NOW ON VOD! Writer-director Colin Krawchuk has blessed us with a superior sequel to his feature film debut with The Jester 2, which, in some ways, comes across as more of a reboot. Our story begins on a Halloween night with some exposition by introducing us to a socially outcast, aspiring teenage magicienne named Max (Kaitlyn Trentham). After being left without anyone to trick-or-treat with and being bullied by the local mean girl squad, she decides to be alone with her thoughts at a local diner. It is here that The Jester introduces himself without a sound, taking the empty seat opposite Max and gesturing that he’d like to do a card trick for her. But this move proves unfruitful for him, as our naive teenager interrupts his trick and offers to show him a trick instead. She succeeds, after which The Jester rage-quits and leaves the diner. He doesn’t know yet, but this failure causes a major dent in his plans, which ends up driving the rest of the story.
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“…The Jester introduces himself without a sound, taking the empty seat opposite Max…”
The 2023 original saw the titular killer criticized by the dark side of the internet for being too similar to Art the Clown, even being given the nickname “Art the Clone” in one instance. You can really see why – The Jester (Michael Sheffield) is a supernatural, mischievous mime who loves murdering random people, just like Art. He never talks, always looks like he’s having fun, and always seems to be entertaining people right before ending them. There never seems to be a reason behind what he’s doing, aside from his own personal joy. If you’ve seen any of the Terrifier movies, you recognize this behavior from Art right away. However, there are differences – Art dresses in a clown outfit; Jester dresses in a sharp orange suit. While Art relies on humor, Jester uses magic card tricks to rope his victims in.
In The Jester 2, we get a bit of a revised edition of our friend The Jester. His activities no longer seem to be pointless marauding. Instead, he is now on a very focused mission. Right away, you notice that he’s performing a sort of ritual with his victims, and we eventually find out what that is, in addition to who he is and why he’s doing everything. We now have more knowledge about the character, thus he no longer seems pointless. In the other camp, Art the Clown still has almost zero background after three films. That’s on purpose, but I think the series suffers a bit for it. The film doesn’t give background just for the sake of giving background –the presentation is necessary for the story to be carried forward.
The Jester 2 is artfully made (see what I did there?). It delivers an interesting story with excellent visuals, great sound, and a fitting score. Art the Clown? Out. The Jester? In.
"…Art the Clown? Out. The Jester? In."
