The 80s was the decade of slashers, and believe it or not, you didn’t sit in a theater to watch them, no, you sat in your car. Horror movies at that time were best experienced at the drive-in where you could eat whatever you wanted, roast the movie out loud — RiffTrax-style — or get into some heavy petting. But if you were a fan of the genre the musical cues always made you stop what you were doing to watch the kill play out.
The 1984 movie The Mutilator, directed by Buddy Cooper, had seven of those moments and even if it was a bit tropey and derivative it survived the period to become a cult classic. But did you know the director has already finished a sequel? Neither did we.
It wasn’t until horror movie director and slasher queen Jen Soska posted something on social media that we realized The Mutilator already had a successor in the can. Called Mutilator 2, it was announced a year ago, and unlike the linear narrative of the first film, this chapter is be self-aware.
In other words, like Wes Craven’s Final Nightmare, this sequel takes a meta approach; the real actors from the first film return to the original’s filming locations for a Mutilator fan event. From there, things get bloody.
Soska says in her post that she got, “to create a kill for this!! It’s NASTY and FUN!!! Cannot wait for you all to see!!”
Sadly, the director says he is currently looking for a distributor.
Big Hollywood studios are notorious for overlooking low-budget independent films for distribution, but lesser-known studios or even streaming services will pick them up for cheap, this means indie filmmakers often make a lot less than what they could have in a wider release.
Still, it is nice to see a cult movie from 40 years ago get an update by its original director. Cooper does have some advice for fans to get Mutilator 2 in front of as many eyes as possible:
“It might help if a few fans asked their favorite streaming service or theater when they would be showing Mutilator 2. If enough people show an interest, I feel like a distributor would be willing to help get it out to everyone.”