I will say I never saw the first movie. I was confused as this movie assumes that you did see the first installment. I was asking basic questions such as "Who is Chromeskull? Why is Chromeskull? Why does he kill? What is this organization behind him?" I felt behind and found myself going back through scenes to see if there was something I missed.

Once I got over that, I have to ask...Seriously. If you are going to kidnap someone, wouldn't you think about checking them for a cell phone before you lock them up? The cops have various clues and leads and are hunting down Chromeskull as he, or I should say his slightly inept apprentice, prepares his next victim.

If you watched the first one, and made it through 5 or so Saw movies, you don't need to be reading reviews, you know you are going to watch it anyway. If you haven't seen the first one, I would recommend watching it before attempting to watch this one.

F-bomb, shower nudity.

The movie continues where the first "Laid to Rest" movie ended. But that doesn't mean it's a straight continuation. The surviving characters from part 1 are back on duty, but quite a lot of new characters are introduced as well. Danielle Harris is one of them, though her role is not that big (no pun intended). Brian Austin Green actually has the biggest part and he obviously has the most fun. He almost steals the movie from Chromeskull himself.

The detectives are almost a letdown, but I liked that they were going in a different direction this time around. It might alienate a few fans of the first movie, but the director already stated, that he didn't want to do the same thing over again. FX are top notch again and an actor from part 1 cameos in this too, but plays a different character. As Nick Principe (Chromeskull himself) said at a convention: He pulled a Clark Kent (you'll get it, if you watch both movies). I am curious to see, where they'll go for the next chapter (Nick isn't that fond of an outer space scenario if I'm not mistaken ;o) ).

I know that I enjoyed the original Laid to Rest for its sheer enthusiasm and spectacularly OTT gore, but I can recall very little about the actual plot, despite having only seen it a year ago; perhaps that's because there wasn't much of a story to remember in the first place (the lack of strong narrative clearly didn't matter too much to me: I gave the first film a rating of 7.5/10).

Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 is just as eager to please in terms of bloody mayhem, and does so brilliantly with oodles of really mean-spirited and excellently executed gore, but this time around the film-makers also try to build on Chromeskull's character, and it is here that the film comes apart quicker than one of the killer's victims. While a bit of back-story mightn't have been so bad, what we are presented with here is so overblown, convoluted, and incomprehensible that it only serves to confuse and irritate in the extreme.

The film opens abruptly with no recap of previous events, immediately launching into the unnecessarily complex nonsense that passes for a plot, in which a secret organisation is revealed to be behind the work of our metal mask-wearing maniac. With a script even messier than one of Chromeskull's kills, the viewer is simply left with too many unanswered questions—Who are these characters? What is the nefarious organisation hoping to achieve? Why are the police so f•••ing inept? Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to hire Danielle Harris (she was in the extremely disappointing sequel to Hatchet too!)? It all adds up to a very frustrating and frankly rather tedious experience.

If director Robert Hall proceeds with his intended third and final Laid to Rest film, I really hope that he succeeds in explaining matters in a satisfying manner; simply drenching proceedings with buckets of really nasty knife action just won't cut it next time.

I rate Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 a 9/10 for the sterling work of the effects guys, but 1/10 for everything else (resulting in a disappointing average of 5/10).