TRIP WIRE

Murder erupts in a ’60s hippie commune.

Cassandra, who was raised by her uncle Woody and aunt Ivy to fold her dinner napkin properly, leaves their comfy home in Chicago’s South Side and ventures north, where she falls in with a racially mixed, dope-smoking, free-love crowd, begins skipping her college classes, and adopts the nickname Sandy. Her bliss is disrupted when her soul brother Wilt and his love, earth mother Mia, are murdered. The pigs naturally assume one of the house members did it, but Sandy, determined to prove them wrong, makes a deal with her uncle and aunt: If they will help her sort through this mess, she will consider moving back. Between drags on her roach, Sandy learns that everyone in the commune, even Wilt, had secrets. One was an undercover spy for the pigs, another was into heavy dealing with ties to Chicago drug-lord Henry Waddell, and another may have locked Sandy in the closet while rummaging through her purse for Wilt’s keys. Another commune member dies, and there are more clashes with the pigs before Sandy ends her hippiedom and moves on.

Sandy was much gutsier when she made her debut as Cass in Jackson Park (2003), which boasted more colorful language and a steelier plot. This sequel is strictly for old-timers looking to rekindle the marijuana haze of their youth.