Art of the Devil 2 Review

What follows is a modified and expanded version of the program guide entry I wrote for this film for this year's edition of the Fantasia Festival.

Art of the Devil 2 is that rarest of rare things: a sequel that improves on the original. Making it rarer still is that this is a seriously gory horror picture that won a Best Actress award for its leading lady at Thailand's national film awards.

A sequel in name only, Art of the Devil 2 revolves around a group of school friends in up-country Thailand. Tormented by a cruel, violent gym teacher, a man who's also having a flagrant affair with the stepmother of one of the young friends, the group devises a desperate solution: they hire a Cambodian witch doctor -- whatever the reason for it, Cambodian black magic makes frequent appearances in Thai films these days - to place a curse on their tormentor. The witch doctor agrees to do their bidding, but issues a dire warning: karma will get you. Whatever you do to someone else will stay with you your entire life, and you will be paid back for your choices. The group thinks nothing of this warning and moves ahead with their plan. The curse is successful, the teacher dies a horrible death involving fishhooks bubbling up through his skin, and the group eventually leaves their home town, all but one of them - a troubled youth who ends up in juvenile detention - relocating to Bangkok after high school. But before long, word comes from their troubled friend: his father has died and all of them are requested to return for the funeral and, once back, it isn't long before the witch doctor's prediction begins to come true...

With a twisting, time-jumping plot, Art of the Devil 2 is built around a seemingly neverending series of shockingly nasty set pieces. The aforementioned fishhooks come early and are followed soon enough by an assortment of lizards, blowtorches, ghosts, body parts and hidden corpses. It's less concerned with plot than with shocks, but once the shocks start coming, they come fast, thick and inventive. Art of the Devil 2 is clearly not for the faint of heart. Or stomach.

Group directed by the 7 man Ronin Team Art of the Devil 2 features many of the flaws that you would expect to find when you have too many cooks in the kitchen. It is over plotted with an unnecessarily convoluted timeline and so many twists that they become expected rather than surprising as each member of the group apparently struggles to get their own signature moment in there. But for every negative that comes from working in a group there is an associated positive, namely that the signature moments are plentiful and impressive. As a narrative it sputters badly, but as a visceral experience it makes for powerful stuff. The marketing on this isn't kidding when it says the film contains things you've never seen before and it contains a lot of them. While not a perfect film by any stretch it is simply worlds better than the original and makes for an intriguing and gorey update of the teen slasher film.

Other than the wildly inaccurate back cover blurb - did the writer even watch the film? ouch - the new DVD release from Media Blasters is strong. The film gives you both the original Thai soundtrack and an English dub and the provided subtitles are strong. The bonus features are limited to a Making Of, but it's a long one that gives a legitimate look behind the scenes rather than just being an EPK puff piece. The transfer is anamorphic and very clean. On the whole, a very strong release.

Many who were disappointed by the first Art of the Devil may be inclined to pass on this based purely on the name. Don't. The stories are unrelated, there is nothing in this film that you need to have seen the first to understand, and this is far, far better. Flawed, yes, but very entertaining assuming you're the sort to enjoy a piping hot bowl of body part soup.