Terror Train 2 (2022)★★★☆☆

Remember how I said that as a standalone film, yesterday’s remake was fine? So was this - and since it wasn’t a mostly shot-for-shot remake, I’ll let it keep the third star.

Honestly, I watched this not expecting much from it, except a return to the original New Year theme/holiday. And it wasn’t great or anything, but it was totally watchable! And not quite as predictable as the first! And the writing was much sharper and funnier - I so am glad they backed off the creep factor for the Magician this time around and gave him some great lines.

(Spoilers ahead) But there were some things I felt a little weird about… like the idea that Alana AND Sadie AND the Magician all decide, having not spoken to each other for months, to take a literal TERROR TRAIN (felt a little weird about that, too, by the way) memorial/reminder/reenactment/wtf-ever to heal after their shared traumatic terror train experience that almost killed them all? Pet being there made more sense, and I guess I can sort of accept Sadie’s explanation, but I didn’t feel like Claudia really sold the event enough for Alana to just go along with it.

I also felt a little weird about Mitchy being the only ghostly appearance here, but I’m guessing that was more a casting availability issue than a plot one, and Mitchy was my favorite from yesterday anyway so not complaining.

I had fun with this movie, and since this and the first are both 90 minutes or less, I don’t think you’d go too wrong to watch them both. They are Tubi originals though, meaning I watched them with commercial breaks, so they’re maybe not “first date” experiences? (Personally, I’ve decided to feel nostalgic instead of annoyed when confronted with unskippable ads in my viewing experience. …let’s see how long that lasts.)

Also, I have to be honest… three Terror Train movies later, I still want to go on a train party.