Evil Sister II: Bound by Blood 2001 Horror Movie Review

Evil Sister II: Bound by Blood (Brett Sykes, 2001)


How much does the reviewer’s state of mind have to do with the final tenor of a review? The more I think about Evil Sister II: Bound by Blood, the more major a component I think it is; the movie, which has twenty-one votes on IMDB as I write this, is almost universally loathed (except, oddly, by women aged 30-44, who give it an average rating of 8). And many of the things said about it in reviews there are, in fact, spot on. And yet still I found myself looking at the parts of the movie where it really worked and liking it a great deal more than everyone else seems to have. Except those three not-quite-middle-aged women who enjoyed it so much, of course.


Heather Branch plays both Lorna, a serial killer with a dark past, and Tam, the sister who, along with their father Frank (Joe Hagerty), is on her trail. Tam and Lorna have a kind of psychic connection, and Tam has dreams of Lorna’s current whereabouts, enabling the two of them to follow. Right from the start, you’ll note some disturbances in the family dynamic (that make the Big Reveal here all too predictable, the movie’s biggest failing), but really, when one of your daughters is a naked serial killer and you keep the other handcuffed to the bed at night, you probably have greater problems than your ability to bond. Things get delineated as Frank and Tam cross ways with an itinerant fortune teller and a thug named Widow.


On the Joe Bob scale of blood, breasts, and beasts, this one ranks at zero in the beasts category, unless you use a liberal interpretation on Lorna, but scores exceptionally high marks in the other two. The acting, while a bit overdone at times (especially by Hagerty), is surprisingly competent for a movie of this type, and Sykes’ directorial style couples very well with Dave Smith’s harsh desert cinematography. (I was reminded more than once of Dust Devil, Richard Stanley’s all-too-underrated killer-in-the-desert flick.) Yes, it’s an amateur production, but focus on the good things in it rather than the bad and you’ll be well rewarded for your efforts. *** ½