31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 23 Child's Play 2019

 

TITLE-Child's Play 2019

SOURCE-DVD/Hulu

So last year the Child's Play remake came out. I heard it was decent but hadn't seen it. Then earlier this year I saw the DVD was fairly cheap so grabbed a copy. And like happens often with me happened. I will buy a film and then it just sits on the shelf for months/years. This time it was a little different. The day I got the dvd I put it in and watched the first 30 minutes. Got a phone call and had to leave.Skip ahead and I see the film is now on Hulu. Realizing I didn't remember anything I saw the first time I started the film at the beginning. 

Set in the modern day this remake takes the bare bones of the original film and updates it to modern times. This time Chucky is a Buddi doll. That interacts with all the electronics Kalson produces. I'm guessing Kalson is just a renamed Apple,mostly cause their products appear to be over priced junk.

Aubry Plaza plays the mother. She has just moved and is trying all she can to help her son,Andy has a hearing loss. Which really never plays much into the film oddly. One day at her job Aubry has a customer return a Buddi doll cause it has the wrong hair color. When she learns the doll will be shipped back to the warehouse and destroyed she blackmails her boss into letting her have it.

At first Andy isn't that into his new toy. But fairly quick Chucky becomes Andy's best friend. But what Andy and his mom don't know is that Chucky had all his safety protocals removed at the factory by a worker. So once Andy meets some new friends ,who show him Texas Chainsaw Massacre II,Chucky starts to recreate what he saw in TCM II. 

Chucky kills the family cat,cause it has scratched Andy. Then once Chucky realizes that Aubry's boyfriend is a douchebag,well Chucky follows the boyfriend home and kills him. Then delivers the boyfriend's head to Andy. Andy and his new friends try to dispose of the head but through a bunch of odd twists the head ends up wrapped up like a birthday present. And ends up in the apartment of an elderly lady who's son is a police detective.

So as you can see this film isn't just a straight up copy of the original. Besides being updated to reflect modern tech,it also ups the gore levels. And really ups them. I don't remember any of the Child's Play films having as much gore as this film.

Plaza is really good as the mom. The kid playing Andy isn't bad at all. But the star of the film is Mark Hamil as Chucky's voice. 

What sucks is the ending of the film sets up a sequel. But this film didn't do that great at the box office. So I doubt we get a sequel.

Child's Play 2019 gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 22 Blinded by the Blood

 

TITLE-Blinded by the Blood

SOURCE-Sub Rosa Studios double feature DVD

Near the beginning of this year I found out that a local pawn shop was trying to clear out a huge overstock of DVDs and Blu rays. Normally they were wanting 2 bucks a DVD or 13 for 20 bucks. Blu Rays were 4 bucks each or 5 for 20. But now that they had/have way way too many it is 1 for dvd,or 25 for 20 bucks. Blus are 3 bucks or 8 for 20. Armed with this knowledge I started browsing the 3 shelfs and two tables full of home media formats.

The above pictured DVD was almost skipped over.I saw the back cover first.

And as you can see,sorry for the reflections in the pic,the back cover makes this look like one of the hundreds of double feature horror dvds out there. You know the ones that have two battered VHS rips of Public Domain Horror movies. Movies that pretty much every hardcore horror fan already owns 4 or 6 times on DVD. So I just put the DVD back on the shelf. Then something in my head said "Wait Alone in a Haunted House isn't a PD title I have heard of" I grabbed the dvd read the back and after seeing that Blinded by the Blood was a documentary on the making of a low budget horror film I placed this double feature DVD into the ever growing "buy" pile.

Since I was young and got my first issue of Starlog and Fangoria on the same day,THANK YOU UNCLE MILTON!. I have loved learning about how movies are made. From the filming process to how the FX work is done. Which means I will watch/buy pretty much any documentary on the production of a horror film.

It wasn't until I got home and was dividing my media haul into piles,one pile is for me another is to be resold another is for friends etc,I saw the name Tim Ritter and figured out what I had found was a Sub Rosa Studios release.Sub Rosa Studios has been around for a long time now. They release lots of DTV horror and cult movies.And Killing Spree is by one of the best known directors Sub Rosa Studios has worked with,Tim Ritter.Blinded by the Blood is a making of Killing Spree that Sub Rosa Studios started selling after Killing Spree had become a cult classic of the Shot on Video sub genre. The above picture is the VHS release cover of Blinded by the Blood.

Sure the VHS cover says Hosted by Tim Ritter but we all see who has the biggest pic on the cover. The lovely and uber talented Debbie Rochon. By the time Blinded by the Blood was made Debbie was one of the best known B Movie stars and one of the few Scream Queens of the era who was a true Scream Queen. And not some lady who did one horror movie and then used the Scream Queen tag to bilk lonely geeks at cons out of money.

So the film opens with Debbie walking around in a rural area telling us how we are about to see footage shot during the filming of Killing Spree. And explaining that even with almost no money Tim Ritter managed to make a horror film that became a cult hit world wide.

Blinded by the Blood is a lot like the various making of "insert film title" documentaries Troma has made. Cause Blinded by the Blood doesn't cut out stuff that makes Tim look bad. They don't try to cover up that mistakes happened. Who ever was in charge of editing the final cut of Blinded by the Blood did a good job of just showing us what happened during the filming of Killing Spree. Really in the entire film the only part that is a bit biased is the introduction by Debbie Rochon. And hell she was getting paid by Tim to come talk about his film,and I have heard that Debbie and Tim are close friends. So of course her intro will be a bit biased.

Tim Ritter went on to make quite a few movies. Most of them low budget horror/gore movies. Some of the better known ones are from the Truth or Dare series. I have seen Truth or Dare 1 and 3. 

I was pretty impressed by how good the gore FX looked in Killing Spree. Seeing what little they had to work with,money and equipment wise,it is amazing how good the effects look.

Blinded by Blood gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 21 Manos Returns

 

TITLE-Manos Returns

SOURCE-Amazon Prime Video

Yep this is a sequel to the cult classic Manos Hand of fate.  I had been hearing for what feels like 20 years about a sequel being made. Well I don't think this is the sequel I was hearing about. Cause the one I kept hearing about had Gene Snitsky,Former WWE wrestler,and Maria Caneles,another former WWE wrestler. Manos Returns has neither person.

We start off with a car with 4 people driving thru a rural area. I am guessing every one in the car is from Europe. Because everyone of them has a very odd sounding accent. They get stopped by the local sheriff,cause they have a taillight out. 

After that the car ends up at a old abandoned house. Which I'm assuming is the house from the first Manos film. Torgo shows up and the 4 people are now stranded at this house. The house appears to be full of women in white nightgowns.

Now this film was like 1 hour and 7 minutes and sucked so much it felt like it was 8 hours long. The acting was horrible. Many times your could see the actor's eyes going back and forth as they read the cue cards that were just off camera.

The tiny bit of gore was bad. It looked like something you would see in one of those Super 8 films the Polonia Brothers made when they were young teens. 

Whoever was in charge of the camera either wasn't bothering to look thru the viewfinder or just didn't care. Most of the shots in the film are framed badly. And not just "hey this could look better" badly. I'm talking about "OK who gave the blind guy the camera" bad.

Back to the acting. The four leads all are competing to see who can be the worst actor in the film. And it ends up a 4 way tie. Really the only person in the cast that appears to have any acting talent is Torgo. And he is ok at best.

Pretty much avoid this turd. Saw ,after the film was over,that a prequel to Manos is on Amazon Prime Video. I might give that a watch another day. I doubt it can be any worse than this steaming pile of donkey shit.

Manos Returns gets a F.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 20 Spider Baby

 

TITLE-Spider Baby

SOURCE-Spoopy Movie Time on Amazon Prime

One nice bonus of all the streaming services on the market is there is more and more horror host shows appearing on services. Hell I found a free Roku App that is just various horror host shows. The other night was flipping through Amazon Prime's video selection,and if you love horror/cult/exploitation movies Amazon Prime Video is packed with films that aren't on other services,and saw that not only do they have Creepy Koffee Movie Time,a great horror host program,but they also have a newer one called Spoopy Movie Time. No I didn't spell Spooky wrong. Seems a few years ago someone found a bunch of Halloween decorations at a dollar store. Where instead of Spooky whoever had made these decorations had put Spoopy. And now some dumb gen z kids are trying to make Spoopy a thing.

But anyways Spoopy Movie Time appears to have 2 seasons. Both of which are on Amazon Prime. And like most modern horror host shows they show only Public Domain films. I figured by now I had covered pretty much every public domain horror film. Then saw that in season 2 Spoopy Movie Time showed Spider Baby. Fuck Yea not only is it a film I haven't covered. It is also a fucking great film.

In 1968,yep the same year that the horror classic Night of the Living Dead hit the screens,Jack Hill wrote and directed Spider Baby. Armed with about 65,000 and a horror legend,Lon Chaney Jr,Jack made a film that while it kinda died at the box office has over the decades become a cult classic.

Lon Chaney Jr is the protecter and chauffer of the Merrye family. Who suffer from a rare illness,Merrye Syndrome. Which causes anyone with it in late childhood to start regressing down the evolutionary chain. All that is left is the 3 kids and Lon tries his best to protect them from themselves and others.

Shit I can't believe I haven't mentioned the theme song....Lon sings the theme song which is great. It's goofy and funny and I'm shocked it hasn't become a Halloween hit. 

Back to the film. We start off with long time Hollywood actor Mantan Moreland,who I talked about years ago in my King of the Zombies review. Mantan is delivering a message and gets attacked by one of the young female Merryes. She loves to play spider and the web. Were she throws a net on someone. Then stabs them multiple times with knives. Lon gets back to the home in time to dispose of the dead body.

Then 2 distant relatives arrive. They plan on taking control of the home and property. The kids dont like this and we get all kinds of ultra violence cause of this. 

Besides this film being one of the last film for some greats like Chaney and Moreland it is also the first time the late great Sid Haig appeared on screen.  Sid plays Ralph. Who has regressed so far back that he only grunts and lears at people. 

Lon makes the mistake of leaving the distant relatives at the home with the three feral kids. And by the time he comes back all hell has broken loose. One of the visitors has been thrown into the basement. Where some other members of the family live. These other members of the family end up eating the person thrown into the basement. Lon seeing that there is nothing he can do,blows up the house with some dynamite. Killing everyone,but one of the distant relatives manages to escape.

This relative thinks he is far enough down the bloodline from the Merryes to not have to worry about the family sickness. Then the camera pans to this man's daughter who looks a lot like the Merrye who liked the play spider. Making us think that soon she will regress and this madness will continue.

The print Spoopy Movie Time uses looks rough.  But it is watchable. The two hosts,who are CGI creations,do speak thru out the movie. Cracking jokes and pointing out stuff. Not sure if this version of the film is the best way for someone to see this movie for the first time. But since Spider Baby is public domain it shouldn't be hard to find a copy on Youtube or the Internet Archive.

The director,Jack Hill,is one of the greats of cult cinema.He worked with Francis Ford Coppola one many of Coppola's early films. Including being the producer on the Roger Corman cult Classic The Terror. But to me Hill is best known for the handful of Blaxploitation films he made in the 70s. Stuff like Foxy Brown and Coffy.

Spider Baby gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 19 Firestarter

 

TITLE-Firestarter

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

This was the first Stephen King film I saw before I read the novel. And sure there is some major differences between the two,the one that stands out the most to me is how the novel ends compared to the book. They are both well done pieces of fiction.

Charley and her dad are on the run. Years ago Charley's parents had taken part in a drug trial. And both of them ended up developing powers out of this. The mom has TK and the dad can "push" people to do things. Now that Charley is showing that she has powers The Shop. The Shop is a secretive group in the CIA that does the wetworks missions.

After running for a long time they think they are safe. They find a cabin by a lake. Then the Shop shows up. They capture both of them and take them to a secret place the Shop runs.

While they are there the Shop seperates them. And slowly is driving a wedge between Charley and her father. But then the Dad manages to get a message to Charley. Once she learns that a janitor,who was an undercover shop agent,has been lying to her...Well all hell breaks loose.

Now I have seen this movie so many times. Even got a chance to see a 35mm print at a revival screening over a decade ago. And this blu from Scream Factory looks very close to the 35mm print I saw.

The Blu is loaded with extras. All of which are worth watching. Really my only complaint about this Blu is I hate the new artwork used for the cover. That is what I posted at the top. But Scream Factory is smart,the front cover is reversable and the other side is the cover that I remember from the VHS and DVD releases.

Firestarter gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 18 Candyman

 

TITLE-Candyman

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

I'm surprised I haven't cover this film before. Been a fan of it since it came out and also love the short story it is based on. So when I saw the Blu Ray cheap at the local Walmart I grabbed it.

Virgina Madson and a friend are investigating a urban  legend at the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago,Cabrini Green is also when the 70s show Good Times was set. Seems if you look in a mirror and say Candyman 3 times he will appear and kill you.

There is so much to love about this film. The acting is great. Madson is really good as the lead. Then you got the Tony Todd. He just IS Candyman. Every appearance of Candyman make my skin crawl.

Yep this is one of the few horror films made after the 70s that actually scares me some. It think it is cause of how well the film is made. The score plus the acting and the way the film is shot just gets under my skin.

This blu is loaded with extras. You get two cuts of the film. The theatrical cut we have all seen for decades. Then a slightly longer uncut version. Add in a few commentaries and a pile of extras and you get a hell of a deal on this Blu Ray.

Candyman gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 17 Bram Stoker's Dracula

 

TITLE-Bram Stoker's Dracula

SOURCE-Bootleg DVD made from the Laserdisc

Man this is one I haven't even thought about in years. I saw it in a theater not long after it came out. Then for a few years in the mid 90s saw it at least in part once a week. Mostly cause a friend had a copy and watched it all the time.

Then other night was talking to a friend and this film,and the subject of how it doesn't follow the book it is based on,came up. So I dug around in the media vault to see if I had a copy. Yep got a DVD-r that is a rip of the Laserdisc.

There is so much about this film that is good. It looks amazing. The sets and costumes look damn good. The score is really good. But all that goodness can't offset the bad shit.

Like how no one in the cast can deliver the lines without looking like they hate being there. Sure everyone remembers how bad Keanu was in this,and yes he is horrible. But Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder get praised when they aren't much better than Keanu.

Then you got the major flaw. Francis Ford Coppala and the fan press,like Fangoria,kept saying how this would be the first Dracula film to follow the novel. I had read the novel back in JR High and was waiting for a good adapatation of it. It isn't a good adaptation. Really it feels like Coppala had read the novel 60 years ago and just used the few parts he remembered. But all over the place was critics and fans raving about how it was "JUST LIKE THE BOOK"! 

I walked out of the theater after the film was over thinking "Wow that was a total piece of shit." And the many viewings of it since then haven't changed my mind. Really if this was called say Francis Ford Coppala's Dracula this would be a much better film. But calling it Bram Stoker's Dracula means to me I want to see a adaptation of the novel. Not Coppala changing most stuff from the novel.

Bram Stoker's Dracula gets a F+

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 16 Wrong Turn 2 UNRATED

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn 2 Dead End

SOURCE-20th Century Fox DVD set

Back in the spring of this year I was looking for stuff to watch. Found at a local store a pack with the first 6 Wrong Turn films in it. Having already seen the first 2 film,and already owning the first one,plus the 6 film set being right at 10 bucks I grabbed it.Get home open it up and it is what I figured.Repacked discs from all these films solo releases. So that means films 2 thru 6 are unrated. 

Before sitting down to watch Wrong Turn 2 I had seen it maybe 2 times. But both times I caught it on Syfy channel. Which means of course I saw the film chopped to shreds. Getting a chance to see it uncut and unrated was a nice experience.

Directed by Joe Lynch,who I knew from his short in Chillerama,this is a interesting way to continue the Wrong Turn franchise. Set out in the backwoods of West Virginia,which is a scary scary place,we have Henry Rollins as the host of a reality show. Kinda a Survivor that has more of a military feel.

Rollins plays Dale Murphy. Love how good Henry is at playing these meathead roles. Like when he was a cop in The Chase. Or the White Power Skinhead guy on that season of Sons of Anarchy. Rollins is great and playing roles that are total opposites of him. And yea I've been a fan of Rollins since I discovered his time in Black Flag back in the mid 80s. 

The only other member of the cast I knew is Erica Leerhsen. Took a bit before I remembered what I had seen Erica in previously. She was the hitchhiker in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Plus played the wiccan lady in Book of Shadows:Blair Witch 2". Kinda surprised she hasn't had bigger roles in cinema. She is a good actress and appears to work often. But it is small stuff that few see.

And I can't not mention the best name I have seen in a credits list in years. TEXAS BATTLE!! And it is the guy's real name. He appears to mostly be a soap opera actor. But that name is great. TEXAS BATTLE!!! Sounds like a old cheap western. Or maybe an early 80s Italian Mad Max ripoff with George Eastman.

So we got our reality show people out in the backwoods. And the inbred mutant hillbilly family from the first film trying to kill them. Like in the first film the FX work is really good. Looks to be 90% practical effects. Like that they made sure to bring back Three Finger from the first film.

Now the first Wrong Turn came out in 2003,cost a bit over 12 million and made right at 28 million from the box office. Plus who knows what it did on home video. So 4 years later Wrong Turn 2 hit theaters for what appears to be a 1 month limited run. Costing 4 million,I can't find how much the film made in it's short theatrical run. But saw that it hit home video about a month after theaters and made 9 million on home video. That is a damn good for a pretty much DTV horror. And explains why they made a 3rd,4th,5th,6th and I think a 7th film.

The FX work is good. The main members of the cast are all good actors/actresses. And I liked how they kinda spoofed the reality show tropes.

Wrong Turn 2 Dead End Unrated gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 15 Mirrors 2 Unrated

 

TITLE-Mirrors 2

SOURCE-20th Century Fox DVD

Cause I buy lots of my DVDs used from thrifts and pawn shops I end up buying in bulk. Most of the local pawns will charge you as little as 50 cents a dvd if you buy say 20 at a time. One of my more recent trips to a pawn that is overstocked with DVDs I was needing one more DVD to hit that magic number of 20. So dispite having never seen Mirrors or the Asian film it was a remake of,I grabbed Mirrors 2. It was the best choice. And it being unrated I figured "Hey I might get lots of gore!"

Nick Stahl is the lead. He recently lost his fiancee,has a bad case of survivor's guilt and now is working a nightwatchman job at his Dad's store in New Orleans. After starting the job Nick AKA Max learns that one of the other nightwatch crew has went missing And the person who's job he has now went crazy.

Being named Mirrors you kinda know that late at night in a closed and almost empty of humans store you are gonna get a few mirror scares. Sadly this film is nothing but mirror scares... 

Whoever did the gore FX did a decent job. But after the first few mirror scares it all just becomes a jumble in my brain. I actually stopped the movie at the 45 minute mark and called up a close friend who is a huge fan of both Mirrors films. Asked her if there was anything from the first film that I should know before I go about finishing the sequel. After being asked why I watched the second film before watching the first movie,and being called weirdo I got told "Nah not really.The second film is more of the same just set in New Orleans."

So now I'm wondering,why did this DTV sequel to a horror film that wasn't a big hit get so much chatter online when it was coming out? Thought it might be the cast. Besides Nick Stahl you got Emmanuelle Vaugier. Who I kinda remembered from one of the CSI shows. The other person I knew was William Katt. Best known from Greatest American Hero and House and House IV. 

Hmmm maybe there is someone in the cast that I just don't know is a big or cult star. So I messaged my girlfriend. Sent her a link to the IMDB page."Hey scan this cast list and tell me if there is anyone in it that is a star that I wouldn't realize is a star."

Get a reply telling me the woman in the picture above this was on some Disney teen show for a long time and after that was the voice of Kim Possible. Ok so that might explain why people talked this movie up. Then a scene happened and I realized Mirrors 2 is to 90s kids what Streets was to the kids that were teens when Married with Children was the hottest show around. 

Yep Christy Carlson Romano,I hope I spelled that right,aka Ren Stevens of Even Stevens wanted to shed her good girl image and went topless in this movie.

Yall older folks will remember how a few seasons into Married with Children how there was press all over the place about how Christina Applegate was doing nudity in an upcoming film called Streets. This press helped this tiny low budget Roger Corman movie be a huge home video hit.

And it appears all that hype I saw in 2010 for Mirrors 2,a really bad DTV sequel to a from what I have been told crap original film,was cause a former teen star showed some skin.....

Man this movie just isn't good. Stahl and the rest of the cast appear to be trying their best with what they have. But movie is crap. 

When I see movies this bad I make it a point to see who directed it. So I can IMDB the direcotr and make sure to skip the rest of their filmography. Off to IMDB to look up Victor Garcia.

Ok he did the DTV sequel to 30 days of night,which I have heard was horrible. And I didn't think 30 Days of night was worth a fuck.

Same year he had Return to House on Haunted Hill.The unneeded sequel to a unneeded remake.But this time they got Cabin Fever and Power Rangers star Cerina Vincent.What ever happened to her?

Then some movie titled Artic Predator,which isn't a Predator sequel. It looks like one of those creature features that premieres on SyFy channel on a Saturday night. Mirrors 2 was 2010. His next film is 2011...

Ok yea fuck Victor Garcia. Fuck this shitty movie. Even if you have wanted to see that Disney chick naked you entire life don't torment yourself with this horrible shitstain of a film. Google image the screenshots and prevent having to endure this bottom of the barrel 90 minute film.

Mirrors 2 gets a D-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 14 Hostel Part 2 Unrated Director's Cut

 

TITLE-Hostel Part II Unrated Director's Cut

SOURCE-Sony DVD

I think I might have reviewed this back the year it hit theaters. But not sure. And even if I did what I had back then was the workprint,which was missing some of the FX work,that had leaked a month before the film hit theaters.

Now Eli Roth is a love him or hate him director. When Cabin Fever came out all I saw was people praising him and how he was gonna save mainstream horror. Then between that film and the first Hostel started seeing more and more fans hating on Eli. Some of them could explain why they didn't like him. But lots of them would just say stupid stuff like "He uses too much product on his hair."WTF what does that have to do with his directing? It really felt like the ones that hated him and couldn't give a real reason was more they were mad that a life long horror fan was out there making movies. While they were stuck working their boring job and doing whatever they could to try to get a bit of internet fame.Me,I have enjoyed almost every Eli Roth film I have seen. Even shit like Knock Knock.

Hostel 2 starts off showing us that the one survivor of the first film lives in fear. And he ends up being the first kill we see. After that we head over to Europe where three young women are taking an art class. These three will be our leads this time. And the story is kinda a flipped version of the first film.

The three leads are played by Lauren German,Bijou Phillips and Heather Matarazzo.

 For Ms German this was the first thing I saw her in. And for a bit the only thing I knew she had done until the tv show Lucifer started. She is a decent actress. But appears to pretty much stick to TV work now. Lauren plays the rich girl of the group. She is incredible wealthy and appears to pay for pretty much everything for her and her 2 friends.

Bijou Phillips is an actress I have been watching in films and TV for what feels like over half my life. For my fellow horror fans she is best known for being in the remake of Wizard of Gore and the Miramax 2005 voodoo film Venom. Both are films I have covered in previous 31 Days of Horror and both films are worth tracking down. Phillips the party girl of our lead trio. Which from various stories floating around is pretty much what Bijou was for a long time.

Heather Matarazzo is the last of our female trio. Before this film I knew her from playing DJ Conner's girlfriend on the last season of Roseanne,well last season of the original run,and her amazing early role in Welcome to the Dollhouse. But it appears most people know Heather as the sidekick from the Princess Diaries series of films. She plays the shy virginal girl of the group.

Now with this being Hostel and our leads being in Europe of course this means they will get bad info and head off to one of the places the evil group from the first film are.

The ladies are at a village's harvest festival and a man approachs Heather. He talks her into taking a boat ride with him down a nearby creek. And yep you know where this is going. She gets knocked out. The other two ladies notice she is missing and go to find her.

Heather wakes up hanging from the ceiling and fully nude. Seems someone wanted to recreate the infamous Elizabeth Bathroy stuff. Added bonus to the woman looking to kill Heather is Heather is a virgin. Yep we get to see a lady bathe in the blood of a female virgin. In what is the best kill scene in the Hostel trilogy,

Sadly after this scene most of the rest of the film is downhill. With only the twist about 8 minutes before the ending providing anything that will surprise your normal horror fan.

The gore is well done. And most of it is practical FX work. The acting ain't bad for what is pretty much a high budget gore film. But too much of it feels like Roth redoing his favorite gore scenes from movies he saw too many times as a teen.

That twist I mentioned... German is rich. She uses her money to buy her way out of dying. It's a neat twist. And one I should have called before it happened. 

After this movie Eli Roth turned the franchise over to other hands. I figure lots of that has to with how this movie didn't do that great at the box office. 

The first Hostel,released in 2005,cost a little under 5 million  and made a bit over 80 million. Hostel II came out 2 years later.It Cost a bit over 10 million to make,but only made a tiny bit under 36 million.

Some will say that is because besides changing the genders of the lead trio there isn't that much difference between the two films. Sony and Roth claim it is because almost a month before the films US theatrical release a workprint got leaked. This workprint,which is how I saw the film for years until I got the DVD pictured up at the top,looked decent. But the final beheading effect wasn't finished. And a few music tracks got changed for the theatrical release. 

I believe it was a bit of both as to why this film under performed. Plus a dash of the first film did so well cause it was the first big studio big budget gore film in decades. By the time the second film came out the whole torture porn subgenre had exploded.

No matter the reason,this film is the reason why the third film went direct to video. Had a tiny budget. And the third film feels more like a revamping of the series instead of a sequel that continues on the story from the first two films.

Hostel II is a decent gore film with an interesting cast of fairly talented young actresses. Hostel II gets a C+.