See No Evil 2

From the twisted mind of director The Soska Sisters comes a disappointing sequel that lost all the cheesy bloody fun of the first film. See No Evil 2 is such a typically mediocre horror film where victims get killed off one by one with not much of a surprise and coming from such potentially imaginative director (seeing from their previous works in American Mary and T segment from ABCs Of Death 2), it's quite a huge disappointment here. The GORES here are also really let down comparing to how much more gleefully bloody and nastier the first film was, but it's still moderately bloody nonetheless. The SCARE here is mostly jumpy one as our Jacob Goodnight here lacks the personality that can deliver the suspense and just looks pathetic instead. However, thanks to a cheesily tempting performance from Katharine Isabelle (American Mary) that's at least FUN to watch throughout the film. Other than that, See No Evil 2 has nothing new or surprising to be added to the genre and not enough gores or violence to even surpass the cheesy fun of the first film. >>C<<

...even alternative lifestyle, fetish obsessed identical twins, apparently. The Soska Twins return for their first feature since their cult rape/revenge film American Mary. Why they were tapped to do a sequel to the WWE's franchise non-starter See No Evil, why they accepted, and why the movie is even being made 8 years after the original is anybody's guess. But it exists and I was actually psyched to see it, considering American Mary was interesting and unusual enough to be memorable, I actually kind of liked the first movie, and this one stars two of the great Scream Queens of our time, Danielle Harris (Halloween franchise, Hatchet franchise) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps franchise, Freddy vs. Jason, Hannibal the series), Suffice to say, I was sorely disappointed.

This is a lousy, slapped together sequel with nothing distinguishable about it. It occurs the night after the original movie's massacre as a pretty, young morgue attendant (Danielle Harris) is forced to work through her birthday to clean up all the bodies fanatically religious serial killer Jacob Goodnight (Kane) left in his wake before apparently being killed himself. She has his body, too. And when her friends decide to bring the party her to her, sneaking into the morgue after hours, one party goer (Katharine Isabelle), a drunken slut with a death fetish, sneaks off to check out Jacob's body.

Unfortunately, Jacob is apparently just as hard to kill as Jason Voorhees and equally good at playing possum. He wakes up, and he kills people. And that's it.

There's nothing much to See No Evil 2, the characters are poorly written, the acting is just okay, and the kills are generic, and not all that gory, nowhere near the level of the original. Danielle Harris has a fair amount of screen time, a nice switch from the glorified cameos she's been getting lately. Katharine Isabelle, on the other hand, only has a supporting role after playing the lead in American Mary and she does the sort of cheesy overacting she usually does when she knows the material she's been given is terrible.

See No Evil 2 makes a lot of mistakes. One of the more interesting part the first movie was that Kane looked like a troll made flesh, a towering, monster of a man killing people, usually by turning their own sins against them. Not so here. He wears a mask now, poor move that makes the movie more clichéd, and the kills are interchangeable and unimaginative. It's difficult predicting who will die and when, but that hardly matters because none of the characters are remotely interesting.

See No Evil 2 is so bad it not only kills the hopes for a See No Evil franchise but also seriously hurts anyone's hope that the Soska Twins will be horror's next big thing. This cheap looking, weak horror sequel is bad and was made by people that either didn't care or didn't know how to make a good movie.

See No Evil 2 (2014)

*** (out of 4)

Surprisenly good sequel to the 2008 film has a group of friend's celebrating a birthday when one of them (Danielle Harris) can't leave work. What they don't realize is that the dead body of Jacob Goodnight (Kane) has come back to life and he's seeking more victims.

SEE NO EVIL was a decent, run-of-the-mill slasher film that was pretty much entertaining due to its incredibly graphic and over-the-top gore/murders. Outside of the murders the film really wasn't all that memorable so I was shocked when a sequel followed so many years later. I was even more shocked when I learned Jen and Sylvia Soska was directing it. SEE NO EVIL 2 isn't going to be mistaken for a masterpiece but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it turned out thanks to a rather good screenplay and the very good direction.

Whereas the first film relied on gore and violence, this one here really doesn't contain too much of that and in fact some of the death's are off camera. Instead the Soska sister tried to add some tension and suspense and I think for the most part they succeed. There are some extremely good scenes including one where the Harris character is stuck in an elevator with the "dead" body. Another highlight includes a scene where two characters are in total darkness and keep striking a match to see where they are. There's an extended chase sequence through the basement, which also manages to build up some good suspense. The atmosphere created by the Soska sisters is another major plus and stuck inside such a small location the directors are also able to build up a claustrophobic nature.

The performances are pretty much what you'd expect to see in a film like this. Harris is always fun to watch and she manages to bring you into her character and make you care for her. Kaj-Erik Eriksen also gives a good performance. Katharine Isabelle plays her typical slut character but man is she terrific here. She clearly steals the film in a rather over-the-top "kiss" that I won't spoil. Kane doesn't give what one would consider a great performance but there's no doubt that frame of his makes for an impressive killing machine. The film also manages to have some nice cinematography and a very effective music score.

The screenplay contains moments where the characters do stupid things but this is a horror movie after all. I really can't think of too many horror films where the characters are doing smart things because if they were the movies would be over fairly quickly with them all getting away and surviving. I really liked what the writers did here including a couple twists that happen in the final ten-minutes including one that even the most jaded horror fans won't see coming. SEE NO EVIL 2 isn't going down in history as one of the greatest films ever made but it's certainly an entertaining slasher.

The movie is boring. There is tension in the entire film, but this is more of a sci-fi genre than horror. I was disappointed by the first part of the film in 2006, but after all these years I thought that we are waiting for something better. I was wrong.Throughout the film the main character succeeds in something that is impossible to time. The whole time he seemed to read the thoughts of others, because he knows exactly which doors should be closed, in which the room to wait. Better knowledge of the entire building and all the rooms in it than the workers who work there. I am disappointed.If you want to see the horrible details I assume that you will be satisfied, but it is all that is interesting in this movie.

See No Evil 2 follows directly on from the first film, which, by WWE Studios standards was an average film. The story sees the seemingly dead Jocab Goodnight and his victims being taken to the morgue where the birthday girl Amy is about to finish work and spend her birthday with friends, but she decides to stay and help out with the amount of bodies about to arrive. Instead, her friends bring the party to Amy and her co-workers.

Long story short, alcohol is consumed, sex is had and Goodnight returns from the dead to wreak havoc on the hapless morgue workers and the party people.

The real strong point is the direction by Jen and Sylvia Soska. If you're familiar with their work and a genre buff then you know what they are capable of. Their first film, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, had flashes of genius and the body horror film American Mary was one of the most original and important movies to hit the horror genre for a good 10 years.

Although the script was written by Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby and the only real weak point, it was the Soska's vision that brought to life the entire film. Danielle Harris, who has had a very up and down career performance wise, produced her best acting to date under the twins' guidance. As modern day scream queens, casting both Danielle Harris and Katharine Isabelle in the same film was a stroke of genius. Isabelle very nearly steals the whole show. Even Glenn Jacobs as the killing machine upped his game and gave a better performance.

WWE Studios made the best possible move in hiring Jen and Sylvia to direct. The film provides a lot of fun, some cool kill scenes and solid SFX with only a touch of CGI which makes this a great addition to the slasher sub-genre and a sequel that outweighs it's predecessor in every way.

To read my full review, head over to my blog - Maven's Movie Vault of Horror.