JACK FROST 2: REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN (2000)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Michael Cooney)

Review

A year after the niveous carnage of JACK FROST (1997), anti-freeze dissolved serial killer snowman (Frost) is accidentally resurrected in an FBI genetics lab by a clumsy employee (Brett A. Boydstun). The icy menace (again voiced by Scott MacDonald) tracks his source-film nemesis Sheriff Sam Tiler (Christopher Allport, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., 1985), with whom Frost shares a psychic link, and his friends to a tropical island.

Sam, traumatized by his experiences with Frost, and his wife (Anne, again played by Eileen Seeley, CREATURE, 1985) are (also) island-bound to attend the wedding of Sam’s deputy (Joe Foster) and his secretary (Maria).

The quip-spouting Frost, via his “genetically altered water molecules”, wastes no time in dropping bodies—initially two boat-trapped castaways, then young, drunk, and otherwise oblivious vacationers. The kills are creative and appropriate (e.g., a LOONEY TUNES-esque icy anvil crushes a model; a man’s tongue, in a shout-out to A CHRISTMAS STORY, 1983, has his tongue ripped off; sentient-spawn snowballs tear apart numerous victims). Before long, Sam and the others figure out the environs-dominant Frost is out to get them, and this time, it’s going to take more than anti-freeze to end him.

 

Other notable cast members include:

Ian Ambercrombie (WARLOCK, 1989) as Sam’s terrible “Psychiatrist”;

Chip Heller (MUNCHIES, 1987), returning from the first FROST, as Deputy Joe Foster;

Marsha Clark (MY DEMON LOVER, 1987), also from the first movie, as Maria, Joe’s future wife;

Stefan Marchand (HELLBORN, 2003) as Charlie, one of starving, life raft-bound castaways who fights with fellow boat-mate Dave (Doug Jones, JOHN DIES AT THE END, 2012);

Ray Cooney (real-life father of director Michael Cooney) as the idiosyncratic Col. Hickering, former British officer and murder-hiding resort manager;

David Allen Brooks (THE KINDRED, 1987) as returning-from-the-first-film character Agent Manners (played by Stephen Mendel in JACK FROST);

Tai Bennett (JOHN DIES AT THE END, 2012) as Bobby, as Col. Hickering’s assistant;

and

Sean Patrick Murphy (THE HANGRY DEAD: THE BIGGEST INSTAGRAM MOVIE EVER, 2020) as energetic entertainment director, Captain Fun.

Michael Cooney, despite a behind-the-scenes dramatic slashing of his sequel budget, has crafted a tightly written and edited, silly, and over-the-top work that deftly balances horror and humor. If you can get past its financial limitations, hammy acting and bad dialogue as well as ridiculous/cheesy CGI gore and plot elements (Frost can travel via the actual ocean and control local weather), you might enjoy this decent, Asahi beer-sponsored follow-up to the solidly made first film. 

Be sure to watch the credits all the way to the end. A follow-up to JACK FROST 2 was planned, but Christopher Allport, who played Sam Tiler in the first two films, passed away before it could be filmed, scuttling Michael Cooney’s intentions.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

In Andrea Subissati’s article “Massacre Under the Mistletoe” (Rue Morgue magazine, issue 203, November/December 2021, pp. 12-18), she interviewed JACK FROST director Michael Cooney. In it, Cooney said that Asahi beer, JACK FROST 2’s only sponsor (to the tune of $5,000] might’ve thought they were funding a sequel to the Michael Keaton film, also released in 1997.