PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*
The best I could say of this movie's thirty-years-ago predecessor in my review was that it was "lively with a few decent jokes." SLIMEBALL #2 offers almost all the same elements, and doesn't stint on the most important one: that of pretty young women in various states of undress-- though there's not much nudity this time around.
The original movie was probably the best of the schlock-vehicles for the scream queen troika of Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, and Brinke Stevens, and indeed, the trio worked so well together that they almost immediately teamed up again to produce the vastly inferior NIGHTMARE SISTERS. The script for #2 is credited on-screen to one Kent Roudebush, but IMDB asserts that the original writer for #1 collaborated. Moreover, #2 was directed by Brinke Stevens herself, and she showed considerably facility with the schlock-stuff, as well including assorted shout-outs to the original fan-favorite.
So it's thirty years after the events of SLIMEBALL #1, and the same sorority house, Pi Delta, is still in operation. Everyone there seems to know about the events of the first flick, even though only two of the invaders of the Bowl-a-Rama survived their encounter with Uncle Impie, a murderous wish-granting imp, and neither of those intruders belonged to the sorority. Apparently the original script was going to feature one of those survivors, the gang-girl Spider, as the sorority's house mother. But when Linnea Quigley chose not to take the role, House Mother Spider was rewritten to be Snake, the sister of the absent Spider, and was played by Kelli (NIGHT OF THE COMET) Maroney. I won't complain on that score, though, because IMO Maroney aged a lot better than Quigley did.
Of course the young girls are the focus, and they break down almost to the same divisions as in #1: two mean girls who oversee new pledges to Pi Delta, and three aspirants, Ginger. Devin and Bitsy (Audrey Neal, Hannah Tullett, and Glory Rodriguez). The script fairly well broadcasts that Bitsy (as in "itsy bitsy spider") is an analogue for the first film's tough girl Spider, and the original idea was that Bitsy would turn out to be the long lost daughter of Quigley's character Spider. But in the finished film, she becomes the long lost daughter of house mother Snake, thus nullifying all the relevant Spider-references. Anyway, the two mean girls decide that they and the three pledges will break into the Bowl-a-Rama as did the Pi Deltas of generations past. For good measure, the girls catch three dorks peeping on them and shanghai them along for the ride.
House Mother Snake would seem to be the only person who could have related the legend of the Bowl-a-Rama break-in, but apparently she didn't bother mentioning the imp-demon who killed most of the other intruders. The teens horse around in the alley for a while until one of them breaks a bowling-trophy, and out comes the imp, who seals the building and tricks the youths into making wishes that lead to their violent demises. For good measure, the ghosts of two of the girls killed in the first movie, Lisa and Taffy (Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens) emerge from the trophy as well. I'm sure this development got shoehorned in just so that Bauer and Stevens could reprise their roles, though their presence makes it possible to save a few potential victims from the demonic deceiver.
As in SLIMEBALL #1, the imp is the star of this comedy-horror show, but strangely, it's not the same imp who got sealed back into the trophy at the end of that flick, but Uncle Impie's son "Harold." With what impish mother was Harold conceived, while he was locked up in the trophy, with only the ghosts of two human females for company? That's a small demerit, but the script also blows the potential to make Bitsy as kick-ass as her mother, for Bitsy is mostly talk, not action. She like Spider gets a minor romance-arc, but it's not as well set up as in the first film. So the sequel remains merely competent, pleasant to watch once but unlikely to generate any cult-film appreciation.
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