See No Evil 2 review

Genre: Slasher, Horror.
Starring: Danielle Harris, Kane, Katharine Isabelle, Chelan Simmons, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Greyston Holt, Lee Majdoub, Michael Eklund, Soska Sisters (cameo).
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 15 (UK)
Runtime: 90 Minutes

Director: Soska Sisters
Synopsis:"A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise Amy (Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) unexpectedly rises from a cold sub-basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives and power saws." IMDB

Here we are with the obligatory Horror sequel, it feels as though 9/10 everything Horror related today is either a sequel/prequel/remake/reboot. That is less annoying when it is a Slasher, just look at Halloween that spawned 9 sequels and I still watch every one of them.

The film opens up with Amy (Harris), Seth (Eriksen) and Holden (Eklund) who are stuck working the graveyard shift at the city morgue where they are all employed. Amy is getting ready to leave in order to celebrate her birthday with her friends. Holden gets the news that a huge number of bodies are coming in, victims of the mass murder committed by Jacob Goodnight (Kane) an event which takes place in the first film. Amy abruptly cancels plans to leave deciding instead to stay and help process the bodies including that of notorious killer Goodnight.

Knowing she can't make the celebration, Amys friends Tamara (Isabelle), Kayla (Simmons), Carter (Majdoub) and her brother Will (Holt) decide to surprise her by throwing her a party in the morgue. During the party Seth and Will have a falling out resulting in Seth leaving the party and going back into work. Tamara is disturbingly obsessed with serial killers and all things that fall under that bracket, she and her boyfriend leave the party to hunt down the body of Goodnight to check it out. Finding the body causes Tamara to get a little bit on the frisky side shall we say, she and Carter begin having sex in turn somehow waking up/reviving Goodnight and that it when the proverbial shit hits the fan.

Overall, the film is a thoroughly enjoyable flick while all set in modern time, it has a brilliant 80s Slasher vibe to it. The Soska Sisters must have grown up watching countless Horror and Slasher films, they get this one down to perfection. Yeah the film lacks character development, however the first film told us all we needed to know about Jacob so this film just needed to be a full on gore fest Slasher flick. Which it was, the film reminded me of the first time I watched the greats like "Halloween" or "Friday The 13th", far superior than the modernised slashers we have.

I also loved how the Sisters gave their own twist to Jacobs look, they made him look more like a true Horror icon, one that when you see you can imagine having a franchise of films built around him. If you are a fan of either the Soska's work or the Slasher sub-genre you would be a damn fool not to check this out, if the twins continue to make films half as good as this they have a LONG career making Horror.

How they managed to get both Katharine Isabelle AND Danielle Harris in a direct-to-dvd sequel of a WWE film is beyond me, but bringing them together was one of the best parts of the film they are both Horror icons in their own right and them sharing the screen rocked! Isabelle's performance was sublime in all she done throughout the film, not to take away from anybody else, heck even Kane upped his game and played a much better "monster". The film uses a lot of practical effects which is by far the best way to make Horror, there is some CGI, more practical though. The death scenes are incredible, the death of Katharine's character completely stands out, it was a beautiful death has to be seen to be appreciated.

Here's to decades more from these genius sisters!

7/10

Soska Sisters talk "Painkiller Jane"

In a recent interview with CraveOnline the Twisted/Soska Sisters what ever you prefer to call them, spoke about their upcoming "Painkiller Jane" film. Back in July at Comic-Con it was announced that the sisters were going to put their own twist if you will on the bad ass comic character Painkiller Jane.

"I'm not working for Marvel," Jen Soska said. "It has to be an R-rated character. When you come to a character like Jane, she drinks, she fights, she f*cks, she talks like you and I talk, and that's an important part of her character. That's why we'd be really disappointed if that ended up being a PG or a PG-13 film because if you look at the character… Kids are reading this kind of content. I mean, when I was a kid I was reading 'The Punisher.' So Jane has to be true to the character and it's got to be an R. We can't tone it down or we'd tone Jane out of the entire script."

"And this is the third shot, they kept watering her down, watering her down, watering her down," Sylvia Soska told Crave. "Jen and I are not going to let that happen, and Jimmy Palmiotti - who is also one of the producers - he's not going to let that happen. There are some scenes in this movie, there's no way they’re not going to slap us with an R. Once you see it, it's going to just be batsh*t crazy."

 

"I’m so excited about it because there are so few female superheroes that are leading movies. It would be obvious [to] put Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in something, and you’re still not doing that," Sylvia Soska adds. "And then you get this bi-sexual, badass, dirty language, doesn’t give a fuck cop as the first female-starring [superhero] movie? And I don’t really include Elektra and Catwoman. I don’t think those are real movies. It’s just exciting to see that girl fucking kick ass, and if that makes money, then all those all those other girls, hopefully, will get there chances to be starring [in their own] movies too."

"I can’t actually tell you who is reading it right now but it’s one those things where it’s so important to find the right Jane, and Jane is going to be, like the script, right off the pages of the comic book. Tough as nails," Jen Soska explains. "The kind of woman that if you nudge [her] in a bar, you’re not trying to pick this one up. You’re going to buy her a new beer and go, ‘Oh my god, please don’t punch me in the face."

As for the film’s script, Sylvia Soska describes it as "The Heat on crack," adding that it features, "The dirtiest language and crudest comedy and hardcore violence, and yet at the same time, it somehow has heart."
 

And their plans for Painkiller Jane are only getting bigger. "This isn’t even planned as a standalone film. We’re planning at least two more of these," assures Sylvia Soska.