An OK Productions film. Written and directed by Buddy Cooper. Produced by Ann Hale and Jeff Seemann. Cinematography by Chance Madison. Edited by Robert S. Newton.

Stars Eva Hamilton, Marco Reese Maldonado, Mark Francis, Loren Swan, Dan Grogan, Chaney Morrow, Jesse Contente, Cody Renee Cameron, Damian Maffei, Carl J. Grasso, with Buddy Cooper, Ruth Martinez, Bill Hitchcock, Jack Chatham, and Terry Kiser.

Buddy Cooper returns after four decades to finally bring back a sequel to his 1980s cult classic horror thriller and goes meta with this one.

A remake of the 1984 film “The Mutilator” is in production but has been plagued with some issues. Nevertheless, they have one day of filming left when Jon, the director, is mysteriously killed on the set after filming had been completed. A wrap party is set for the last day of production and the guest list includes three actors from the original film. They are Jack Chatham; who played the killer in the original; Ruth Martinez, and Bill Hitchcock.

Detective Joe Columbo is on the case of Jon’s death. With the help of Jon’s brother Julian, Joe has everyone as a suspect at the wrap party. As he begins to question some of the cast and crew, someone begins a killing spree on the cast and crew. As the suspect list grows shorter, Columbo will do whatever it takes to reveal the killer and close the case. Could it be the producer of the new film? Could it be one of the crew members? Could it be the film-obsessed podcaster who snuck into the party? Could it be director Buddy Cooper himself, who showed up at the party? Who is the killer?

The 1984 film The Mutilator is a definitive cult classic when it comes to 80s horror films. The story of a demented father who is out to kill his son for the accidental death of his mother years ago had some wicked kill scenes that ended up forcing lawyer-turned-filmmaker Buddy Cooper to release the film unrated rather than succumb to MPAA pressure to cut it down for an R rating. When the news of a sequel surfaced, it came with quite a shock, but the fact that this would be a “meta” sequel made it more the interesting.

The film’s setup of the kill reminds me of the Canadian film Aquaslash. The kills here start out with the director of the “remake” getting killed on set and then nothing for at least a good 45 minutes until the third act really ramps up the gore factor. And in true Cooper fashion, these deaths are extremely outstanding thanks to the work of legendary SFX artist Joe Castro. Of the cast of new victims here, perhaps the most recognizable will be Eva Hamilton, one of this generation’s Scream Queens with her work in the genre. Anotherr death involves “life imitating art” for one victim.

Aside from director Buddy Cooper making a cameo in the film, we have original film stars Ruth Martinez and Bill Hitchcock returning playing themselves. What is fascinating is that Cooper decided to make Jack Chatham a character in the film, played by legendary actor Terry Kiser, who is best known for his stint in the Weekend at Bernie’s films where he played Bernie, a corpse. However, his other works are really well known as well such as the Count in Mannequin 2, the psychiatrist in Friday the 13^th Part VII: The New Blood, and an unscrupulous lawyer in Side Out. The reason why him playing Chatham as a character is fascinating. Blink and you’ll miss it, but the real Chatham is seen in the film as is…Art the Clown?!

If you can tolerate the slow burn method and wait for the gruesome special effects, chances are you will like Mutilator 2. As for the reveal of the killer, Cooper did something ingenious…stay for the end credits as the killer is revealed at the very end of the credits…no joke!!! In this reviewer’s opinion, a tolerable “fun meta sequel”.