FREEWAY 2: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY (1999) Dir. Matthew Bright, 97 mins A Film Gutter Review by Alex Davis Well, here we go again… A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of reviewing the very strange Freeway, a chaotic, riotous movie that ultimately I didn’t quite know how to take in the end. I can’t say I hated it – I gave it 4.5/10 after all, so only just below average – but few movies have left me with quite such confused feelings. And, three years later, we were treated to a sequel – a sequel of sorts, at least. I say that because it has none of the same characters, none of the same locations and is an entirely unconnected story to the first. What it does have in common is firstly its style, which would immediately make you put the two movies together whether you know they were connected or not, and secondly the idea of a grubby, modernised fairy tale – while the initial offering was a take on Little Red Riding Hood, here we have a grimy take on Hansel and Gretel. So that’s about as much as the two have in common. The story itself follows a similarly delinquent teenager, who goes by ‘White Girl’, and her friend and soon-to-be-lover Cyclona. The two are put into a juvenile detention centre together and decide to make their escape before they are sent to a maximum-security prison, achieving freedom and heading to Mexico to find Sister Gomez, a nun that Cyclona believes can fix the ‘demons’ inside both of them. On the way there’s plenty of murder, bloodshed, robbery and the sort of unpleasantness you probably would be prepared for it you watch the ‘predecessor’ to this film. Nothing here is outrageously graphic, but there’s plenty suggested and intimated that is liable to leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth. Of course, when they get there, Sister Gomez isn’t quite what she’s cracked up to be, and things take an even darker turn… I can probably best sum up this one by saying if you liked Freeway, then odds are you’ll like this one. The same bad taste, shock value style of filmmaking runs throughout here, and things happen not exactly at random but obviously just to try and discombobulate or upset you as a viewer. Everyone is obviously trying their best, and I commend the actors and actresses involved for clearly putting it all in to try and make this work. Let’s be honest – I’ve been reviewing extreme horror for six years, and it takes something pretty rough to really disturb me, but a bugbear remains shock for the value of shock. Sadly, that’s mostly what’s on display here – little follows on from the previous in a way that makes sense, and the dialogue especially is clearly designed just to cause offence. For me you can do about anything in context – I’ve given high rating to the likes of American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock and even some of the Vomit Gore movies from Lucifer Valentine – but everything here feels gratuitous and overblown. I know these movies do have a bit of a cult following, but they are simply not for me I’m afraid. I felt more ready for what to expect this time, but that ultimately didn’t improve the experience much. RATING: 4/10. If you love these films, good on you, and I’d never knowingly denigrate something that someone else got enjoyment out of. I suppose you could argue as absolute and utter schlock trash you could have fun with this one, but even that side of things has been done better elsewhere for me. Everyone here is obviously trying hard with the material they’ve been given, but sadly I don’t feel as though the plot or the script could really have been made any better than this. Director Matthew Bright only directed a couple more films after this before disappearing off the scene in the mid-2000s, and maybe the world just wasn’t quite ready and willing to accept his particular vision of cinema – though a few notable actors were obviously more than willing to get involved. This pair of movies are certainly interesting 90s curios, but they don’t feel satisfying or complete to me and as such don’t reach too high on the scale… TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE [FEATURE] CHILDHOOD FEARS BY CASEY J RUDKIN TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE |
Archives
February 2022
|
RSS Feed
|
|