All Hallows' Eve 2

In most every way this one was better than the first... except for one big part. The lack of the character Art the clown left this one as much more of a compilation of short films and not so much an anthology. While I'm sure they wanted to do something different with this one, Art was not only a wildly creepy addition but was also the connecting factor and cohesion throughout.

The actual over arching storyline between the shorts took a huge backseat and was very lacking which was unfortunate. Plus the pumpkin man severely paled in comparison to Art, but it didn't seem like they even tried tbh. In general it just felt a bit lazy.

Now, in every OTHER way this one was better than the first. The picture quality, the stories, the acting, the level of engagement and intrigue... all better. Because of this it kind of evens itself out to its predecessor landing pretty middle of the road. 5.5 rounding down to a 5. Would recommend.

Whatever happened to the art of the horror anthology? In the good old days, they would consist of a handful of terrifying tales topped off with a suitably ghoulish resolution; nowadays, anthologies seem to comprise of numerous brief creepy vignettes with no story arc, no character development, and no satisfactory conclusion. All Hallow's Eve 2: The Reaping is a prime example, not one of its many chapters making the slightest bit of sense.

In the opening part of the wraparound story, a young woman finds a VHS cassette outside her apartment and pops it into her player (as if anyone has a video machine these days); on the tape are several spooky tales...

In the first, a babysitter carves a pumpkin in record time for the boy she is looking after. She cooks the seeds in the oven for a snack, but when eaten, pumpkins rapidly grow inside their bodies. This one is fairly gory, but logic plays no part, and the result is confusion.

In the second, a group of young trick or treaters menace the residents of what appears to be a post-apocalyptic town. It's a real head-scratcher, as the kids turn into horrific versions of their costumes (a ghost, a demon, a witch, and the grim reaper), with no adequate explanation for what is happening.

The third story sees two men making an offering to an unseen creature, but forgetting the vital ingredient. This tale left me totally non-plussed.

Next up is the story of a woman who witnesses the murder of her friend, and, six months later, finds herself trapped in a lift with the killer. This episode had potential, but blows it with another weak finish.

Part five is hardly worth mentioning: a carnival sideshow allows people to take their aggression out on masochists. It's so short and inconclusive it barely qualifies as a story.

Tale number six sees a young boy (who wears huge glasses) afraid of a monster that he swears prowls his bedroom at night. His mother does her best to convince the lad that his room is free of nasty creatures, but in the film's extremely predictable ending, she realises how wrong she is.

The penultimate story sees a man decorate his lawn on Halloween, using real corpses as props. Had this been a decent anthology story, the bodies would have come back from the dead to turn the killer into one of his own decorations. The actual ending just leaves the viewer hanging.

The last story is entirely in Spanish. I didn't have a clue what was going on.

The film closes with the girl watching the video being killed by a creepy figure in a pumpkin mask who emerges from the TV.

2/10. A huge disappointment, especially considering that I really like Art the clown and I was hoping that All Hallow's Eve 2 would give me the fix I needed until Terrifier 2. But he's not there! Not even a brief glimpse.

As a massive fan of Art the clown, from the first film and Terrifier, i was excited to watch this... He's on the picture, but not actually in the film, which is pretty disappointing, and this film lost a few stars from my rating because of it. Otherwise it's a good film, but still prefer the first!

I like to watch a portmanteau style horror film every once in a while, so with an idle afternoon Amazon Prime recommended me "All Hallows Eve 2". I haven't seen the first one, I'm hoping that it doesn't matter. Unlike some other films like this, where the short stories were created specifically for the film, these appear to have been a selection of previously produced shorts, some even as much as 10 years old at the time the film was released. It is, as with a large proportion of films like this, mostly rubbish.

Calm to the point of idiocy, a woman (Andrea Monier) is delivered a VHS tape by a pumpkin masked madman, carrying a knife. She watches the tape, the stories of which make up the bulk of the film. Then the least surprising thing happens.

The first is "Jack Attack" in which a young boy Jack (Tyler Rossell) and his babysitter Elizabeth (Helen Rogers) are preparing a pumpkin for Halloween celebrations. Having roasted the seeds, they each eat some, but soon discover, to their horror that the pumpkins are growing inside them. The visual effects were pretty good on this one, but the story was over before it really got started.

The second "The Last Halloween" sees for young children trick or treating in a post-apocalyptic world. Though rewards are small, and danger is high, it's not until they're refused access by Jack (Rob Basch) and Kate (Emily Alatalo) that the true dangers of this world come to life. This was better, the effects work perhaps a bit less impressive but a better story. It also had Julian Richings in it, as the films first recognisable face.

"The Offering" sees a father (Bob Jaffe) and his adult son (Jared Mark Smith) driving to a remote location to prepare a ritual offering for an unseen force, arriving at the site, the father discovers that he has forgotten a key aspect of the offering and must made an unthinkable choice. All in the mind and the performances this one and was all the better for it.

"Descent" sees a woman, Andrea (April Adamson) discover her friends' body, and have to hide from the killer in a cupboard. Weeks later, she's trapped in a lift with the same man and has to maintain her composure, as she works other whether this is a co-incidence or something more sinister. A nice twist in the tail of this one, but the performances are so-so and the short (from 2004) has dated more than the others.

"M is for Masochist" is an ultra-short, where three young man stumble upon a circus and are offered the chance to hurt a "masochist" for the chance to win prizes. Two of the boys begin immediately, but Sam (Fin Kobler) is reluctant. When the masochist's mask comes free, Sam discovers that the victim is his father, who beats Sam at home. He takes his chance for revenge. It fills the running time, I suppose but it's not particularly interesting or well made.

"A Boys Life" was a confusing one. Lengthy and well shot, and starring a young Griffin Gluck, it felt like a psychological chiller, where a boy who hears a monster in his room and is scared sets traps to capture it. But it could just as likely be unprocessed grief over the death of his father, a military man. Until the last minute which, though classic horror fare, undermined the work that had been done before. It felt more like a proof of concept for a larger film, than any of the others.

"Mr Trickers Treat" sees Mr Tricker (Michael Serrato) torture and kill two men and then use them in his front garden Halloween display. It's . . . Not particularly well done - let's just leave it at that.

Finally, "Alexia" which despite being entirely in Spanish and presented without subtitles, was entirely the best. I'm guessing a bit at the plot here, a man (Sergio Beron) is closing down the facebook account of his girlfriend Alexia (Pilar Boyle), who has taken her own life. He has a conversation with his new lover, whom he has invited over and at the conclusion of that, his PC and then his flat is haunted by the ghost of his ex. The visual effects on this one were really well done and this is the really the only one I actually found at all scary.

So, as predicted the film is mostly a waste of time, but a couple of the films are worth your time, particularly Alexia and The Offering, maybe skip to those ones or hunt them down outside of this film.

I liked Art in the first one, but I didn't need him to be in the sequel for it to be good. In fact, I do appreciate that he isn't in it, because I don't want to see him become a cash cow that gets milked whenever someone wants to make a buck.

That said, the reason Art worked in the first one is that he tied the stories together. I felt that, overall, the shorts didn't connect, at least not for me. I didn't mind most of them, but they were too short to make an impact. Just when you start getting into them, they end. I think fewer shorts, each getting more time to develop, would have made this better.

I also didn't feel any connection to the woman watching the films. I liked Katie Maguire in the first one. The woman in this one is forgettable.

Overall, fun, but not great.