Monday, October 18, 2010

Curse 2: The Bite

In this in-name-only sequel, a young couple are terrorized by mutant snakes out in the desert. The man is bitten and (get this) his arm turns into a giant mutant snake. And then he eventually mutates into some mindless, evil, snake-vomiting monster.

There are things to like about Curse 2: The Bite. It stars Jill Schoelen, the petite, husky-voiced brunette scream queen favorite of mine from The Stepfather, Popcorn, and several other memorable genre films from the late 80's. The effects, while low budget, are sufficiently icky and fun. No doubt, it's an improvement over The Curse (not that anyone was trying to top that film, the producers simply slapped the title on an unrelated horror movie). It seems like the filmmakers were genuinely trying to make a good monster movie, it's not lazy or unimaginative like so many low budget horror films of this era.

It doesn't really work, though. The film doesn't really have much of a build up, it's more a long slog through increasingly elaborate special effects. The ridiculous concept of the snakehand is not used to its full potential (I could think of so many unrealized opportunities for comedy) and too many of the major set pieces and payoffs limply hang there on the screen, even when the concepts behind them are interesting. What I'm saying is, I think someone needs to take this stupid snakehand idea and make a better movie with it.

Grade: C-. I'm tempted to bump it up to a C for some of the more ridiculous moments of gore/monster FX, but if I'm being honest with myself, I would never want to sit through this movie again. Maybe I'd watch a highlight reel though.

No comments: