10/31 PART 2 [2019]

 MALVOLIA, THE QUEEN OF SCREAMS IN BACK!  The sequel to 10/31 (which I liked but wanted to like more . . .and durned if it didn't have the tastiest poster art); somehow I didn't catch up with the sequel until this year. We have another (very welcome) horror anthology film centred around Halloween . . . . and that's never a bad thing.  And 10/32 PART 2, I think, has one up on it's predecessor.  While not perfect by any means, there was more to downright like in this one.  The handful of fake horror film trailers that start the film are genuinely funny and entertaining.  I mean, come on . . . .TRUCK SQUATCH!!!!  The other fake trailers for TREATERS, THE CANDY TAKER and THE OCTOBER KIDS are great too.  Then we have the return of horror host Malvolia to usher (pun intended) us into the movie.  The first story is "THE SAMHAIN LITURGY" which unfortunately wasn't very good and owed a lot, I think, to FOUND.  This segment also overstays its welcome due to length.  It has some good moments, though not quite enough of them. And it loses MAJOR points with the constant mispronouncing of "Samhain".  Sam Hain?!?!?!?  Really????  Sam Hain?!?!?!?!!!!!! 

The second story "DEAD LIFT" was quite captivating for most of it's running time although it does rather fall apart towards the end.  This segment is carried by the performances of Tim Robinson as the suicidal uber-driver Jeremy and William McCarthy as his passenger Howard (dressed up in a Dracula costume for Halloween) who is quite mesmerizing and unsettling. The next segment is " APACHE TOMAHAWK MASSACRE 2" which is quite comedic and quite incomprehensible.  Really, I had no idea what it was all about.  It seemed like a fake trailer but it wasn't.  And it wasn't a story with a plot or a through-line either.  Some random stuff happens and it's over.  But it's thankfully short.  The best segment of them all occurs next with the generically-titled "OVERKILL".  A couple young boys throw eggs at a house with a sign on the door reading "SORRY KIDS, NO CANDY".  As the boys leave, they pass someone adult-sized dressed up as Jason.  I mean really, he's Jason.  Hockey mask, machete . . . it's Jason!  The boys warn him not to bother with that house, they aren't giving candy.  Of course, "Jason" goes into the house and machetes the couple inside to death!  "Jason" then wanders over to a house where a woman (in a nurse Halloween costume) is babysitting; as she dances to some music, "Jason" peers inside the window at her.  Then "Jason" is accosted outside the window by a bespectacled, nerdy-moustached guy who says, "No, she's mine".  Yep, he's a competing serial killer who has been watching her all day and pleads with "Jason" not to steal his victim from him.  The shot where he is whining and endlessly justifying himself while "Jason" stares down at him unmoving is priceless!  All the while the woman keeps dancing, other competing serial killers show up at the house wanting to stake their claim to the victim.  Brilliantly done and the best segment of the movie!  The final segment is called "SISTER MARY" and is OK; it concerns a nun who, we are eventually shown, has a rather dark past.  The segment is performed, I'm pretty sure, with no dialogue and is an engrossing watch if otherwise unremarkable.  The wordlessness of the segment gives it an extra something.  So there we have it, 10/31 PART 2 with every segment worthwhile (with the possible exceptions of "THE SAMHAIN LITURGY" and "APACHE TOMAHAWK MASSACRE 2").  And "OVERKILL" is a classic!