I like Pamela Springsteen - lots of charisma! - but these are really very pale imitations of the original, with none of the original magic. Angela from the original is back as a young adult with the same hatred of camps and campers. Many people die in both movies. The scripts are very poor, with few ideas. These movies seem made exclusively for teenagers to make out in on dates in the late 80s. Avoid, watch the original.
Martin Sheen is a widowed police psychologist who gets mixed up in a series of ritualistic child murders that eventually threaten his own son. I don't want to recite the entire plot of this one, but here is the short version: Sheen's wife dies in the opening (accidental electrocution), he moves from Minnesota to NYC.
When he gets there, he is thrown into a series of cases where children are found dead, apparently implying brujeria - folk sorcery. Eventually it gets too real to ignore, and he sends his own son to the country to be safe... except this country location is part of the brujeria cult. Great. In the movie's climax, Sheen and his friend mow down cultists left and right until his son is safe.
This movie attempts a similar atmosphere as The Exorcist - supernatural dread that imperils a child - but generally doesn't succeed. Something is off here, although it's hard to say what exactly. The atmosphere doesn't really work, the acting doesn't seem too convincing, and I never really cared about any of the characters even in moments of high danger. As much as I like Martin Sheen, I would avoid this misstep.
This franchise really fell a long, long way after the first one. In this one, Carol Ann (the little girl almost lost to the devil in the first movie) starts seeing supernatural things in a luxury high rise where she's living with her aunt and uncle (who don't seem to know the events of the first film).
Still, this has Tom Skerritt and Lara Flynn Boyle and Nancy Allen (not to mention Zelda Rubinstein!), so how bad could it be? Well... pretty bad. This script is dead on arrival, and the special effects don't really scare. The real star is Carol Ann - but the actress, Heather O'Rourke, died at age 12 only four months before this was released, which is terrible. She has a lot of charisma here.
If you like a lot of mirror effects, this is your movie. Otherwise: avoid.
Whoopi! She definitely hit her apex in the 80s, and this is one of the good ones. She plays Rizzoli, an undercover narcotics cop who is tasked with solving a new case: poisoned too-potent cocaine is all over the streets. If you want a play-by-play, go check out the entry for this one on Wikipedia - somebody went to a LOT of trouble to explain the plot in great detail. Surprising detail, even.
This movie is a grittier counterpart to Beverly Hill Cop a few years earlier - the soundtrack is even done by the same composer (Harold Faltermeyer), so they sound alike, which really enhances the comparison. Whoopi has a similar loose-gun-with-a-loose-mouth vibe to Eddie Murphy, and is a lot of fun from start to finish. Her charm is really charting high in this one.
If you like 80s cop movies, 80s action movies, Whoopi Goldberg movies, or just comedy action thrillers in general, chances are good you'll enjoy this. Recommended.
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