Raul reviews the new horror release, 2 Jennifer.
Going into this I didn’t realize that this was meant to be a
pseudo-sequel to the previously released horror film titled To Jennifer, shot entirely on an iPhone
5. I simply thought that it was merely created for the story and only later
after doing some research did I come to discover that this was co-written by
James Cullen Bressack, the director of the original released in 2013. The story
involves two filmmakers trying to make a great sequel to the first picture,
with Bressack handling most of the production related issues. The only thing
that the pair has to do is cast the perfect Jennifer, but one of them is
harboring a dark secret that may jeopardize all of their lives.
Like its predecessor, this is basically a found-footage
story shot on two different iPhones. It is told as if it were meant to
eventually serve as behind the scenes footage of went into the production. So
if you’re turned off by this sub-genre, then you should definitely stay away
because there are plenty of dizzying moments when the video spins around. That
being said, it looks pretty decent despite the low budget constraints. While
the narrative is relatively by-the-books, I found the overall concept to be
intriguing. The dialogue and acting felt realistic for the most part, as if
this were actual documentary footage of a crew putting together a picture.
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| Bro, stop slitting my throat yo. |
The acting was solid; particularly David Coupe and Lara Jean
Mummert who both came off as believable and showed some good chemistry in their
scenes together. The weakness came in the performance of director and actor
Hunter Johnson, whose character required more than what was delivered. At its
core this story is very similar to violent and obsessive characters such as
Norman Bates, Buffalo Bill, and Mark Duplass’s character in the found-footage
feature Creep. Budgetary constraints
obviously limited the ability to bring in a talent such as Duplass, but
Johnson’s role required slightly more than what he ended up providing.
There are some comedic elements peppered into this that the
viewers will either enjoy or be absolutely turned off by. A score is virtually
nonexistent, showing up only in sequences where the filmmakers want you to know
that the scene is supposed to be creepy. While this may be effective in
increasing the level of terror, it really throws off the documentary style that
they are trying to convey. There is only a minimal amount of blood and violence
that appears in the third act when the tone gets extremely dark. Falling
somewhere in the middle of being terrible or excellent, fans of horror or the
original motion picture may get some enjoyment out of this one.
Score
-Raul Vantassle