“You’re only allowed what I decide to give you”
2025 has been the year in which I indulge in sequels to films where I haven’t seen the original like Den of Thieves 2 and The Accountant 2, or in the case of Final Destination: Bloodlines and Ballerina, franchises with which I haven’t kept up. Colin Krawchuk‘s The Jester 2 marked the fifth time this year I’ve watched a sequel film knowing next door to nothing about the original. The film is a sequel to 2023’s “The Jester,” which itself was based on a 2016 short film, to which Krawchuk also made two short-film sequels.
All of this is to say that the world building in The Jester 2 is actually very solid, with some clever conceits for delivering exposition. There’s nothing here that’s game changing or revolutionary in any way, but several times I found myself thinking that there is obvious talent on display here. Not exactly the rave review of the century, I know, but calling these things out is important when considering this film’s place in the current horror landscape.
The film opens at a Halloween party in the woods where our title character, played wordlessly by Michael Sheffield, returns to life and begins wreaking havoc. We are then introduced to teenager Max (Kaitlyn Trentham), a social pariah thanks to her interest in all things magic and illusion. Dressed as a magician for Halloween, she goes about her night from one disappointing encounter with fellow teens to the next, finding that local magic store owner and bicycle repairman Willie (Dingani Beza) is perhaps the only sympathetic person in her life.
Max and The Jester encounter one another and after Max actually manages to trick The Jester with one of her card tricks, he determines that she will be the perfect accomplice to his night of terror. Since The Jester doesn’t speak, the film does employ some interesting ways of getting the two to communicate, along with setting up The Jester’s motivations and ultimate goal for the evening.
The most unfortunate thing about the film is the plot structure, which is mostly “this happens, then this happens, then this happens, etc” as opposed to the old “but” and “therefore” rule popularized by Trey Parker and Matt Stone: “This happens, but then this happens, and therefore this happens.” This isn’t to say that there aren’t good films with episodic plots, just that this one doesn’t really pull off any kind of complex storytelling, despite the writer/director’s talent behind the camera.
An almost dead ringer for a young Zooey Deschanel, leading lady Kaitlyn Trentham truly sells the film despite the many shortcomings of her character as written. She never plays Max as a sad sack, but rather as a totally earnest person who doesn’t understand the cynical world around her, which makes her a lot easier to root for as a final girl type. Meanwhile, Sheffield’s trickster is quite animated and sells the over-the-top nature of his evil character.
If the Terrifier films have any sort of legacy, it’s going to be in these low-budget, gore-heavy horror movies that are becoming increasingly common in the streaming era. If horror as a genre has any constant, it’s in chasing trends, from the slasher craze of the early 80s and the ironic detachment and found footage hysteria of the late 90s, to the torture porn of the aughts and so-called “elevated horror” of the 2010s, any time a horror film makes a cultural impact by doing something slightly unique with the formula, it spawns endless imitators.
So, as we ride out this trend in horror, it’s important to keep an eye on filmmakers like Krawchuk. He knows his way around horror cinema and manages to crank out a few clever conceits that elevate this even just slightly above the fray. I think he’s got a decent sense of what he could do differently from other filmmakers, and anyone willing to push the genre forward is worth celebrating in this day and age.