Trees 2: The Root of All Evil

Trees 2: The Root of All Evil (2004), from writer/director Michael Pleckaitis (Silent), is the sequel to the cult-classic Trees.

Eager to continue on their initial success, Michael and Producer Andrew Andrew Gernhard, made The Root of All Evil, which used many of the same characters as Trees. With a significantly higher budget, Root was a full-scale production, complete with a Hollywood-experienced crew and known talent in front of the lens.

Root of All Evil premiered at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, Connecticut on March 20, 2004 and was released on DVD in 2005.

Plot
Just as Trees was a Jaws parody, this film parodies Jaws 2.

In this sequel to Trees, killer pine trees attack on Christmas Eve. Original stars Kevin McCauley and Phil Gardiner are reunited with original cast members as well as former TV star Ron Palillo (Welcome Back, Kotter) and the gorgeous and talented LA model, Brandi Lynn Coppock.

Traumatized by the climax of the first movie, in which a "Great White Pine" tore apart the pickup truck piloted by Squint, the salty lumberjack, Forest Ranger Mark Cody wets himself in panic at the mere sight of a tree. He is just beginning to pull himself together, thanks to "one of those tree-phobia support groups," when a series of local deaths alert him to the looming threat of a new attack. Suspecting another killer tree is on the loose, Cody is belittled by authorities and the public alike as being paranoid and obsessed. Botanist Max Cooper is also suspicious, demanding of one skeptical authority, "Have you ever tried to outrun a 70-foot-tall screaming mahogany monolith with branches the wingspan of a 747?"

They soon discover the genetically-enhanced killer pine trees have been stolen from a restricted National Forestry Service area and sold as Christmas trees to the people of Hazelville. As government NFS agents attempt to conceal the creation of the mutant trees, Cody and Cooper must face the task of battling a coniferous feeding frenzy. Eventually, on Christmas Eve, rampaging CGI trees and a mob of townspeople wielding axes and chainsaws clash head-on at the town center, in a scene spoofing the collision of armies in Braveheart.

The film ends on a cliff-hanger, with Max Cooper being frozen in sap and kidnapped by the bounty hunter Lafayette - a parody of Han Solo in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The end credits say "The Story will conclude..." "Trees 3: Regeneration"

Production Notes

Shortly after the final cut of the film was edited and post-production complete, a lightning strike irreparably damaged the hard drive the final cut of the film was stored on, completely destroying the film. Director Michael Pleckaitis was forced to start from scratch and completely re-edit the film. The process was so time-consuming and frustrating, that he never wanted to make another film.

As a result, he never made the planned third film in the "tree-logy" - Trees 3: Regeneration. He took a three-year hiatus before beginning production on Silent (2007).

Films parodied
Several well-known movies are parodied, with trees replacing whatever was originally there, including:

*Jaws 2 (1978)
*Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
*Braveheart (1995)
*Jurassic Park (1993)

There is also an allusion to The Evil Dead (1981)

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See Also

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