If you have seen the first film then you know what to expect here--if not no need to worry there is not a major storyline or continuation of sorts that will leave you scratching your head.
We have a group of five people who are looking for the killer from the first film, one of them, Max(holding the mask) has found some of the killer's items --(a mask & knife)-somewhere he is not telling the rest of the group. He has recruited a writer, his daughter Laura & two of her close friends.
Jon Kempling & his daughter Laura are the family of Sarah who was one of the missing teens in the original film.
From the start Laura(Danielle Harris) & Gus((Gary Kaspar) are uneasy about Max and make no bones about it --Gus even tries to intimidate Max.(below)
A standoff happens and Laura quickly breaks up the male macho b.s and tells the group to get with it and get moving, Gus tells Max that he will have his eyes on him.
We then go to a bunker where they feel this is the best possible place for the killer to be.
As the movie progresses slowly, we are then able to get to know the characters a little better than they tend to do in this kind of slasher film, which might bore someone looking for constant blood and guts as a lot of the films seem to be going to for lack of a storyline.
What is different here is that we don't have teenagers having sex and then dying, instead we have adults who are past that stage in their lives and are looking for answers. Someone has other intentions, that are hinted at the start of the film & we already know who that is.
Gus is the big man of the movie, a tough demeanor with the heart of a teddy bear and loyal and protective of his friends. Very compassionate and sincerely sorry when one of his friends perish at the hand of the killer, I really liked the genuine emotion felt in the scene.
The killer or known as the Burlap Killer here is as menacing as Jason Vorhees(Friday The 13th) more so when Kane Hodder was behind the mask, here we have the head movements like a dog trying to understand what you are saying and the heavy breathing -shoulders and chest moving, really helps that Benjamin Selway is a big man too and he does the character well as needed.
It takes a while before we see the first kill but when they start to happen don't worry there are enough to make the slasher fans happy I think, and some surprises that I didn't see coming at all.
With only three female characters in the film, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they were written, they are not scantly clad or naked at any point of the film, we're past that here thankfully.
Laura played by Danielle Harris(above) is a very strong character and played so strongly by Danielle, she is easily the best actor in the film and everyone else is better when they are in a scene with her. When we first meet her she is in the ring with a man and doing some punches and kicks to let us know that she's got some fighting abilities and she shows us how well she is trained later on in the film.
Danielle Harris has been very good from the first time I saw her in Hallowe'en 4 & 5.
She was also in Rob Zombie's Hallowe'en 2 and The Soska Sisters film See No Evil 2, plus many other films and television shows.
The other aspect of the film for me is once they reach their destination in the bunker, Laura & Gus find an old generator that is not working, together they get it to work but also note that someone has kept it going for whatever reason, there is more going on here than they or we know.
The ending pulls out all the stops Gus & the Burlap Killer have some hand to hand combat and then, things happen right out of left field and gives us a surprise ending that I never saw coming.