When I would see the poster for Trancers II I had it in my mind that the basis of the story would be about space and have a love triangle. After seeing the first movie I knew that it wouldn’t be about that, because the poster was dynamic, but the series has nothing to do with space. Really the only thing that I was right about was there being a love triangle but that’s it. I was a little disappointed to see that the neo noire elements were no longer in the series. Trancers II is a much more straightforward sci-fi action movie with a tiny bit of horror mixed in, and it does that incredibly well.
Charles Band returned as the director and producer while also coming up with the story alongside Jackson Barr, who also wrote the screenplay. They took the sci fi elements from the first movie and evolved them in a way that makes sense. The advancements in the six years between the movies are interesting and go along with both time periods. The seemingly unknown brother of the villain of the previous movie is a very comic booky trope, which goes along with pulp feel of the series. While the differences between the movies are evident with how the stories are told but there’s a care in both.
Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Biff Manard, Art LaFleur, Telma Hopkins, and Alyson Croft return from the first movie. Megan Ward, Jeffrey Combs, Martine Beswick, Richard Lynch, and Barbara Crampton are new the people in the cast for Trancers II. If I’m being honest all of the returning cast is as fantastic as they were in the first movie. Combs, Beswick, and Lynch make a great trifecta of villainy. All three of them seemingly share it in equal parts even though Lynch is the mastermind. Ward has an interesting chemistry with Thomerson and acts as almost a foil for Hunt in the movie. All three have an interesting chemistry that works well in the love triangle between the three.
The effects are great in Trancers II. The titular creatures look a little different, which makes sense in the story, but are still obviously Trancers. The effects for the original body that Jack Deth left behind are both really good and really interesting. I do appreciate the fact that Trancers still vaporize the same way. The set and costume design go a long way to show how the worlds have advanced in the years between the movies. Phil Davies and Mark Ryder return to make the music for the movie. The music is awesome and fits the more action-tinged movie Trancers II is.
Trancers II is a fun follow up that doesn’t necessarily match the previous movie but is still a hell of a watch. Full Moon Pictures made this movie since Empire had gone out of business by the time this movie came out. I’m still interested in seeing where the series goes from here. I was originally going to watch Trancers II on Tubi through the Full Moon channel but found that all of the movies are available through the FreeVee service, which has a terrible name but is awesome. I give Trancers II 8 firetrucks out of 10.