, and really improved. I saw no drastic editing errors like in the first, and as well as the directing too, had improved and seemed more like a professional production, instead of a fun little horror flick, like part one was.

The acting seemed to improve as well. They get a new actress to play the survivor girl at the end of the first, and although she is not a main character in this film, she still seems a lot better. The other actors are fairly good as well. The new lead actress, a cute little blonde, is very good at looking scared as hell, and also has a good way of making an audience feel sorry for her character, who has a little back story/character development of her eye sight decreasing, and possibly going blind. I was slightly disappointed that this really had nothing to do with the film as far as plot of development of story line goes. However I can see why the writer decided to add it after a few repeat viewings, because it makes you care for her character more.

The visuals are about just as good as the first, except in higher quantity, same awesome quality. The gore is crazy, intense, and realistic (for the most part). They really stepped up an already gory film and made every death memorable, and way more than a simple little stab in the chest. If there is a stab in the chest, the killer will pull the knife upwards, creating a big, gaping hole in the chest. Both these films are so gory, that if you're squeamish, you should not view them.

Overall, this movie really delivers what I feel the audience of the first wants. It seemed at first to be a little of a weird stretch to have the whole organization thing going on, but I thought about it for a while, and now I dig it, and think that was a highly original approach.

Laid to Rest 3: Conception is in production now, which is a prequel (hence the title "Conception"). I think a prequel is needed, however this film left with somewhat of a cliffhanger, so I think that Robert Hall should close the series (at least not leave it hanging) and then make a prequel... But we'll see! There is something CRAZY after the credits. I'm kind of on the fence about it, and I think it maybe should have been cut, or in a later Laid to Rest film... But oh well, it's still pretty insane. Hope I have convinced you to go buy these two movies, because if you do, you'll be in for a true horror treat.