Following the demise of murder machine Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar) Officers Jack Forrest (living legend
Bruce Campbell) and Theresa Mallory (Hundra herself Laurene Landon) return to the force, but are assigned a shrink in the person of one Officer Susan Riley (Claudia Christian).
This proves to be a moot point for our heroes however as Maniac Matt is back from the dead and he begins his murder biz once again resulting in their untimely demise.
Now it’s up to Riley to contend not only with the resurrected Maniac Cop, but a stripper slashin’ lunatic named Turkell (Leo Rossi) prowling the streets… and that Manson mother fucker has teamed up with Cordell to form an evil alliance guaranteed to have the streets runnin’ red!
Returning director William Lustig (Maniac) and writer Larry Cohen (let’s go with The Stuff this time) return to the scene of the crime with their follow up to 1988’s Maniac Cop (bet you didn’t see that one coming), and it’s a real humdinger of a fright flick indeed!
Relegated to more of a Frankenstein’s monster type of abomination, everyone’s favorite lasceratin’ long arm of the law nevertheless manages to deliver the vicious violence fans of the series crave, and Rossi’s maniacal Turkell is every bit as big of a threat as his (mostly) silent accomplice… just with the added fun of being a raving lunatic.
Their opposite number on the right side of the law manage to be engaging as well as Christian is a solid lead, and her interactions with fellow police cohort Det. Sean McKinney (Robert Davi) follows a nice arc… wait a minute, what the fuck am I even talking about… you fine fiends probably don’t give a rancid rat’s ass about that, but whatever, it works!
Now you may think a picture like this would have plenty of blood and gore on display, and it does, but the real jaw-dropper here are the absolutely insane practical stunts on display. You have cars being driven from outside the goddamned vehicle, an impossibly long burn gag, people falling off buildings, and so much more… and no digital trickery involved!
Bonus material includes a fantastic audio commentary with director William Lustig and filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn in a highly listenable conversation that covers the film’s production in detail, as well as four theatrical trailers… on disc one that is…
Disc two brings us a Blu-ray copy of the film with all of the extras listed previously, but this disc also features a “making of” documentary that looks back on the film’s production with a shocking amount of honesty (a refreshing change of pace from the glossy, “everything was roses” bullshit we are usually handed on features such as these), a Q&A sesh with Lustig, a deleted scene featuring Evil Dead head honcho Sam Raimi as a newscaster, and a poster & still gallery.
Maniac Cop 2 is that rare sequel that actually tops it’s predecessor; the body count is higher, there’s way more blood n’ action, and it’s hard to resist that “Universal Monster movie by way of 42nd Street with a dash of gritty police procedural tossed in for grins” combo… this is the ghoulish good shit cats n’ creeps!
