[KFCC] Evil Dead Trap 2 Review

Story: An overweight girl, Aki, is haunted by a child in the movie theater she works in. Her friend, Emi, is a TV news reporter that has a fling with a married man by the name of Kurohashi. Kurohashi begins to hit on Aki. Each and everyone of them has a dark secret that burns within them. When a love triangle is formed between the three, conflicts of interest and envy surfaces, climaxing in the grand finale in the sewers.

Review: If I was seven years-old and lacking of my plethora of descriptive and intricate vocabulary, I would probably say something along the lines of, "Evil Dead Trap 2? More like Evil Dead Crap 2 Much!" A loose sequel of the original cult smash, "Evil Dead Trap," the sequel only shares the same name of the exploding fetus child of the first one. This time around, the name goes out to the child ghost that haunts the very obese girl in the theater.

I know Izo Hashimoto meant well with this film. He man penned the screenplay to "Akira", so he's knows what he's doing right? Wait, he also directed an "unofficial" instalment of the "Guinea Pig" series, "Lucky Sky Diamond." The man's a mixed bag. If you've seen the original then you know it's strong points were the elaborate and beautiful death scenes. Much of the horror is sacrificed for a very ambitious plot in the sequel. The gore slowly increases in severity as the film goes on. However, never once does it surpass the original. Well, it gets no where close!

The three characters of this story all were pretty boring. Aki, the obese woman, liked to kill prostitutes in a dress. She lived a double life as the shy girl up in the projection booth, and as the sultry sex-fiend that killed whatever woman she envied. Oh that's right my friend, in more than one scene she seduces men. If you have a fat-woman-phobia, watch out, because she does get naked my friends. When the man Kurohashi finally jumps on top of her, the sex scene you are about to witness may shock you into silence forever and make you take the path of a monk. I digress. As for Emi, who you find out has a weird quirk for getting turned on with gore, does a pretty good job for her character's big change towards the end. The man of the three, Kurohashi, does a really generic and bland job. He retains a mystery that no one gives a damn about.

The gore of this film is practically non-existent until the last 30 minutes of the film, where an all-out bitch fight breaks out. Even when that happens, it's of a very "tame" nature. This film won't do it for hardcore gore fans or casual gore fans. To put it simply, the gore sucks in this movie. They sacrifice it for plot, which is cool and all, if the plot actually was anywhere near decent. It gets lost in it's own ambitious mediocrity. If you're following up to one of the most famous gore-film in the cult world, then go more extreme in the gore!

There is praise to be given in this film however. Izo Hashimoto has a pretty damn poetic eye. Although every aspect of this film was pretty awful, his backgrounds and composition of the scene are amazing. When Aki is chasing down a helpless prostitute, the big electrical signs in the background are make the film stunning. The knife fight between Emi and Aki and the blood spilled is poetically spectacular. However, this is a gore film. If you want to make an art film, you should go make an art film. Art plus gore usually results in an F assignment. It was a nice experiment, but "Evil Dead Trap 2" simply fails in all other levels.