976-EVIL 2: The Astral Factor starts at Slate River college where the dean Mr. Grubeck (Rene Assa) has just murdered pretty blonde teenager Lori Glazier (Karen-Mayo Chandler) which brings his murder count to five girls, this time however a drunk bum named Turrell (George 'Buck' Flower) is witness to his crime & Grubeck is arrested. Grubeck is given his statutory one phone call which he uses to phone 976-EVIL a direct line to hell, Grubeck is given powers which enable him to astrally project himself while asleep & is also given the name of the drunk who meets a very sticky end that night. Meanwhile pretty blonde teenager (notice a pattern here?) Robin (Debbie James) is contacted by 976-EVIL survivor Spike (Patrick O'Bryan reprising his role from the original) who knows that Grubeck is using the Satanic hot-line to murder & generally be antisocial, by a strange coincidence Robin used to work for Grubeck who developed a crush on her & he still has it...<br /><br />Directed by Jim Wynorski, whose very name when attached to a film sends shivers down my spine, 976-EVIL 2: The Astral Factor is a terrible sequel to a fairly decent original. The script by Erik Anjou plays the concept far more like a standard teen slasher (as if we didn't already have enough) rather than trying to develop the demonic phone-line to hell idea as in the first, instead they take the 976-EVIL premise & simply use it to give some supernatural powers to a homicidal maniac who wants to kill lots of dumb & annoying teenagers, yawn. The whole things a bit of an embarrassment really, it's predictable, the character's really are stupid & gullible, the exploitation elements are lacking & as a film it provides little in the way of entertainment. The opening scene features a naked blonde in a shower for no reason other than show off her breasts, she is chased by Grubeck & then just lies there & waits for him to kill her which he does by pulling a rope which releases a fake stalactite to impale her! It doesn't get much better either apart from a couple of decent car chase scenes & one or two nice kills, overall there is very little to recommend here I'm afraid.<br /><br />Director Wynorski still had the nerve to use his real name on the credits when he made this back in '91 instead of hiding under his usual Jay Andrews pseudonym, the film is reasonably well made but it doesn't have any style or the visual look of the first film. It's pretty bland & forgettable stuff while the gore is also disappointing, someone is impaled, someone has a garden trowel stuck in them in a direct rip-off, sorry homage to Night of the Living Dead (1968), a few after the fact slit throats, & in the films best moment a guy is hit by a speeding truck & he just explodes everywhere, excellent. 976-EVIL is also one of those films where it's fun to try & spot all the continuity errors as there's plenty of them.<br /><br />Technically the film is OK, although I'm sure that truck at the end changes between a tanker trailer & box trailer... Now on to the best aspect of 976-EVIL, Miss USA finalist Debbie James. Frankly she is one pretty hot looking young lady & makes the film a lot easier to sit through that's for sure, she can't act but she sure looks good & nobody's perfect are they? As for everyone else the acting sucks including original cast returnee O'Bryan.<br /><br />976-EVIL: The Astral Factor is an awful film from the ever awful Jim Wynorski, it didn't do anything for me & I think the original 976-EVIL (1987) is a far superior film that tried to do something with the concept whereas this doesn't.