10/31: Part 2

10/31 Part II is a Halloween themed horror anthology consisting of five terrifying tales hosted by Malvolia: the Queen of Screams.

The film kicks off with about ten minutes or so of mock trailers. Then our hostess gets the five tales going. Tale number one is: A Samhain Liturgy. In this tale, Holly is dropped off to babysit Tommy while his parents away. Tommy likes to sit in his room and make masks. Holly sneaks her boyfriend Cam over to the house. Holly and Cam discover a secret of the family that she is babysitting for.

Dead Lift is our second tale. Jeremy is working on Halloween, while his girlfriend Whitney wants him to come over and party. Jeremy picks up Howard. Howard turns out to be an interesting passenger who will change Jeremy's life.

Apache Hatchet Massacre II is tale number three. It's one of the better ones, but also the shortest. A Halloween party is held at a cabin that is on an ancient Indian Burial Ground.

The best tale is tale number four, Overkill. Overkill is directed by Drew Marvick (Murdercise, XXX-Mas). This is the best and most fun story of the anthology. It literally has everything in it that I love about horror films. There's some eye candy, gore, and good dose of humor in this story.

Sister Mary is the final tale of this anthology. Basically a nun is haunted by her past sins.

10/31 Part II is a decent horror anthology. I really enjoyed a couple of the stories, but there were also a couple that ran on too long. I went ahead and gave it a 7 based on stories number 3 and 4.

How in the world can you produce a movie that contains references to the holiday of Samhain, then have actors in a scene in that movie pronounce it "sam-hain?" It's pronounced "saw-in." It's like you made a movie that took place in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar, and the actors pronounced it as "cater." It takes a lot of incompetence among a large crew of morons for this mistake to actually make it to print.

I have actually never seen the 2017 horror anthology "10/31" before I stumbled upon this 2019 sequel. But given my fascination and love for all things horror, of course I opted to sit down and watch "10/31 Part 2", despite of having somewhat of an aversion towards horror anthologies, as many of such tend to be dubious affairs.

Well, the good news is that if you enjoy stereotypical horror anthologies, then you're in for a treat, should you opt to sit down and watch "10/31 Part 2". And with that being said, then it is no secret that I didn't find "10/31 Part 2" to be a particularly outstanding addition to the horror genre.

I only really enjoyed the first segment, and the rest were watchable, for sure, but nothing really noteworthy.

I wasn't familiar with any of the cast members in this anthology.

Visually then "10/31 Part 2" wasn't actually all that bad. It wasn't, however, a grand spectacle of special effects, but there were some fair enough effects in the movie and some fair enough make-up as well.

All in all, then "10/31 Part 2" is something that came and went without leaving a lasting impression on me. There are far better horror anthologies out there, and this is not something I will recommend horror fans to rush out to get to watch. Nor is it something that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of "10/31 Part 2" lands on a four out of ten stars.

A hit-and-miss anthology that starts well but does not sustain it, and it suffers from uneven timings and clunky mood changes.

The first story, about Samhain, is spoiled by characters mispronouncing 'Samhain', some unconvincing effects (probably to avoid depiction of a child beating an adult to death), repetitive script, irregular continuity, and some bizarre colour balance. The opening drone shot would be excellent were it not for light saturation, then scenes inside the house are washed out in reds and browns. A violent scene offscreen is rendered amateurish by entrails apparently thrown into view before being snatched back. A character plays a tape at loud volume but sits down a metre away and the music is all but silenced.

An undead story doesn't really go anywhere but mixes speech with telepathy randomly. Once it is established that characters are reading each other's thoughts, slipping back to speaking seems pointless.

An 'Indian burial ground' story is a mess. Names are stressed as if important when they are not; reference to Indians as "feather, not red dot" feels borderline racist but disrespectful anyway. Events take place a year apart, but without any idea what a character might have been doing during that time. The story is not developed and is an opportunity wasted.

The serial killer story loses its way and tries to be too many things, none of them well, and the nun story just wants to be something else. Jump cuts, jumbled timeline, unexplained characters and questionable motivation make it feel more arthouse horror than snappy short.

A lengthy credits sequence includes cast and crew for five stories not in the version I saw. Research tells me these were trailers for other films but all content has been edited out other than the closing credits. With only five stories in the film itself, this sequence could have been half the length.

The first story could have been made into a 90-minute standalone feature but the rest do not sit well together and offer no progression. The bookending by 'Malvolia' is unnecessary, but a running theme or transition story might have helped. Major edits following trial screenings would have been advisable.

While not as good as it's predecessor, the 2021 release of 10/31 part 2 still has it's moments. The independent film makers show some new and some old twists on horror tropes. A few of which were so purposefully over the top with mirth and cheesiness, that it's hard not to give them a pat on the back for their tongue in cheek approach. Some of the stories seem very confusing and I simply felt the story lacked the punch they deserved, but over all it definitely filled a cheese craving for a Friday night.