Horror Stories 2 Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A girl with psychic powers figures out the mystery behind unusual insurance claims in this anthology tale.

Review: Man, I had such high hopes for this series after the first movie, but it's already let me down. I know it may be hard to come up with original stories to tell, but, come on, these tales were bland as hell. Okay, it's not that the stories are inherently bad, but they feel uninspired and one is a flat out ripoff. They also missed an opportunity to continue with the first film's wraparound; which was odd since the girl from that segment is in this movie, albeit, playing a different character. I should also mention the first movie had more stories as well which was yet another disappointment. It's like they were trying to mirror the experience people felt when watching "VHS 2" or something. Oh well, let's take a look, shall we?

Wraparound/444: I did like the idea behind this segment--with a weird girl working late at an insurance company when her boss wants her to use her psychic abilities to get to the bottom of troublesome cases. But let's be honest, no one would hire that girl especially in Korea; her attire and look reeks of wannabe Lisbeth Salander. All that happens is the boss gives her a claim and she is supposed to tell him what really occurred. In between each story we see, what appears to be, demons encircling the boss while he deals with a nagging family. I don't know what the hell was supposed to be going on, but at the end Lisbeth says something about the boss committing fraud and then they try their best to reenact the ending of "Drag Me to Hell" as the boss is suddenly dragged away. The girl mumbles to herself like this isn't the first time she's done this as she mops up blood they left behind. Uhh okay. I guess that makes sense in some far corner of oblivion. Well, this wasn't the worst segment so there's that.

The Cliff: This is probably the best tale although that's not saying much. The problem here was mostly missed opportunities to capitalize on a decent premise. Two guys, who appear to be friends, go hiking as a kind of tradition after investing some money. When they go to take a photo on top of a mountain they fall over but land on a ledge. The two begin to squabble quickly since the movie jumps to the 4th day immediately. It's the shit you would expect with them arguing over personal stuff, paranoia, and a lot of drama with a Snickers bar. The nicer friend ends up dying trying to get the candy bar as the douche eventually is rescued after seeing visions of his dead friend. At some point the nice friend's magical twin brother appears out of nowhere and doesn't believe the douche's version of the events. The douche realizes that when he fell off the cliff he actually pulled the nice friend with him rather than both going over at once. The twin brother claims he wants the douche to escort him to the cliff to pour the nice friend's ashes out which the douche goes along with. When they get there, there are no ashes in the urn but inside is a Snickers bar. The twin then pushes the douche off once more to that same ledge and says that the douche had stolen money from the family which led to their dad committing suicide. The story ends with the ghost of the nice friend apparently coming to get the douche. There was maybe a little too much going on in this segment making things feel rushed. The ghost felt forced and the twin idea was dumb, but I did like the creativity and the twists were nice.

The Accident: This is the segment that feels most like a ripoff; I mean, we've seen this tale before and done better numerous times at this point. Basically, three stupid girls are drinking and driving when they of course crash. Do I even need to explain that they conveniently cut away right before the collision? The girls try to find a phone on the road but it's destroyed. Then they see a light coming from a home in the distance and try to make it there with their injuries. Along the way they see zombie-ish people all the while hearing voices that are of course the family and hospital workers. Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, they're dying and in a purgatory-state with everything in their heads. They get to the house and it's some kind of shrine with an old man who looks like a monster at one point. The main girl eventually wakes up in the hospital as she realizes what is happening, but it turns out she has died anyway. The visuals look good, but we've seen this same tale too often and they did not add anything different.

The Escape: Once again, the last story turns out to be the worst. For some reason they decided to add a comedy tale and it is beyond stupid. I'm sure some may find humor in it, but I sure as hell did not except for one lone shot. The premise is that a new teacher, who is a total wimp, is utterly humiliated on his first day; apparently he also works at a school in dire need of a "Battle Royale." When considering suicide and wimping out, the teacher talks to a girl proclaiming to be a satanist who gives him a spell to go to a different world...I guess where he's not a wimp? After going through the elaborate ritual, the man does end up in the hellish world but it looks the same except inhabited by monsters. Suffice it to say, they try to make things funny, but I'm not laughing. The man wants to leave, but doesn't know how, so he magically can call the satanist girl for help. Satanist girl talks to her friends that made it back from the world and explain the most ridiculous and over the top ritual to get home which involves drinking your own piss among other things. When the teacher is almost back, about to perform the last part of the return ritual, and finally gaining confidence from the experience, one of the satanist's friends reveals that that particular ritual only works for girls. The segment ends with the dude dying or whatever as he sends a pic from hell to the satanist. Again, the visuals are great, but everything else not so much. I did like the girls randomly cursing in English though.

Overall, I'm severely disappointed. I was hoping they would step their game up and surpass the first film, but I suppose that was expecting way too much. The stories aren't even that original and the one that is original turns out to be terrible. The quality looks good, and I could tell they put a lot of effort into the production, but they should have been focusing on the quality of the tales first and foremost. I don't know if they will continue on with this series, but, if they do, they need to compensate big time for this fuck up. I guess if you're bored you could give this one a try, but there are way better anthology films out there including the first "Horror Stories."

Notable Moment: During the last segment when the one teacher is yelling at the students. I liked how one girl jumps through a window to get to class. It was a nice touch that was actually amusing in a tale trying way too hard to be funny.

Final Rating: 5/10