Maniac Cop 2 (1990)

Matt Cordell is back and it was only a matter of time before he continued to seek pure vengeance on those who wronged him in his past life. Going back to the events of the first film, “Maniac Cop 2” traces its steps from the original film to continue off where Cordell started his journey for revenge against the people who framed and jailed him, leaving him to die at the hands of inmates he’d busted years before. “Maniac Cop 2” is a film intent on not only continuing the narrative but finishing off the loose ends of the original film.

Director William Lustig and writer Larry Cohen make good on their promise of even more carnage as Cordell returns even more disfigured than before and begins killing off characters from the first film, and quite horribly. Bruce Campbell has a small role as Jack Forrest, the hero from the first film and suffers a horrible death at Cordell’s hands. This allows the introduction of Robert Davi who plays a detective with a shady past who begins investigating Matt Cordell when he comes back from his watery grave beginning to murder people all over again. This time Cordell has teamed up with a perverted maniac who stalks and murders strippers, and now Cordell is intent on building a cult of psychos willing to do whatever he commands at a moment’s notice.

Now the police are at wits end trying to stop the unstoppable Cordell as he wreaks havoc through the city. “Maniac Cop 2” does a great job of continuing the story from the first film and the carnage is just as bad as we saw in “Maniac Cop.” Robert Z’Dar is absolutely terrifying as Cordell, who takes absolutely no prisoners and brings down everything and everyone around him when he begins to recruit his own army of maniacs. As with “Maniac Cop,” the sequel works not only as a horror movie but as a primo action film, as Cordell is not only a psycho but an unmovable monster who destroys everything in his path.

Lustig stages a wonderful shootout in the finale where Cordell shoots down a slew of officers and steamrolls through a police station. Overall where some sequels fail to deliver a strong follow-up, “Maniac Cop 2” picks up right where the first films leaves off and does a great job of continuing the chaos Cordell leaves in his wake. It works as a follow-up and a companion piece. A worthy follow-up to a slasher classic, “Maniac Cop 2” is a worthy successor with William Lustig continuing his path of destruction with a character that proves to be more and more horrifying with every passing film.

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