Island of the Dolls 2

Low budget to non existent budget movie with actors forced to say non sensical lines and do non sensical things with a mind numbin boring plot.

Psycho goes around killing young people for some sacrifice in the name of some dead daughter and has a henchwoman in the form of a masked doll looking woman. Well, she has the mask of a doll and the dress of a tradiitonal doll.

If you watch the first 10 minutes you will get a pretty good idea as to how bad and boring and badly made this is. Forget scary. Not even a one.

However, and AMAZINGLY, the movie gets worse as it progresses. Its like watching a car wreck in slow motion. There is no cgi, even when it woudl help. Music score is almost none as well.

The attacks by the doll mask sidekick are so badly executed and shown it is cringe. They change her vocie at different times making it even worse if that was possible. When she chases victims the camera is close up on the doll face character all the time, looking for all the world like a manequin is being pushed along using a wheel barrow. Looks fake and really bad.

Nothing works in this abomination of a movie. Nothing.

To say it is high school quality would be an insult to all high schools.

I feel sorry for the actors.

I watched the 2023 movie "Island of the Dolls" just a week ago, and it was a rather abysmal movie, and thus I harbored no great expectations to this 2024 sequel titled "Island of the Dolls 2". So why even bother with the sequel? Well, because I believe in giving a movie a fair chance. And who knows, maybe writers Harry Boxley and Sam Gurney would deliver a more impressive script for the sequel than what writer Oscar Wenman-Hyde did for the first movie?

Well, I have to say that very early on in the movie it was clear that "Island of the Dolls 2" was not going to be a masterpiece or a particularly interesting horror movie. It was just oozing with that low budget and amateurish attempt at a horror movie atmosphere.

The script was generic. Sure, if you're a newcomer to the horror genre, then you might enjoy what Harry Boxley and Sam Gurney delivered. But if you, like myself, am a horror veteran, then there is very little to be enjoyed in this movie. Creepy dols? Check. Camera crew shooting documentary on location? Check. Deranged man trying to bring his dead daughter back to life? Check. All been done and seen before, and often with much better result.

I didn't really understand the Santana (played by Jenna N. Wilson) character and why the writers opted to conjure up that particular character. The character's appearance and role in the movie made very little sense. And the voice that kept changing made no sense either.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. That is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie, believe it or not. Despite the script being rubbish, I will say that the acting performances were actually fair.

The character Hughie (played by Tom Beechcroft) pretty much summarized this movie quite well around 28 minutes into the ordeal when he said "absolutely not".

For a horror movie, then "Island of the Dolls 2" was not a great movie. It was about as enjoyable as the predecessor from 2023. But hey, at least if you enjoyed that one, then you will also enjoy this sequel.

My rating of director Andrea M. Catinella's 2024 movie "Island of the Dolls 2" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

Hearing of a potential show idea, the crew of a paranormal investigation show head to a remote island rumored to be covered with creepy dolls to look into the cause of mysterious incidents there only to learn the entire concept was a ruse to allow a distraught father to steal their soul for his daughter.

While this might be a better entry than the original, it's not a high bar to climb. The wholesale change to the storyline offering up the idea of the crew coming to the island so that they can be eliminated and the host can be used to host the soul of his dead daughter, comes as a solid change of pace from the original. Rather than the ghostly interactions and haunted nature of the original, the change to a more grounded and human protagonist attempting occult works brings up a different tone and concept for the sequel. Even though this storyline itself might be a highly cliched and unoriginal setup, the infusion of this idea against the still creepy location and environment makes for some intriguing enough elements within here. However, there's still not a whole lot here to enjoy. Much like the original, the pacing here is an abject trainwreck with some of the most glacially-slow dialog scenes trying to spell out the history of the island, the concept of their show, or the scenes around the island trying to hook up with each other that it never manages to build any kind of energy or enthusiasm for what's happening. Given the inherently stupid nature of the plot involving the human sacrifice and the various occult means at play involving the attempt to prepare everyone for their quest, the film just plods along with much of anything happening at the expense of the genuine genre thrills due to the lack of kills or gore on display. That also accounts for the rest of the issues with the storyline here, which are just nonsensical and mean practically nothing here. There's little reasoning behind the need for the helper to be wearing the plastic doll mask that they chose, which makes that character redundant even more compared to the other assistant putting in the work to carry out the sacrificial ritual. The whole purpose of everything is so lame and lackluster that it never comes close to being reasonable enough to work as a worthwhile motivation. As well, with the comically inept confrontation scenes offering no real energy or enthusiasm, completely moronic concepts for how they're supposed to play off, and a confusing ending that doesn't explain much, there's a lot of issues to be had with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Plot

A documentary crew visits the Island of the Dolls, where they encounter Santana, a sinister spirit inhabiting a powerful doll, who begins to hunt them down relentlessly.

Cast

I recognized Emily Webber from Jack & Jill 3, beyond that not so much.

Verdict

The previous years Island of the Dolls was a dire attempt at horror, a messy ugly film with little going for it. A year later with a new director and writer could the follow up shock me? No, no it really couldn't.

Island of the Dolls 2 goes in a dramatically different direction than the first movie. Truth be told it could be considered a remake of the first considering there is no mention of the events of the first film and certain things that happened previously seem to have been omitted altogether from a canon perspective.

The kills are awful, the plot unoriginal and the cast interchangeable but when the credits rolled I didn't have my head in my hands so it at least has that going for it.

Messy, amateurish and yet still manages to be better than the first.

Rants

The saddest thing is that the Island of the Dolls movies (Or better yet movie singular) could have been good. Based on a haunting true story they should have run with that instead of going off on an illogical tangent. Google La Isla de las Muñecas, I'm sure it'll make for a better read than these movies make for a watch.

The Good

Santana was suitably creepy Better constructed than the first film

The Bad

Still ugly Dreadful kills Unoriginal mess of a plot Predictable ending.

Utter crap! Who on earth gave this the go ahead and paid for it to be made? Having said that it looked like the budget was no more than a couple of quid and a night in an Air b and b in a field, oops sorry it's an island we promise, look, every now and again the camera pans to some water so it's definitely an island. The best thing that could have happened is when the 'boat man' doubled his price to take them they all said nah let's not bother then. I did see it through to the end though, and can confirm that it's probably the worst film I've ever watched, but it just doesn't quite make it to the so bad it's good category.

That said I'm hoping for island of dolls 3 just to see if it's possible to make an even worse film.