by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com

Ever wonder what would happen if Kevin Smith and Broken Lizard went back in time and made a movie with Cheech and Chong? Me neither, but now I know.
Heaven help me, now I know.

“Mangrove Slasher II” (or 2, depending on who you ask) is less of a movie and more of a home video made by a group of talented friends. You know the type, the movies that a group makes and then sit around at parties and laugh at seeing their buddies all bloodied. The difference here is that some of “Mangrove” is pretty good, so unlike most home movies, this one might not be too ‘in jokey’ to those who made it. Then again, maybe I just got caught up in the beer fueled haze that surrounds this flick.

“Mangrove Slasher 2” is a satire, more in the vein of “Student Bodies” than “Scary Movie.” It never takes itself seriously, but also doesn’t stick to any point of view. Characters walk in and out of the story, just waiting to die. We follow (sort of) a group of high school kids (sort of) to a beach party where they listen to a band and drink the same three glasses of beer over and over again. Maybe it’s less Kevin Smith and more Bill & Ted, which gives you an idea just how old the “teens” really are in this.

The Killer is a cross between Rob Zombie’s Michael Myers and Adam Green’s Victor Crowley, which is pretty cool if you think about it. The Killer actually works better than the comedy, but heaven help me, I did find myself laughing out loud a few times so I have to give them credit. That’s more than most top dollar comedies get out of me lately.

This is definitely in the vein of “Not Another Teen Movie,” so it has its audience out there, but you can tell that the filmmakers’ love was more in the slasher premise than the stoner comedy. While Cheech & Chong float over several scenes (you’ll hear Tommy Chong more than a few times), it’s when the Killer starts hacking away that “Mangrove Slasher 2” rises above its DIY origins.

There’s a little bit of EVIL DEAD in here. Now wait, before you throw your beer cans at me, let me explain that statement. No, I’m not comparing MS2 to Sam Raimi’s holiest of holies, but just the intent. Here, like back in Michigan, these guys at times bit off more than they could chew. There are shots in here that they had no right to even attempt, but director Haitz did. He had no reason to try and pull off some of the gore gags and the Maniac inspired ending, but they did. It reminded me of that crazy full moon rear projected into EVIL DEAD. It didn’t need to be there, but they tried. Did it work for Raimi? Yup. Does the gore work for Haitz? You know, more often than not it does. It almost makes me forgive those really bad wigs and the worst actors this side of porn. Almost.

And all criticism aside, the last three minutes really do kick some low budget ass. The movie is smart enough to keep its running time under an hour, so when it ends, it ends HARD. And WET. And yea, you won’t believe a second of it, but it’s hard to watch and not get caught up in the fun it must have been to shoot. Everyone should be lucky enough to have forty friends who will let you spray them down with fake blood and hack off their rubber hands.

Think of this as a rough draft of a good horror comedy. With a few more bucks and a little more time with the script and the editing, there’s potential here. By the time they get to “Mangrove Slasher III” we might actually be on to something.