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Feast II: Sloppy Seconds - Unrated
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (27th October 2008). |
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The Film
 Even though the direct-to-DVD sequel has its drawbacks, like decreased budget which can also mean worse actors and lowered production values, it also lends an extra degree of freedom, especially for direct-to-DVD horror movies. When there’s no MPAA or theatrical release to worry about there’s chance for extra blood, swearing, nudity, the mainstays of low-budget horror movies. In the case of “Feast II: Sloppy Seconds” they have taken these freedoms very seriously and thrown in good portions of nudity (male, female and monster), blood and swearing for this follow up to the original project green light film. “Feast II” picks up from where the first one ended, with the toothy monsters attacking a nearby town when Biker Queen (Diane Goldner) and her all female biker gang come raging through town looking for Biker Queen’s sister Harley Mom who was attacked by the monsters in the first film. After capturing Bartender (Clu Gulager) the biker gang gets caught in the midst of a monster attack and has to team up with some of the town residents, including a tag team of dwarf luchadores, a car salesman and his wife, along with Honey Pie (Jenny Wade) from the first “Feast.” Together they have to get out of the town alive or at least get into the nearby jail to try and wait out the bloody destruction all around them. The story well suits the low budget and high body-count goals of the film, bringing out lots of spraying blood and other various bodily fluids along with some big crazy monsters. The direct-to-DVD aspect lends a lot of support for a film featuring dozens of monsters who eat people and chase them down with large penises flailing around. The film definitely has a good feel for knowing that it’s just an absurd and gory budget horror movie that hits all of the musts for straight to video horror. Blood sprays? Check. Skin peeling off after being touched by the bodily fluids of monsters? Check. Nudity for no real reason? Double check. What also helps is that they brought back the original director and writers of “Feast” to put together the sequel, and while I haven’t seen the first, it’s an admirable feat of bringing director John Gulager and writer’s Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton’s back to the “Feast” series. Though I’m not sure if it’s mostly because they really like the world of the monsters they created in the first film, or it’s because the really haven’t done anything else and wanted the work (well at least Gulager; Dunstan and Patrick Melton have written “Saw IV” (2007) good, “Saw V” (2008), okay, and are set to script “Saw VI”, has potential). Dustan and Melton’s writing is fairly comedic and throws around some funny ideas though the execution tends to be not enough or too much of many of the jokes. Overall, Feast provides some fun laughs and gore and it plays out almost like a big budget Troma movie, but less absurd jokes and actually focusing on trying to be scary at points rather than just going crazy with gross-out effects and weird dialogue. “Feast II” though still has its funny moments and crazy plots, like building a catapult out of a motorcycle and the clothes of members of the all-female biker gang, but even at it’s meager 100 minute runtime can drag at different points making it a fun experience to definitely keep an eye out for if you’re in the mood for some quick and dirty gore, comedy and nudity.
Video
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation has a fairly good transfer and quality considering it’s direct to DVD, but still has some big drawbacks like some fairly noticeable grain and really bad and obvious green screen work. There are still some good practical effects that look good and for the most part the film visually looks good otherwise.
Audio
Presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio “Feast II: Sloppy Seconds” has a good audio transfer and the balance of audio all sounds fine in terms of quality. The levels are good and the music and sound effects all don’t drown each other out and work well together in the 5.1 sound, but overall the soundtrack isn’t too exciting and in some sections sounds a little flat. The disc also includes English and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
"Feast II: Sloppy Seconds" comes with a fine set of extras including an audio commentary, a couple of featurettes and some bonus trailers. First up is the audio commentary featuring director John Gulager, screenwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, producer Michael Leahy and actors Diane Ayala Goldner, Tom Gulager and Clu Gulager. The commentary track covers the usual ground with interesting tidbits and funny stories from the set, and the group does a good job of talking through the entire movie and keeping it generally interesting and good to listen to, including crazy facts such as the fact that they reused props from “The Mist” (2007) grocery store in their convenience store. The first featurette “Scared Half to Death Twice: The Making of Feast II” runs for 12 minutes and 26 seconds. This behind-the-scenes featurette does good coverage of the behind-the-scenes work combined with interviews with the major players in the film that give a good supplement. Overall this is a nice little making of featurette that goes in to making a cheap horror movie with a bit of a look at the production and design with a full few minutes spent discussing the “monster junk” that was featured fairly heavily in “Feast II.” “Meet the Gulagers” runs for 5 minutes and 26 seconds. This featurette interviews and discusses the relationships between the various members of the Gulager family involved in the film including Bartender, played by director John Gulager’s father Clu, Greg, played by his brother Tom, even the baby that Greg steals out of the car was played by Greg’s son. A nice featurette that deals with the connections, with some more funny on set moments from the Gulagers. There is also a collection of start-up bonus trailers for: - “Hell Ride” runs for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. - “Mother of Tears” runs for 2 minutes and 21 seconds. - “The Zombie Diaries” runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds. - “Diary of the Dead” runs for 1 minute and 53 seconds.
Overall
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