Review #362: Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000)
Twelve More Slays of Christmas #4 - Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000)
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman follows Sam, the same protagonist from the first film, a year after he defeated the serial-killer-turned-mutant-snowman Jack Frost by melting him in a truck bed full of antifreeze. This time around Sam is off on a tropical vacation in the Bahamas or Jamaica or something, while unknown to him some government scientists have managed to get their hands on the dissolved remains of Jack Frost himself and have accidentally returned him to Snowmanhood so Jack somehow found his way (due to genetic engineering shenanigans) to Sam's island getaway so he can get his revenge. Nothing else really needs to be said (or even can be said)- that's basically it, Jack kills some people and Sam defeats him again. Yadda yadda yadda.
The original Jack Frost was no masterpiece; in fact it was pretty terrible production-wise, but it had some real charm that won me over. It took itself just seriously enough, and had some genuinely interesting ideas that went above and beyond how dumb the rest of it was. Even if they didn't have any new ideas, it shouldn't have been too difficult to just make more of the same- but Jack Frost 2 is worse in basically every regard. The budget seems lower, the script seems mostly improvised, and overall this one just seems to have considerably less effort put in at every level.
In the previous movie the killer was mostly silent as he picked off various townsfolk one by one, eventually becoming a bit more animated and quippy as he honed in on his ultimate target. In this one, Jack spends pretty much the whole movie just sitting on the sidelines spouting one-liners and reacting to the other characters as they go about their business (with Jack somehow always being unheard and unseen despite making tons of noise and moving around in plain view of the characters- it should be noted that the whole point of his stealth in the first movie was that it was winter so a snowman can blend in anywhere, whereas this movie takes place on a tropical island, so he should be MORE noticeable, not LESS). The first movie had its share of gags and jokes, but this one is almost nothing but- multiple characters exist purely to make corny jokes and mug to the camera at every opportunity. And while the first movie had some legitimately thought-provoking concepts revealed by the characters, this one instead has literally every character dismissing the protagonist's trauma at every opportunity, with even his psychiatrist making jokes right to his face about how the serial killer who murdered a dozen people doesn't exist.
Sam is the only character in this entire movie that's written like a real person; everyone else is a lazy caricature written by someone who doesn't know or doesn't care what the scene is about. The previous film already looked like low-budget schlock but this one makes the original look like high cinema.
Overall Rating: 3/10 Super Soakers with Laser Sights
Utilitarian Title: The subtitle "Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman" was specifically added because too many people mistook the original movie for the family film of the same name. Despite the subtitle, people still sometimes mistake it for a sequel to the Michael Keaton film.
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