Director: John Gulager
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Having moved on from the bar, a tough female biker gang joins forces with other survivors of a small-town massacre by the ravenous flesh-eating creatures earlier in the night in order to save themselves from following the same fate as the bar assault.
Review:
Frankly, this one tends to be just a little below the original in terms of fun and enjoyment. The idea of continuing the rampage from the night before is its biggest strength, showing the creatures' rampage isn't just confined to the one small area before but rather it just so happened to be in the way of where they were really going which is what's shown off here. The opening rampage to show them running through town is a veritable highlight of fun with the creatures shown swarming through the area taking out plenty of on-lookers and resulting in plenty of carnage with the torn-up bodies and dismembered remains shown off around town during the morning after the rampage which starts off rather nicely here.
The kick-start action in the second half as they try to attempt several survival techniques really amps up the action and violence here with the storefront attack with the miniature creature in the supermarket, the attempted barricades in the machine shop hideout, and the spectacular finale where there's the ill-fated rescue attempt and the last-ditch effort to propel off the catapult to safety makes for quite a thrilling time here as this one really takes up a much more grandiose sense of spectacle than the original granted by the more expansive canvas to work off of. Again, the violence and gore are much more pronounced here with even more bodies ripped apart, tons of scratches and claw marks on the victims, skin melting off and so much more that it really works quite well with the film's increased amount of sexually-charged creature action here.
The autopsy scene in particular shows off a gross and disgusting side of the creatures that wasn't there before and tends to really work quite well in generating a sense of unease and disgust that's missing from this type of film, despite how over-the-top it might seem as well as a totally useless scene thrust into the final half that offers nothing more than overwhelming disgust for showing it and really has no place in the film. It might be enough to force off the movie altogether for some even for considering that, and to go through with it is a whole different matter. Otherwise, again, the only other true flaw with this one is the fact that this one also manages to feature aggravating shaking camera angles during the attack scenes that hold off the action considerably which is from the first one which is the main one against this one after those increasingly disturbing scenes in here.
Overview: ***/5
An enjoyable sequel without too many flaws, this is a watchable enough if slightly downgraded sequel that manages to have enough to like that it remains watchable even with those flaws. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort or are fans of the original will have a lot to like here while those turned off by those features should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment