* Spoiler Alert
Anthony Cousins and John Karsko’s sequel, Frogman Returns, raises the bar for campy parody while delivering a love letter to all things cryptid. What makes this film such a solid sell is how the story captures why we love cryptids more than ghosts. With Halloween approaching, there’s all the more reason to seek this film out!
Although familiarity with the original helps, this sequel works reasonably well as a standalone film. Still, I didn’t think it was fair to review it until I’d tracked down a copy of the original to watch, too, allowing me to make comparisons. Hence the delay to this review. The first film tries to be serious, with very strong The Blair Witch Project influences.
The sequel takes place a few years later, giving the filmmakers room to expand the world and show what’s happened since. Sightings of the cryptid have been turned into spectacle, and the presentation is much smoother to swallow, or ribbit at. While the first film was far rougher, reflecting how inexperienced everyone was both behind and in front of the camera, this latest installment sands off those edges to make this mockumentary work!
Instead of heavy equipment, we have cell phone cameras and portable equipment to help stabilize the footage. And with more acting experience under their belts, returning actors like Nathan Tymoshuk (Dallas) and Chelsey Grant (Amy) make it easier for me to follow along. It’s not to say the acting was entirely terrible in the first film. After all, it was a DIY production, filmed on a very limited budget. I’d call this follow-up just as good as Evil Dead II. And the effects look better than those in the original Frogman, too!
With cameraman Scotty (Benny Barrett) joining this new group working to clear Dallas’s name, all is good. They’re hunting for the Frogman again, and this time there’s more than an H.P. Lovecraft spin added on top! This addition helps make the narrative believable, relatable, and all the hookier! That’s tough to pull off when the home on the range, out in Loveland, Ohio, has embraced the Frogman like he was a Mothman, complete with souvenirs and an impersonator in the swamps to make the belief feel real!
All I have to say is that Travis (Brian Villalobos) is the perfect rival to Dallas. He’s a fame-obsessed cryptid hunter who leads his own team in search of the Fresno Nightcrawler. Not only does this actor steal the show, but the fact that he’s dressed up like a Ghostbuster and has something akin to a proton pack makes this tale more than a laugh a minute. The later act becomes more of a sci-fi action comedy, and while some may say this strays from the first film (which tried to be serious), I think it only adds to the absurdity!
Technically, the film maintains its found-footage framing through clever multi-angle setups, like pairing Lucy’s camera work with Dallas’s chest cam, even if the internal logic and the way the story comes together through editing don’t always hold up. I’m okay with that, since this movie isn’t claiming to be footage found in a trunk full of tapes. Rather, it’s footage found strewn about, with us piecing the tale together as best we can. And when what’s presented becomes true terror, including a journey to a realm where all cryptids dwell…. perhaps I should stop here.
The practical effects bringing various local favourites, like the Flatwoods Monster, to life are a massive win! Even I’d be creeped out if I’d seen it at full scale. Puppetry and good old-fashioned forced perspective make many moments feel larger than life. This exciting act is worth saving the popcorn for, and, yeah, I feel that when Halloween nears, I’ll be rewatching both films back to back. That’s assuming there’s a wider digital-only release for Frogman Returns by then. Instead, there is a screening at Filmquest in Provo, Utah on October 30, 2026.
It seems this work is mostly screening at film festivals for now. Wherever it hops to next, please check local listings. As for home video and streaming? There’s no official word, yet.
4 Leaps out of 5
Frogman Returns Movie Trailer
