Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: After a woman receives a mysterious VHS tape on Halloween, she watches its disturbing contents in this anthology tale.
Review: I'm kind of surprised this managed to get a sequel before "Trick 'r Treat 2" could come out, but, alas, here we are. Now, I actually really enjoyed "All Hallows' Eve" for what it was despite its noticeable flaws. The wraparound in the first film was awesome, and the stories had that clown, Art, to pull them together. Although the individual tales were missing a certain polish to spice them up, they were interesting enough and presented well. Unfortunately, the sequel thought quantity over quality was the way to go with short, incoherent tales; some borderline on pretentious, and you know how much I love that! This was not the wisest decision to say the least.
Wraparound: Art may not have been the most original horror villain, but he was intimidating enough to represent this series if need be. Apparently the creators did not agree with that sentiment. Instead, we get some fucking moron wearing a cutout mask from the back of his Count Chocula cereal. The movie calls him "the trickster." Riiight. This guy doesn't appear in any of the segments anyway so what was the point? There is a chick just hanging out on Halloween...sipping wine by candlelight while consulting her Ouija board for dating advice. Yeaaah, sure, we'll roll with that I suppose. Even though this trickster idiot sneaks into her apartment building, wields a knife in front of her, and gives her a weird VHS tape, this chickadee isn't bothered by this. You know what, she probably isn't bothered by this--it's probably turning her on with the attention. Now you may be wondering, why would a chick fitting this description have a VCR on standby? Well, she can't bear to watch "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in any other format. Come the fuck on. You're not even trying! This bitch doesn't even have any movies in her apartment by the way. Moving along...she watches the tape as with the first film, sees the creepy tales, and at the end is killed. There is little action in between the segments and absolutely no build up to the wraparound's conclusion. This was a huge failure especially considering the wraparound was the highlight of the first movie. I think this may be the most disappointing aspect to the entire experience.
Jack Attack: Starting off the stories, this one establishes a very Halloween-ish feel that I like to see. A babysitter and a boy are preparing to carve a pumpkin when all hell breaks loose. It would seem that this particular pumpkin is sentient or a mutant of some sort. The two eat the pumpkin seeds, and those seeds suddenly sprout into carnivorous mini pumpkins that rip out of their bodies. Eventually the babysitter's boyfriend shows up at the end as we see that the pumpkin vines are taking over the entire house. Eh, it's not the best of stories, but it had nice set design. I was just shocked by how short the story was as I was expecting a similar experience to the first film with longer entries.
The Last Halloween: In one respect, I can appreciate the bizarre nature of this story, but, at the same time, this was the first of the stories to straddle that pretentious line. Four kids are trick-or-treating in, what appears to be, the aftermath of some kind of collapse of society. The children are obviously supernatural, and I suppose they're the four trick-or-treaters of the apocalypse or something. A guy and his wife are attacked by these children in a nonsensical way as the children turn into more grotesque forms representing their costumes. In the end, the children move on as the camera pans back to a city in chaos and ablaze with fire. I want to like this segment, but that pretentious vibe rubs me the wrong way.
The Offering: Okay, for this story, I can safely say they were being 100% pretentious! A father and son duo are traveling through a forest and heading toward a ritual location or whatever the hell was going on. The father forgets an ingredient for this ritualistic offering--or deliberately left it--which leads to the son being forced to take care of it. We don't see anything or have any understanding of what is happening as something comes out of the forest and gets the son. And that's all that happens. What the fuck? I swear the dad calls the son Isaac too. Really? No context. No explanations. Get the fuck out. The cinematography was well done though--I liked the snowfall.
Descent: I almost liked this segment, but it had to go for that pretentious ending, didn't it? When going over her friend's house, a woman inadvertently walks in on the friend's murder. Hiding just as the killer is finishing up, the woman manages to survive as we cut to six months later; the only caveat is that the killer heard the woman's distinct ringtone but assumed it belonged to the friend he killed. Working late one night, the woman becomes trapped in an elevator with the killer who just happens to work in the same building; it is also addressed that the friend worked there as well. When the woman's ringtone goes off randomly, she freaks out and stabs the killer before he can react. When the elevator resumes working, we realize that the woman sees every guy as having the killer's face. This means the dude she stabbed wasn't actually the killer after all, and now she's getting arrested. Again, I liked where they were going with this scenario, but I didn't like where we ended up.
Masochist: This segment was straight up retarded, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to really say. We are in bizarro world as kids walking along end up at a carnival attraction. Some dude tells them to throw weapons at "the masochist" which is just a person they know tied up. The first victim is one of the kids' abusive father so of course they throw the weapons at him. Then we cut to another "masochist" with the camera going crazy. That's it. That's all that happens. Fuck you, this is the worst segment in the film.
A Boy's Life: This story was a surprising change of pace as they tried to take a more sentimental route. After a boy's father died, he believes there is a monster bothering him each night. Because of this fear, the boy often wears the father's dog tags to give him courage. Annoyed by the fear, the insistence of there being a monster, and taking the dog tags, the mother keeps snapping at the boy. One night, the mother realizes the best way to help the son overcome the fear is to embrace his childhood fantasies. The two amusingly run around the kid's room pretending to fight the monster until the son finally feels better. Unfortunately, they ruin all of the sentimentality established in the story by ending it with the monster pulling the mom under the bed. Was cheapening your very own story the best way to handle the conclusion? Hell, make the monster nothing more than the father's ghost or something--match the tone of your own premise.
Mr. Tricker's Treat: Coming in as the second worst story, we meet some guy, apparently called Mr. Tricker, as he's killing some kids. Yay. The kids look molested to me, but, nevertheless, this guy is trying to turn his victims into real life decorations. When setting up the bodies, some bimbo pops up out of nowhere and compliments the realism. So impressed with the kind words, Mr. Tricker decides to add the bimbo to the collection. The end. Ugh. Seriously, at no point was anyone like, "we can do better than this?"
Alexia: For the record, this is the only segment I'm unsure of the title as it was never explicitly stated. Anyway, does this segment at least manage to close things out on a high note? Mercifully, yes, and this might be the best segment to boot. Although it does feel like an unofficial "Unfriended 2" mixed with a little Sadako and Natre action, I'm perfectly fine with that. Some guy is troubled by the anniversary of his ex-girlfriend's suicide; her name is Alexia obviously. I guess he's using facebook? To be honest, I quit that site so long ago I have no idea if this is how it looks at the moment. The guy gets into a conversation with his current girlfriend as he mentions his sense of guilt that dumping Alexia may have been the cause of her suicide. After the girlfriend says she will come over to cheer the guy up, he decides to unfriend Alexia. Big mistake, buddy-boy. He gets a message from Alexia, his computer goes crazy, and the screen begins to distort. Eventually the screen focuses on a creepy photo of Alexia sitting in the dark as it zooms in on her face. Since the website won't close, the guy unplugs the computer only for us to see Alexia emerge behind the monitor. Closing his eyes, everything appears to have been a hallucination as the girlfriend shows up. We later get the whole mirror fake out trick as the guy checks up on the girlfriend whom is sitting in front of the computer. Despite the computer still being unplugged, that picture of Alexia has returned except the girlfriend is in her place instead. The story ends with the guy realizing Alexia is sitting next to him. As you can tell by that description, it sounds like a combination of many different horror films, but it's done well. Alexia does look creepy, the production value looked good, and the makers of the segment understood what they were doing. If only the rest did.
I really love anthologies, but I don't know about this movie. The first film had 3 stories and one hell of a wraparound whereas this sequel has a pathetic wraparound, 8 short stories, and 11 fucking minutes of credits! A few of the stories are commendable, like Alexia, but they aren't so good they salvage the whole film. The overall production quality was a legitimate improvement from the first film, but the actual stories are inferior and often nonsensical. I want to say this is still worth a view--and some might even enjoy this one more--but be aware this is nowhere near on par with something like "Trick 'r Treat" when it comes to "Halloween" alternatives.
Notable Moment: When Alexia comes out from behind the computer. Ehh...so what if it's a cross between Natre and Sadako.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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