In a World filled with more and more direct-to-video sequels, The Cell 2 does its job reasonably well. It's lacking in the stylish visuals and nightmarish imagery of Tarsem Singh's lavish original and plays out more as a straight-ahead serial killer yarn but until the script's logic becomes unstable in the last third it's probably the most watchable DTV follow-up nobody was asking for.

Starting its life entitled, The Cusp (which is incidentally also the killer's nickname), this has the loosest of threads to the first film even opening with narration explaining how the FBI have recruited psychics in order to track down the World's most sadistic serial killers. This leads to a decent opening sequence where the authorities are tracking down a killer with the help of the gifted Mya (Tessie Santiago) who's having flashes of visions where the Cusp has his victim tied down with a locked wooden box device over her head - I had shades of Saw here, though the movie thankfully doesn't go the 'torture porn' route. They end up failing when he somehow gets into Mya's head (helping him escape) and we fast forward to a year later where she's gone on to doing petty psychic work.

She's approached by her former FBI cohorts and is recruited back into action when it turns out the Cusp has returned and kidnapped a small town Sheriff's niece. There's plentiful scenes of Mya using a device, that looks like funky headphones, to enter into the Cusp's mind (which is staged using blur around the edges of the screen and tolerable CGI), conflict between Sheriff Harris (Chris Bruno) and agent Skylar (Bart Johnson), and moments set in the Cusp's warehouse lair, which gives the film some much needed suspenseful mood and introduces us to the demented idea that the Cusp got his name because he likes to kill and revive his victims multiple times. It's also a good thing that they reveal the Cusp's identity about half-way through as it's incredibly predictable - so much so that you wonder why it takes the so-called detectives so long to figure it out.

This leads to a final third where everything starts to fall apart, and quite badly. While Harris tracks down the Cusp in the real World, Mya is dragged into our killer's mind for the ultimate showdown of mental willpower. It's here that things get a little muddy as there's some weak effects on display, the way the tables are turned on the baddie is pretty silly, and Santiago just doesn't make a strong enough heroine to pull it off.

In fact, Santiago is probably the weakest thing here as she spends a good chunk of the time looking off into the distance and woodenly delivering her dialogue. Thankfully Bruno and Johnson are there to pick things up for her as they bring an alright dynamic to their characters' rivalry, even if Johnson tends to be wasted the rest of the time. The real drawing card here though is Frank Whaley who brings a lot of the same nerdy psycho aplomb he did in the mediocre Luke Wilson-Kate Beckinsale "snuff meets slasher" effort Vacancy.

If you go into The Cell 2 with lowered expectations you might get some mild enjoyment out of it. There's absolutely no way it can reach the level of the original, and it really doesn't try to, and with little to tie it to that film it plays out more like a competently made crime thriller with horror undertones. It tends to look better than its lower-budget and tight shooting schedule would lead you to believe and it does collapse in the finale but I really didn't mind my time with it - which I suppose is more than I can say for a lot of these DTV sequels that are constantly popping up out of the blue. (Chris Hartley, 6/29/09)

Directed By: Tim Iacofano.
Written By: Lawrence Silverstein, Alex Barder, Erik Klein, Rob Rinow.

Starring: Tessie Santiago, Chris Bruno, Frank Whaley, Michael Flynn.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: While the picture does have some mild grain at times, the transfer here is pretty decent with good clarity with no noticeable dirt or debris.

Extras: Apart from New Line offering a full frame version on the disc (why would you bother?) there's also a half-hour "Behind-the-Scenes" featurette that plays like your typical EPK documentary but manages to offer an okay look at the making of a quickly shot DTV sequel.