10/31 Part 2: An Unfortunate - and Unseasonal - Bottom-Budget Halloween Anthology
By Thom Ernst
Rating: D
You might assume that the movie 10/31 Part 2 has a marketing strategy built into its title.
I've provided an example:
"When's a good time to release 10/31 Part 2?"
"What's it about?"
"It's a horror anthology about Halloween."
"How about October 31?"
There. Done.
But logic fails, and the movie 10/31 Part 2 gets an August, Friday 13th release date, multiple harvest moons before October.
An out-of-season Halloween trickster from 10/31 Part 2
As far as auspicious dates go, Friday 13th is an acceptable second choice, even if it's a date well-branded by another horror franchise.
At least 10/31 Part 2 gets the jump on the Halloween schedule ahead of more anticipated monster releases like: Halloween Kills, Antlers, Don't Breathe 2, and Jordan Peele's Candyman remake (some of which are releasing later this month).
But why harp on the release date when there are so many crazy things about 10/31 Part 2 on which to harp?
10/13 Part 2 is a bargain-basement horror anthology with some segments coming off as being pieced together during a cottage weekend with guests too drunk to know better than to make a movie.
But low budget genre movies can still have appeal. I quite enjoyed Ryan Barton-Grimley's Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers (2020) and Mike McMurran's Secret Santa (2015), both movies that are far better than their IMDB rating suggests.
Remember The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity? Low budget. It can work.
Not so with 10/13 Part 2. The film opens with a series of faux horror movie trailers. Faux horror trailers can be fun and can set the mood for something irreverent to follow, but the parodies are weak, etched out on an iMovie app—less preview than extended film clips. Parodying a film trailer without title cards and voice-over is like imitating Rodney Dangerfield without tugging on your tie and saying, "I get no respect."
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
Even titles like Truck Squatch—the most effective parody of the lot—doesn’t quite gel as satire, but at least it gets a laugh.
Eventually the previews end and the main attraction begins.
Well, not quite.
We meet Malvoila (Jennifer Nangle), the self-anointed Queen of Screams. Because what we need after a mile-long stretch of fake previews is a host to guide us into the films. I like hosts on movie shows—I used to be one. And to be critical of a host sounds akin to a case of sour grapes. But I simply cannot conjure up a reason why Malvoila is there.
Malvoila has a sizeable online following as a horror film critic. But the Elvira-inspired goth-schtick minus Elvira's grim self-deprecating humour does nothing in the way of setting up the film segments nor winding them down.
There are five segments trapped in this anthology. Malvoila enters at the top and reappears at the bottom. It's strange to have a host who is not a fixture throughout the anthology, making cute ghoulish quips about the films. And yet, one is grateful for that choice.
All the stories in this anthology take place on Halloween night.
The first segment is called A Samhain Liturgy. It's a babysitter in peril story. Holly (Rhema Srihartiti) is perhaps the planet's best babysitter, save for her inability to make a sandwich. If the segment hadn't veered off the rails with the addition of Holly's boyfriend, Cameron (Ty Sells channeling a Jeff Spicoli-like stoner), then the narrative train wreck would be the moment Holly inexplicably abandons her charge in the face of danger.
The second segment, Dead Lift, is a well-acted story of Jeremy (Tim Robinson). a suicidal Uber driver (Or Lyft driver. It doesn't specify). He picks up Howard (William McCarthy doing a bad Donald Sutherland impression) dressed in a vampire costume. During the ride, Howard gives Jeremy a strange proposition. Dead Lift works in small-budget fashion, but fails with McCarthy's delivery of Howard's prowling seduction, complete with evil connotations. Jeremy comes across as a putz for not cluing in sooner.
The third segment is called Apache Hatchet Massacre 2. The segment is even worse than the title. The best thing about AHM 2 is that it dulls the flaws in previous segments and sets up the following two segments as masterpieces by comparison. Aside from the archaic and unapologetically offensive title (it's meant to be ironic, but the irony doesn't play), the segment is clumsily acted with the role of the Killer hitting new heights of lazy exploitation. It’s like spending a weekend with that racist uncle who insists that All Lives Matter.
The fourth, Overkill, is a personal favourite but keep in mind, it comes right after Apache Hatchet Massacre 2. In Overkill, serial killers argue over who has earned the right to kill Becky (Anastasia Elfman), the dancing babysitter. It's a welcomed bit of light to the anthology with an unexpected nod to the slasher genre by including a bit of soft-core nudity.
Arguably, it’s the fifth and final entry, Sister Mary, directed by Tory van Buskirk (who also directs A Samhain Liturgy), that takes the anthology's top spot. End on a good note. And in this case, Sister Mary is the strongest note 10/31 Part 2 has. But even this film, an arty if not artful blending of Rosemary's Baby with Repulsion, is emotionally remote enough to be unengaging.
Or perhaps by this point in the anthology, there is not enough energy to attempt to comprehend that something might not work.
10/31 Part 2 is directed by Tory van Buskirk, Max Groah, Stephen Wolfe, Jennifer Nangle et al. It stars, Jennifer Nangle, London Grace, Anastasia Elfman, Tim Robinson, Rhema Srihartiti, Ty Sells and William McCarthy. The movie is available on screening platforms beginning August 13, 2021.