Chromeskull: Laid to Rest (2011)

You can't keep a good psychopath down... unless you melt his face with acid and bash it in with a baseball bat; that would be a great tag line for this movie. We pick up right where the story of the first one left off. As anyone who saw the first movie all the way through you know there would be a sequel. So as the smoke settled from the finale of the first movie ChromeSkull's body disappeared from the crime scene and it seems there is a nefarious group called The Organization which facilitates the killer and his minions. Will this sequel hit the same chords to become somewhat of a cult following like the last movie? Let's take a look and see if old shiny face has it in him to kill again. This time around it seems we have got a little better talent when it comes to the acting. The addition of Brian Austin Green as Preston (who has not wanted to kill this guy since the 90210 days) and Danielle Harris as Spann were both great ideas and fit well. Nick Principe has been one of the few to return is this movie and reprises his role as ChromeSkull For the uneducated ChromeSkull is a bit of a high tech killer who wears a shoulder mounted camera when killing so he can enjoy the memories for eons to come. This time around we are see an Organization which CS and all of his cronies belong. Not a lot is said of this Organization so we really have no idea what it is for outside of an office and some warehouse space. The movie follows a pretty standard "shake and bake" slasher formula. Gruesome exaggerated killing like the first movie, rinse and repeat. I would like to give these guys some credit because you can see the production value has increased and this leads to better sets, effects and overall feel of the movie. Once again Robert Hall is at the helm to take us on another "not so pg-13" trip. The first movie did not skimp on gorey creative kills and the second did not disappoint either. I think having Hall at the helm has also helped to keep the makeup and effects pretty top notch seeing he is considered by many to be one of Hollywood's best. I did have an issue with the fact I felt like they were ripping the Saw series off a little. I mean come on, we now have minions doing some killing, a warehouse with different deadly areas kinda like weapons or traps and a killer too incapacitated to do his own bidding. I am in no way saying the first movie was original but it never felt like pieces were directly pulled from any one movie. So now it is up to Preston and Spann to get our shiny killer all patched up and back to what he does best, killing. Preston sees himself as the predecessor to ChromeSkull and goes as far as tattooing this upon himself. Spann is an assistant of sorts to the recuperating killer and also vying for top spot by tattling on Preston to show his lack of loyalty and misguidance. The story is pretty standard throughout the flick and rides on the killing much like the first. This whole "organization" bit was introduced but not explained at all. This led to a lot of head scratching and just plain did not help the story at all. The pacing was dreadful while the environments seemed even less dynamic than the last movie, which had an excuse because the budget was so low. The second half drags along and presents even more plot holes, some so big you could park a car in them. I am not saying the first movie was written better but it sure as hell was not worse. The first movie was more or less a delivery machine for some creative kills and lots of blood. When you go to make a sequel to a movie like Laid to Rest you need to not only up the an-tee on the killing but also the story, actors, environments, etc. You can see a lot of the extra budget went into effects which is appreciated but in the end a crappy plot and poor writing cripple what could have been a killer flick. If you enjoyed the first movie this one should be an ok way to spend 90 minutes. If you are here expecting some type of back story or evolution from the first movie, you will be let down. Originally posted by contributor Christopher Young

Tags: Laid to Rest, Chromeskull