SMILE 2 (2024)

Voss Water presents Damn, This Motherfucker Is Trippin’! a.k.a. Smile 2.

[This is simply a placeholder until I can get my hands on a physical copy for a real review with screenshots. But yeah, I enjoyed S2. It’s definitely better than the first film. Although, the double jump scares did get old. If I can find inspiration between now and then to write a legit review, then I will. But I’ll probably just wait until I can watch it again at home and take notes.]

Part 1 - Smile (2022)

THE SADNESS (2021)

Taipei, Taiwan. Not a lot of story up in this one. A dude drops his girlfriend off at the train station (so she can go to work) and while he’s heading back home…a full on zombie apocalypse happens. And not with the older style shuffling zombies either, but the mean-spirited, Brian Keene-style rape zombies that want nothing more than to cut you open and fuck your bleeding wounds. So now, the rest of the movie is our two heroes trying to get back to each other while getting the shit kicked out of them each step of the way. Which, oddly enough, is pretty much the same story as the 2016 zombie outbreak movie SEOUL STATION.

I enjoyed THE SADNESS, but it just wasn’t violent enough and the story / character development / world building was almost non-existent. I wanted to like the two main characters, but with almost no information given about them, I didn’t give much of a shit about what happened to them. Especially since both of them made some dumb decisions and the ending was telegraphed midway through the film. That said, it’s still worth watching and has a few awesome moments (the subway car bloodbath and the old lady in the cafe were my favorites). I just wanted more! Hopefully there's a Part 2 and it will go completely insane.

Here's some zombie nudity for you weirdos.

How considerate of the zombies to use a bendy baseball bat.

DEER CAMP '86 (2022)

The most original thing about DEER CAMP ’86 is the name. That actually is an eye-catching title which brings to mind all kinds of cool and unique ideas…that, sadly, never happen. Instead of fun THE BURNING, SLEEPAWAY CAMP and early FRIDAY THE 13TH-style camp hijinks mixed an awesome new slasher villain’s badass murder skillz, the viewer gets the middle-of-the-road tale about six bland dudes hanging out in the woods while an angry forest spirit rustles around in the bushes and occasionally kills somebody (in the third act).

As the film opens, our heroes are heading out to the woods when they stop at a bar. They get in a fight with some locals and then go on to their cabin. I wish that the filmmakers had, in order to run up the kill count, had the locals follow our heroes with the intent of getting some sort of revenge. Then they all get slaughtered one-by-one without our heroes realizing it. That would have added some excitement to the story because instead, the entire middle section of the film is just the six hunters drinking beer, talking shit and digging a deer tick out of one dude’s ballsack. No killings at all. It’s nearly one hour into the movie before the murderer even makes its presence known!

As it is though, DEER CAMP ’86 is alright. A solid 5 / 10 film with almost zero blood or gore, lots of (purposely?) goofy dialogue, zero nudity, boring kills, a mediocre pace, subpar special effects, dull camerawork, okay (over) acting, a low body count and a disappointing killer. There’s really not much to say about the movie. It’s just kinda meh. The entire thing is strictly by the numbers and unimaginative. I'm not even sure that DEER CAMP '86 can be considered a horror movie. No ups, no downs. No surprises. No real reason why it is even set in 1986. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it. I just kinda sat there watching it, expecting something cool to happen. And it never did.

Double feature with Boner Jams 03'.