Let's go back in time to 2006. I was one of the people who saw the original See No Evil in theaters. It was a nondescript slasher film. Not bad, per se, but predictable and derivative. That's the problem with hundreds of slasher films. If you don't do something new or bring a whole lot of style to a slasher, you're going to bore the audience. See No Evil 2 does try to do something different. Directors Jen and Sylvia Soska (creators of the must-see American Mary) actually try to make you care about the characters in a slasher film. I don't just mean the final few running around, but the whole cast of them. Even big bad Jacob Goodnight (sadly his character name) is given something to latch onto with flashbacks to his abusive childhood and one very unexpected scene of defiance about halfway through.
Jacob Goodnight is rolled into the morgue on the same night as the original murders. Amy (scream queen extraordinaire Danielle Harris) and Seth (Kaj-Erik Eriksen) are running the night shift at the morgue and have the misfortune of overseeing his body. Amy's best friend Tamara (American Mary herself Katherine Isabelle) sneaks the party into the morgue so Amy can work and celebrate her birthday. Things go bad when Jacob rises from the slab.
The Soskas have a good eye for staging action in a horror film. A slasher aficionado will recognize the purpose of certain framing, but even I was taken aback quite a few times by how some familiar reveals and gags went off in the film. The chases and murders are all the more realistic for actually appearing as panicked and clumsy as they probably would be in the real world. Ever see a dog slide on a linoleum floor? There's a reason doctors have to wear shoes with good traction to work in the ER. That's not even getting into how certain medical instruments are designed to only be used in certain ways, which a few of the victims learn the hard way.
The big problem with See No Evil 2 is the predictability. It's not that the Soskas telegraph the scares. They actually do a nice job of surprising you with the hits. No, it's the fault of a rather unimaginative screenplay from Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby. Once you've seen Jacob Goodnight rip his way through one "impenetrable" locked door, it's not as surprising the next dozen times. The victim is always the one who tries to go off on their own, even if someone else is closer to the killer. Going back to rescue someone is always a bad idea.
Perhaps the most effective scene that actually plays on that predictability involves Tamara and Seth hiding in a lab room. Seth tells Tamara to hide behind an open shelving unit. She point blank says it is a bad idea but doesn't have any other choice in the room. Seth hides himself in the much better spot--on the shelf of a gurney, covered by the sheet--and tries to calm Tamara down. She knows she's in trouble because there's no way Jacob won't see her in that corner if he finds them. She shifts from panic to fear to desperation as the footsteps begin to echo down the hall.
There are quite a few moments brought out by the cast and watchful eye of the Soskas that make See No Evil 2 a much more rewarding film than the original. The cast actually has the room to perform and can miraculously be seen perfectly well even after the power is cut off in the morgue. That alone is worth celebrating since visibility tends to be a novelty in modern horror. There's something different happening in the how and why of the cameras and staging that creates some tense moments. It's not the most innovative slasher, but at least it's well-made and has a consistent tone and logic to it.