After the success of Along Came The Devil, director Jason DeVan served as screenwriter again for his sequel along with his wife and actress Heather uncredited writer who helped design the story from lead character Jordan’s role. The overall production follows as a continuation of the first film, picking up several years later or even coming up with an entirely different set of characters. What is most impressive, if that first flick had mixed results from both critics and viewers, however Gravitas Ventures supported the project enough to return once more to battle with Devil down in Georgia.
This film, like its predecessor, crafts itself around elements found often in religious horror, namely using both Catholicism and other world superstitions, such as salt around the doorways, to ward off evil (though not all evil follows the same rules), which many may recall from The Curse of La Llorona (2019). Most think these types of movies often appear near Halloween, however nothing is further from the truth, since most people offer prayers and have some sort base moral code often from one religion or a collection of them, then the influence the Devil can appear anytime or anyplace to anyone, as all embodied the ability to express evil. Therefore, when a horror fan hears of religious horror they think of The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976) or the impressive The House the Devil (2009), there’s easily over a 150 films that fit themselves into the subgenre for one to explore, and scared or laugh themselves to delights for every other day of the year.
The story opens with an impressive jump scare, followed by some other creative jolts, to entice viewers, before learning of a strange call from Ashley, Jordon’s sister, who was the Devil’s original intended target in part one. When Jordon (Laura Wiggins (The Ganzfeld Haunting [2014])) returns home but meets Reverend Michael (Bruce Davison (Itsy Bitsy [2019])) and her estranged father Mark (Mark Ashworth (The Neon Dead [2017])) inform her that Dr. Carraz (Ahmed Lucan) has taken Ashley and Tanya, (a character from the first film), for undisclosed reasons. On this initial visit, the audience gets a hint for a possible part three, when in the ultra-religious family Xander (Cassius DeVan), who enjoys speaking to an imaginary friend, mouths-off privately to the dear reverend Michael. The reason though seems justified after all he’s placing salt by the front doorway, said he doesn’t believe in his own crosses and prayers. While Jordon stays with her dad and his new family, she notices that all is not quite right, sadly one is told about this in the previous film, rather than shown in flashbacks, which creates too much talking during the first half of the film. Meanwhile, we learn that Mark is truly sorry for his sinful past, that includes the losing his wife in a puzzling death, then his excessive drinking which causes Jordon to flee his grasp and finally having God absent from his life, resulting in a loss of morality and spiritual foundation, his crippling position of head of the family washing away under his feet. There are significant portions of the film that hint towards reason of Devil’s appearance, that it involves the sins of the parents visited upon the children, i.e. “generational curse”. As Jordon investigates what happened to her sister, Reverend Michael reveals the truth from his own personal guilt for his unsuccessful exorcism to Mark, of how a demon possessed both Ashley and his wife Sarah (Heather DeVan). This of course angers Mark and awakens his own demons in the manifestation of alcohol and rage, which both please the Devil and makes things much easier him to conquer another so-called family filled hypocrisy. However, Xander seems to be the mischievous one that already has demonic visited upon him, and the hinting of a third chapter of this story.
Jason delivers a more solid storytelling this time however it shows too many dialogue obsessed scenes, which is sad, after an effective opening, but never gets to that point again. Some of the characters show growth namely with Bruce Davison’s portrayal of Reverend Michael, and Wiggins does a fine performance of Jordon, very believable for large parts of film. Its aided nicely by a good score that works to heighten the tempo for a scary movie, and Jay Ruggieri’s cinematography delivering well in the darken scenes of film, allowing the audience to actually see what is occurring on the screen.
A few weak scenes spill out in the second half of the film, and that results in a letdown especially after the pivotal opening, of course this isn’t anything new in horror films, it often occurs, then by the end ones tries valiantly to ramp up the horror and scares, though they did use some practical effects to achieve the best offerings possible. Therefore, one recommends refreshing yourself with part one first before viewing this sequel namely for understanding the characters and their important relationship to each other, and in fact make it a religious horror outing by incorporating other films from some new talent in the genre, curious though to see what Jason DeVan does next, perhaps in another genre.
TAGLINE:
- The sins of your parents will surely find you
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9652888/
IMDb Rating: 4.4/10
Baron’s Rating: 4.0/10