On Christmas Eve, months after the supposed suicide of their missing older brother Max Zacherly, (Jeff Dylan Graham), siblings Angelica and James Zacherly (Julia Farrell and Luc Bernier) reunite to trace their brother's tracks back to a bed and breakfast run by Carol and Humphrey Brickmann (Jennifer Runyon Corman and Pete Lipins), where they retrieve a VHS tape of their brother's final moments, telling them they have to uncover the secrets of the town and the residents if they want to know why he is dead. As Angelica and James begin uncovering secrets, a legend known as Black Peter begins stalking the siblings and the residents of the Bed and Breakfast.
This film suffers from bad special effects, bad audio quality, and some bad acting. Some bad acting, though, not complete bad acting. It's noticeable that the actors are trying their best, but their delivery is off for certain lines, and comes off as awkward. All of this is throughout the entire 90 minute running time, but was bearable for the first 25 to 30 minutes. Had the film been given a higher budget, these negatives could have been positive. But then this film began trying to connect to the original film from 1974, and it lost me. If you haven't seen or read about the original film, skip to where it says SPOILERS END.
SPOILERS BEGIN
Angelica begins reading the diary of Jeffrey Butler, who survived his fatal gunshot wound from the first movie thanks to the plot of this movie. The voice actor for the voice of Jeffrey Butler is awful, as he sounds WAY too young to be the middle aged Jeffrey from the original, and FAR too young to sound like the 80 year old Jeffrey Butler that is in this movie. Jeffrey's character is retconned by the writer of this film to have not only survived the events of the first film by becoming temporarily supernatural, but was also assisting his grandfather/daddy, Wilfred Butler (the killer from the original), in his murder spree by keeping the lead girl, Diane Adams, distracted, as if she would put a hinge in Wilfred's murder spree...even though she never would have gotten involved in the film had Jeffrey never came to her doorstep.
This film took the story of the original, the story of Jeffrey Butler, an odd, psychotic, yet charming middle aged man seeking $50,000 to sell his family home, only to stumble upon his true heritage INSIDE the house itself...and flipped it 180 so he was involved with the killing spree the entire time...and acted clueless to his heritage the entire time, even when Diane wasn't around...just so this film can have a connection to it...when it really didn't need to. But if it didn't, the running time of this movie would have only been 56 to 57 minutes, so connecting to the first one via flashbacks allow a good half hour plus to increase the running time of this movie.
SPOILERS END
Had this film sever the connection to the first one, it could have possibly stood on its own, and mercilessly be shorter by a half hour. It would have gotten one or two more stars out of me had it done that, but unfortunately, it had to tie itself with the original, and lower the rating with it. Do not rent or buy, UNLESS you are a hardcore completionist and absolutely need to see it.
This film suffers from bad special effects, bad audio quality, and some bad acting. Some bad acting, though, not complete bad acting. It's noticeable that the actors are trying their best, but their delivery is off for certain lines, and comes off as awkward. All of this is throughout the entire 90 minute running time, but was bearable for the first 25 to 30 minutes. Had the film been given a higher budget, these negatives could have been positive. But then this film began trying to connect to the original film from 1974, and it lost me. If you haven't seen or read about the original film, skip to where it says SPOILERS END.
SPOILERS BEGIN
Angelica begins reading the diary of Jeffrey Butler, who survived his fatal gunshot wound from the first movie thanks to the plot of this movie. The voice actor for the voice of Jeffrey Butler is awful, as he sounds WAY too young to be the middle aged Jeffrey from the original, and FAR too young to sound like the 80 year old Jeffrey Butler that is in this movie. Jeffrey's character is retconned by the writer of this film to have not only survived the events of the first film by becoming temporarily supernatural, but was also assisting his grandfather/daddy, Wilfred Butler (the killer from the original), in his murder spree by keeping the lead girl, Diane Adams, distracted, as if she would put a hinge in Wilfred's murder spree...even though she never would have gotten involved in the film had Jeffrey never came to her doorstep.
This film took the story of the original, the story of Jeffrey Butler, an odd, psychotic, yet charming middle aged man seeking $50,000 to sell his family home, only to stumble upon his true heritage INSIDE the house itself...and flipped it 180 so he was involved with the killing spree the entire time...and acted clueless to his heritage the entire time, even when Diane wasn't around...just so this film can have a connection to it...when it really didn't need to. But if it didn't, the running time of this movie would have only been 56 to 57 minutes, so connecting to the first one via flashbacks allow a good half hour plus to increase the running time of this movie.
SPOILERS END
Had this film sever the connection to the first one, it could have possibly stood on its own, and mercilessly be shorter by a half hour. It would have gotten one or two more stars out of me had it done that, but unfortunately, it had to tie itself with the original, and lower the rating with it. Do not rent or buy, UNLESS you are a hardcore completionist and absolutely need to see it.