Fridae

Did Art of the Devil need a sequel? The consensus seems to be no, but Thai filmmakers Pasith Buranajan and Kongkiat Khomsiri thought otherwise. Bearing only thematic similarities to the first movie and featuring unrelated characters, one need not watch the first film before seeing this second film, but the real question to ask is if there is any need to watch this movie in the first place. Other than some rather gory scenes that will appeal to the gore fiends, there is really not much in Art of the Devil 2 that warrants a recommendation.

The movie starts off effectively enough, with a prologue that features a man dying from excruciating circumstances, which is revealed to be a vehement Cambodian curse. The movie then introduces its main protagonists, six young people who seem to be unified by sharing a common secret — which happens to be causing the death of the man in the beginning of the movie. The reason? He was having an adulterous relationship with the stepmother of one of the youths. Unfortunately for the six friends, the stepmother has not forgotten nor forgiven them, and soon they begin dying off in grisly fashions.

It may sound pretty confusing on paper but on the screen, the plot to Art of the Devil 2 plays out pretty predictably. The first half of the film is particularly slow-moving due to the large number of flashbacks, but once the movie finally gets into gear with scene after scene of gore, it becomes slightly more interesting. Even then, this is a film that caters to an extremely niche audience, and once again the quest for a more decent horror flick during this period continues without resolution.