By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Without question, there are so many classic horror productions that have spawned inferior sequels. John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Nightmare on Elm St. (1984) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) are just a few examples. Though some of the films that followed were worth watching and original in their own right, nothing was as spectacular as the originals.
Quite often, I am accused of preferring inferior follow-ups over the revered originals. Even my husband has pointed the same thing out to me. In all honesty, I have to admit that the allegations are for the most part true. My taste is admittedly strange. I absolutely adore Book of Shadows (2000), but can barely sit through The Blair Witch Project (1999). As for anthologies, The Raft sequence of Creepshow 2 (1987) unnerves me enough that it etches Creepshow (1982) out of the top spot, though I do enjoy both.
Of the Jaws series, Jaws 3-D (1983) reigns as king; and among the Friday the 13th films, Jason Lives (1986) outranks all the others that came before or after.
The Last Exorcism II (2013) is another of its kind that is superior in nearly every way to the movie that came before. When I first saw the original in 2010, I thought it was okay. It wasn’t overly impressive but I had certainly seen worse. I wasn’t crazy about the found-footage element, which was surprisingly and refreshingly dropped for the sequel.
On top of the format being changed, there were several dramatic elements added to the story which posed new questions and elaborated further on the old ones that were left unresolved in the original. Though a continuation of the original story, it is certainly different enough where it avoided the common mistake of being a retelling. Thankfully, it was similar enough and continued the struggle of our lead in a way that brings the viewer in even further without the need of the found-footage element.
I was very happy to see that Nell (Ashley Bell) returned. Nell is brought to a halfway house for downtrodden teenage girls. She attempts to fit in with the others but can’t. Her innocent naiveté is made fun of by the other teens. Still, she finds a decent boyfriend who doesn’t push her. She’s convinced herself with the help of therapy that everything from the first film was induced by a cult and that she was never possessed.
The demon isn’t ready to let her go and uses everything to get to her. She does her best to resist him but he becomes more and more persuasive using everything from the other girls in the house to her boyfriend.
Everything about the film was well done. It was a fun fresh horror movie that added to the original. The ad campaign for it failed to really delve into what the movie was about and I thought it was just going to be another mockumentary style production.
I was so pleasantly surprised and definitely suggest watching it. Towards the end, the tone of the movie changes and it becomes almost like Carrie (1976) meets The Omen (1976).
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
