Castle of the Barens 2

Castle of the Barens 2 is a short film and sequel to Castle of the Barens Directed by Phil Dragash. It is widely considered an inferior sequel because of its similarity to the first film. Tim Majersky has had nothing to do with this film, because he was completely unavailable to be involved in it.

Plot
After the events that transpired in the first film, both survivors Shake, and Prof. Tim made it home alive and well. According to the film's opening crawl, Prof. Tim vowed never to return to the Castle of Juvenelliah. However, this did not stop the government from re-recruiting Shake once more, with a new partner called Barbeque. Together, they have been sent to once again attempt to secretly "highjack" the castle.

Inside it, Barbeque searches the empty halls of the castle to find a way to do this "highjacking", only to be shocked by Shake, who has been separated from Barbeque for a few moments. Shake, being more experienced in this field, puts on the Infamous Cap and leads Barbeque in his search to find the lost Revolver, who is immediately seen fighting with a zombie. When the group find Revolver, it is too late. Ocelot has been killed; Barbeque and Shake, in revenge, take out the zombie with their submachine guns.

As the smoke clears, and Revolver's death is avenged, Shake decides to look into one of the upstairs chambers nearby. Coming back with a surprised and awestruck look. Barbeque responds by asking him "Find anything?", and Shake answers while lifting up the severed head of Michael Jordan. Apparently, Michael was also secretly recruited by the government to raid the castle after Shake and Prof. Tim's first mission failed. Barbeque lets out a scream of terror, and exclaims: "Oh no. They killed Michael!".

Quickly leaving the bloody dismembered head, Shake and Barbeque make it to a stairway. Climbing up, Barbeque reaches for a nerve-settling cigarette pack in his pocket, only to be startled by blood leaking from the ceiling. As they reach the end of the stairway, the room they enter looks like the exact same room that they've left. Much like in the first film, Shake is overwhelmed at the mystical and demonic properties of the castle, and sits on a chair to take a quick rest.

In the darkness behind him, a Lion-Man stalks Shake. Spotting the lion-man, Barbeque gives him the heads-up, as Shake quickly shoots the creature directly in the forehead with Revolver's revolver.

Travelling further into the castle, Shake finds something draped with a blanket. Pulling the blanket off, he reveals a complicated-looking railgun; "It's the gun Michael left me!". That gun belonged to Michael Jordan, who failed to utilize it properly. Before long, many zombies become aware of Shake and Barbeque's presence, and a final stand is imminent. Nervously, Barbeque asks about the blood-curdling moaning in the distance: "What was that?", and Shake calmly replies: "Party time."

Action breaks loose, as the zombies flood their way into the chamber where Shake and Barbeque are cornered. Barbeque makes a fatal mistake, believing he forgot his cigarettes in the other room, only to be ripped apart by the zombies they thought they eliminated. In a fit of rage, Shake activates the rail-gun and blasts the zombies into shreds. With all the ammunition spent, the rail-gun is cooled down, as Shake tries to find a way out of the castle, realizing the mission is another failure with the death of Barbeque.

Seeing a tiny gap of light in-between a small door, Shake distracts a zombie into charging at him, and breaking down the door, enabling Shake an easy escape. As he heroically exits the castle, the presumed-dead zombie gets up and attacks Shake; ending questionably.

Production
COTB2 was created immediately after the purchase of a Halloween make-up kit. Knowing that it will be useful to create zombies and cuts and wounds, Phil Dragash went on to instigate a sequel to COTB. Because Majersky was not available at the time, the story had to make due without him. Ivan Kenjereš, who played a zombie in the first film, was offered the role of Barbeque, Shake's scarred partner in the second film. Filming ran very smoothly, and was completed in a few hours after its conception. However, that was not met without challenges; the make-up kit was utilized and used for the zombies, beards, and wounds visible on Kenjereš's face. All the make-up appliances were designed and applied by Phil Dragash himself, and it also sought for changes in the story. Kenjereš was adamant that his character, Barbeque, die during the climax of the film in order for him to film the zombie scenes faster; considering most early P.D Works films are filmed in chronological order, as there usually is no script, and the story is made up as shooting progresses. This was met with disdain to Phil, but eventually he accepted the proposition.

Not only the make-up effects were experimented on, but also some digital ones. The challenge was to create a hoard of zombies for Shake and Barbeque to destroy in the climax. So a primitive tripod-effect was used to duplicate Kenjereš's performance as the zombie, in order to make it appear that there are more than one of them. However, the result is an embarrassing failure, as it is clear that both images aren't perfectly aligned and it was also met with confusion by audiences wether the zombie was a ghost (as the zombies are all transparent) or the zombie was just using some sort of "double-team" attack.

Characters

 * Shake
 * Barbeque
 * Revolver Ocelot
 * The Lion-Man

Creatures

 * Zombies
 * Lion-Man

Trivia

 * Tim Majersky hates this sequel and refuses to acknowledge it's existence.