WWE Studios is on a roll with creating and following up franchises with films nobody wants to see. Not even a month ago, I wrote a scathing review of the abysmal Leprechaun: Origins, a film which served as the origins story for the Leprechaun killer, who can now put on his resume that he has lasted over three decades in films. Did we really need another film about the famous killer leprechaun, much less an origins story that strips the series right down to about the blandest reworking possible? Now we have See No Evil 2, a sequel to the 2006 film, which became the first feature-film by WWE Studios not to feature Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in any way, shape, or form. Instead, they took the beefy, hulking wrestler Glenn "Kane" Jacobs as a serial killer hunting a plethora of delinquents assigned to clean up an abandoned hotel as part of their community service. The film did middling numbers at the box office and I assumed that was the last I was ever going to see of Kane's character Jacob Goodnight.
On the contrary, in fact, as See No Evil 2 now exists, serving as a trashy and redundant follow-up to an already-trashy and barely tolerable horror film. See No Evil's novelty, at the time, was the creation of a new character played by a physically intimidating professional wrestler, making for a mildly intriguing combination. The flaw with the film was its blatant indifference and its routine line of mutilation and scare tactics that held little ground for the film's runtime. Those who condemn the original Saw film for its graphic depictions of torture and mutilation often never acknowledge the film's twisty storytelling ability or use of audience-deception in order to provide an outcome, but See No Evil almost felt like Saw without the artistry to it, as if it had all been robbed in order for cheap shock value.
This sequel concerns a trio of employees working the graveyard shift at a morgue, Amy (Danielle Harris), Seth (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), and their handicapped boss Holden (Michael Eklund). We get innocuous but mildly-entertaining character development as we see Seth clearly wants to date Amy, but can't muster the courage to ask her out. Amy plans on going out with friends to celebrate her birthday, but her plans are put on hold when a call comes in about nine bodies coming in from the local abandoned hotel after a murderer went on a bloody killing spree a few hours prior. The bodies, along with the body of the presumed-dead killer, Jacob Goodnight (Kane), are in the mix of being trafficked over when Amy's friends decide to bring the party to the morgue.
After two intelligent friends of Amy's decide to fondle and have sex near the corpse of Goodnight, Goodnight proves to still be alive and well (in an anomaly of a coincidence being that we heard the paramedics pronounce him dead just a few minutes prior) and ready to unleash hell by killing every last living thing in the morgue he was brought to. We watch an endless array of vicious brutality captured in the dingy, lowlit halls of the morgue that makes an already indistinguishable slasher in story and approach further indistinguishable with its poor visual scheme.
One of the worst things that can happen to a horror film, worse than predictability, monotony, jump scares, an incoherent storyline, or poor acting, is when the visual scheme becomes too dark and indecipherable. When this happens, it is the most miserable experience because the most important aspect of a film, being able to watch it, has been lost and comes and goes against your will. While See No Evil 2 isn't the most indistinguishable horror film I have yet to see, it does have a frustrating lack of clarity at times, and because the hallways of its setting are so poorly lit, being the film takes place at night, make an already disorienting environment even more-so disorienting in the dark.
On top of that, for all the killing and running around taking place, See No Evil 2 just never becomes very interesting, relentlessly relying on convention and foreseeable torture to the point where both it and its predecessor could become viable examples for the bare basics of slasher filmmaking. Even Jacob Goodnight has desperately little personality, as we see his neglectful and abusive childhood through disjointed flashbacks, which feel like nothing but narrative reiterations in case we forgot the original See No Evil (which, in that regard, the more I think about it, the more that inclusion seems like a good choice).
Nonetheless, after an opening that admirably relies on slowburn techniques, allowing the characters to converse casually before things take a lethal turn, See No Evil 2 becomes derivative and repetitive, and merits a watch only if you haven't properly got into the season through decorating or watching better horror films.
Starring: Glenn "Kane" Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle, Chelan Simmons, Kaj-Erik Erikson, and Greyston Holt. Directed by: Jen and Sylvia Soska.
On the contrary, in fact, as See No Evil 2 now exists, serving as a trashy and redundant follow-up to an already-trashy and barely tolerable horror film. See No Evil's novelty, at the time, was the creation of a new character played by a physically intimidating professional wrestler, making for a mildly intriguing combination. The flaw with the film was its blatant indifference and its routine line of mutilation and scare tactics that held little ground for the film's runtime. Those who condemn the original Saw film for its graphic depictions of torture and mutilation often never acknowledge the film's twisty storytelling ability or use of audience-deception in order to provide an outcome, but See No Evil almost felt like Saw without the artistry to it, as if it had all been robbed in order for cheap shock value.
This sequel concerns a trio of employees working the graveyard shift at a morgue, Amy (Danielle Harris), Seth (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), and their handicapped boss Holden (Michael Eklund). We get innocuous but mildly-entertaining character development as we see Seth clearly wants to date Amy, but can't muster the courage to ask her out. Amy plans on going out with friends to celebrate her birthday, but her plans are put on hold when a call comes in about nine bodies coming in from the local abandoned hotel after a murderer went on a bloody killing spree a few hours prior. The bodies, along with the body of the presumed-dead killer, Jacob Goodnight (Kane), are in the mix of being trafficked over when Amy's friends decide to bring the party to the morgue.
After two intelligent friends of Amy's decide to fondle and have sex near the corpse of Goodnight, Goodnight proves to still be alive and well (in an anomaly of a coincidence being that we heard the paramedics pronounce him dead just a few minutes prior) and ready to unleash hell by killing every last living thing in the morgue he was brought to. We watch an endless array of vicious brutality captured in the dingy, lowlit halls of the morgue that makes an already indistinguishable slasher in story and approach further indistinguishable with its poor visual scheme.
One of the worst things that can happen to a horror film, worse than predictability, monotony, jump scares, an incoherent storyline, or poor acting, is when the visual scheme becomes too dark and indecipherable. When this happens, it is the most miserable experience because the most important aspect of a film, being able to watch it, has been lost and comes and goes against your will. While See No Evil 2 isn't the most indistinguishable horror film I have yet to see, it does have a frustrating lack of clarity at times, and because the hallways of its setting are so poorly lit, being the film takes place at night, make an already disorienting environment even more-so disorienting in the dark.
On top of that, for all the killing and running around taking place, See No Evil 2 just never becomes very interesting, relentlessly relying on convention and foreseeable torture to the point where both it and its predecessor could become viable examples for the bare basics of slasher filmmaking. Even Jacob Goodnight has desperately little personality, as we see his neglectful and abusive childhood through disjointed flashbacks, which feel like nothing but narrative reiterations in case we forgot the original See No Evil (which, in that regard, the more I think about it, the more that inclusion seems like a good choice).
Nonetheless, after an opening that admirably relies on slowburn techniques, allowing the characters to converse casually before things take a lethal turn, See No Evil 2 becomes derivative and repetitive, and merits a watch only if you haven't properly got into the season through decorating or watching better horror films.
Starring: Glenn "Kane" Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle, Chelan Simmons, Kaj-Erik Erikson, and Greyston Holt. Directed by: Jen and Sylvia Soska.