Yesterday, I took a look at Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight. It was a fun film that felt like a lost VHS from the local Mom and Pop’s video store that you’d come across on a Friday night. It’s something that honestly I would have been okay if there hadn’t been a sequel. It was a pretty small story that wrapped itself up fairly well. It’s very hard to categorize the film as it has elements of the Blob, Wrong Turn, and a Hatchet feel to it. Something truly unique that I damn well wish would be available on Blu Ray.
When I turned on Netflix today, the first movie it recommended to me was Nobody Sleeps In The Woods II. At first, I was a little surprised. I hadn’t heard that there was a sequel released. And just dang Netflix for hiding these films away. I guess with the amount of content in its library, Netflix is bound to drop the ball when recommending things.
I sat down and turned on the film. Immediately, I was completely caught off guard with its opening. It was completely ball to the wall insane. There were vampires, it appeared. I was rather confused for the first few minutes as I thought that maybe this somehow turned into an anthology series and now we moved from the Hillbilly Twins to Vampires. Then we are introduced to our main character, Adas. At that point, the film safely set aside all those thoughts and settled back into its weird lost-VHS feel. Adas is the rookie member of the local police force. He’s someone that tends to let people walk all over him. Upon arriving to the station, Adas encounters the Hillbilly Twins and our lone survivor, Zosia. The Twins seem rather content with being locked away. And Zosia isn’t very happy that she’s considered to be hostile and a basket case.
The head of the police force escorts Zosia back to that wonderful little shack from the first film. Stepping away for a moment, the story kicks into gear. At first, I was a bit upset with how this was handled. It felt like a slight slap in the face after the first film’s ending. It also reminded me of how The Descent Part 2 was, but that’s a whole other story for another time. But, I figured I’d give the film a chance. And I can safely say that I wasn’t disappointed with the way the story went.
This is a film that is far from a retread of taking what worked from the first film and just repeating it. This is a film that takes the world that it’s built and expands on everything. It feels like a solid continuation. Yeah, we get our typical gore moments. But there’s more to it this time around. When the film hits a certain point, the whole thing shifts into a wonderful new direction. It allows the story and the characters to just open themselves up in a whole new way. And at that point, this is a film that has a lot of heart to it. It left me really interested to see how things would play out.
Overall, Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight II is a clever continuation of the first film. I love seeing continuity with movies when they pick up where the previous ends. It delivers on what made the first film pretty successful, yet manages to add a whole new layer to things. It never overstayed its welcome. And the cast all was fantastic, especially seeing a few returning from the first film. I would say that it manages to pull ahead of the first film by a slight margin as well.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight II is available on Netflix.
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