ChromeSkull picks up where the last movie left off. As the remaining surviors drive away from the gas station, police pull in. Tommy (Thomas Dekker) and The Girl (Allison Kyler) hole up at a motel, while we see a team of people trying to save ChromeSkull (Nick Principe). Preston (Brian Austin Green) is the person in charge of this operation. While the team manages to get ChromeSkull back into the land of the living, Preston discovers where The Girl is and heads off to take care of her. Tommy leaves to pick up some food for them, and that is when Preston shows up to kill The Girl. ChromeSkull isn't very happy about Preston taking his kill away from him, but there isn't much he can do about it...for now. Spann (Danielle Harris) sets ChromeSkull's sights on another girl, Jess (Mimi Michaels), who is slowly going blind.
Laid To Rest was hardly a perfect film. I had my problems with it, but the kills won me over. With ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2, the story takes a turn for the worse, if that was even possible. I can say this one good thing about the plot for the sequel: at least they don't have the characters running around in circles again. Once again Robert Hall directs, but this time he picks up a co-writer in Kevin Bocarde. Maybe that had something to do with the way the plot changes so much in this sequel. I could be wrong, but I don't recall there ever being a hint that ChromeSkull was working with anyone before. As others have pointed out, it is like they took a page from the Saw movies. There is Preston, who works under ChromeSkull, finding out that he also likes the thrill of the kill. It was easy to see that there would be a showdown between the two at some point. The mystery of who ChromeSkull is, and why he is doing his thing, is still there. Only a small flashback about him is found, and it doesn't really show much. In the first movie there was also the mystery of who The Girl is as well. There is no such mystery this time. In fact, Jess pretty much takes a backseat to Preston.
The effects are still top notch at least. While not as gory as I remember the first one being, there are still some effects to be found that will make the gore hound happy. While I question how well a knife, no matter how sharp it is, will be able to cut through the skull seeming so easy, it was still a sight to see. The effects were once again my favorite thing about this one, much like the first one. The acting was also pretty good. I was surprised while looking at the cast for this movie. Allison Kyler, who takes over the role for The Girl, looked a lot like Bobbi Sue Luther, so I just assumed that is who it was. I don't know why Hall couldn't get her to come back, considering that they are married, unless she didn't want to do the nudity. That leaves Thomas Dekker and Nick Principe as the only people to return for the sequel.
I have to give Hall some credit in trying to expand on his story instead of coming up with the same thing yet again as the first film. I just didn't care for the direction he decided on. ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2 takes things away from the people that ChromeSkull is after, and puts the entire story on the people working for ChromeSkull. Maybe I would have liked it better if the characters for the bad guys had been better. There is Jess who could have been the most interesting character in the film if Hall had allowed it. Her not being able to see well is played up a lot, but it is never really used to push the story forward. It is just there to try and make us feel bad for her I guess. Even though I didn't like ChromeSkull: Laid To Rest 2, I still have to up the rating just a little bit because of the gore once again. The ground work has been laid to put out a third movie, so lets hope Hall gets back to the basics this time. That is if Hall doesn't make it a prequel like he has been hinting at.
3 out of 5 More stupid cops, just what the movies need
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