While clowns and jesters have long been an infamous form of iconography in the horror genre, thanks to everything from Pennywise in Stephen King’s IT to the real-world terror of John Wayne Gacy. More recently, Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise has dominated this childhood trauma niche onscreen.

That was until Colin Krawchuk came along with The Jester, the malevolent enтιтy at the forefront of the 2023 self-named slasher movie and now, its sequel, The Jester 2. Again written and directed by Krawchuk, the film centers on Max, a lonely teenager who, on Halloween night, becomes entangled with the тιтular being on his latest killing spree.

Much like the Terrifier movies, Krawchuk’s short film is the basis for the Jester films, and the filmmaker gets more ambitious with each effort. However, where Damien Leone also took the time to reflect on missteps with Art’s early venture going into his record-breaking sequel, I can’t help but feel like Krawchuk learned the wrong lessons from Terrifier 2‘s success.

The Jester 2’s Plot Is A Sloggy Mess Of Repeтιтion & Exposition Dumps

While I promise this whole review won’t be an endless comparison between the two franchises, it’s important to point out how similarly both The Jester and Terrifier series start out, namely with their central beings. Both Jester and Art the Clown’s motives are an absolute mystery, as is what they are exactly, thanks to their supernatural powers.

But while other horror franchises have mostly avoided answering these questions, both Leone and Krawchuk have utilized their sequels to actually expound on them. It’s a shame The Jester 2‘s attempts to build out the mythology of its тιтular character are such a bore compared to the Terrifier sequels.

The first half of the film takes so long to introduce us to Max and her angsty teenage woes that not only is the movie’s opening kill sequence disjointed from the plot, but it also leaves us waiting too long for more. There’s really nothing new to her arc — she’s yet another teen picked on for being different and given no support at home.

Once we do actually get to Max and The Jester’s night on the town, the pace does start to pick up, but the plot doesn’t necessarily improve. The majority of the next 45 minutes is an ongoing circle of Max being forced to partake in his killings and running away from him, only for him to catch up and keep on killing.

Even when we learn the actual reason why The Jester goes on his killing sprees, it almost seems like an attempt to humanize him, which proves wholly unnecessary and bizarre. He still cracks jokes about having fun killing certain people, but where Art’s layers are unlocked through a bizarre parallel with Lauren LeVara’s Sienna, Jester is almost made to be a sympathetic villain.

This is made all the worse when we get to The Jester 2‘s ending, in which Max and the тιтular spirit’s game of wits comes to an end. Not only does it go on for too long and has to overexplain its twist, but it’s also so tame for a franchise that delights in over-the-top death scenes.

Krawchuk’s Direction & Practical Effects Offer A Good Enough Diversion

While it may still suffer from an underwhelming narrative, The Jester 2 does have the benefit of having a horror-loving director in Krawchuk. Working on a lower budget than the first film, the filmmaker found a few unique ways to pull off his supernatural tricks, even if still taking a fairly direct approach.

With The Jester 2, Krawchuk shakes things up a bit with a more grindhouse aesthetic to the proceedings, both in its gritty palette and nighttime setting feeling more akin to the likes of the original Halloween or House of 1000 Corpses. He also showcases some intriguingly artful touches for a few sequences, laying the groundwork to expand beyond the slasher genre.

The Jester 2 is also kept somewhat afloat by the movie’s dedication to practical effects. Even as the first movie proved predictable and poorly plotted, Krawchuk had a fine grasp on the combination of genuine shocks and tongue-in-cheek humor with some of his kills, something that continues with the second film.

One of the most shocking effects Krawchuk and his team pull off multiple times is making certain characters’ facial features disappear completely, essentially leading to their suffocation. The transformations are so quick and the practical effects so horrifying to look at that said deaths prove more visceral than some of the bloodier ones in the movie.

All of which makes The Jester 2 something of a disappointment. I can’t deny Krawchuk has absolutely improved on some of his missteps from the first film, but in his apparent effort to pull from the success of Terrifier 2, he learned the wrong lessons regarding mythology pacing and crafting a compelling final girl, making this slasher sequel another learning experience rather than a celebration.

The Jester 2 will be available on VOD on October 17.