Things 2

Produced by David Sterling and Craig Incardone.

Written and Directed by Mike Bowler, Steve Jarvis, and Dennis Devine.

Things 2 is a shot on video horror anthology film.  A sequel to the 1993 film Things.  A horror novelist by the name Dean F Keene ( David Hussey ) invites pizza delivery girl Dana ( Gabriell Galanter ) into his house, and persuades her to stay for some pizza.  She agrees to, prompting the writer to tell her two of his most recent stories of the macabre.

                                                                                                                           

  The first story titled ' The Thing From Nanchung' is about a woman named Stace ( Margie Rey), who reveals to her lover Sam (David Tragesser) a plot to get rid of her wealthy husband Dexter (Bob Sherer).  The plan involves a strange creature that she acquired from a scientist / researcher, and has weaned on a diet of chutney.  She explains that Dexter gets home from work everyday promptly at 5:30 pm, and heads straight for the easy chair.  Since the creature has grown so fond of chutney, she further explains, she will leave a trail from the creatures cage, which has a timer to open at 5:30pm, to Dexter sitting in his easy chair.  Stace begins leaving the chutney trail, when a thieving couple (Paul Hasenyager, Sue Hamilton) surprise her, and complicate things.                                               

       

The second tale titled ' The Thing From The Lab '  tells the story of an ex cop named Stone ( Richard Ward ) who is hired to find a serial killer dubbed ' the westside slasher and becomes involved with a photographer named Angela ( Angela Eads ), after one of her models ( Joanne Lee Miles ) is murdered in her apartment / photography studio.  Overcome with  unexplainable anxiety about the killer possibly being some sort of animal,  Angela is haunted by flashbacks of a scientist ( Robert Caslava ) examining a cocoon like specimen, while a young girl ( Emily Devine ) watches from the doorway.  Her and Stone end up in a bizarre plot involving slime, and a killer whom may not be human.

After finishing the two macabre tales, Keene reveals his true intentions for inviting Dana inside his house, which leads to a rather interesting twist to conclude the film.

                                     

 

 

 

This film was written and directed  by three different filmmakers.  Dennis Devine who also made films such as Caregiver ( 2007 ), Vamps In The City ( 2010 ), and Demon Kiss ( 2008 ), wrote and directed The Thing from The Lab segment.  Steve Jarvis who also made the film Bloodstream ( 2000 ) wrote and directed The Thing From Nanchung segment.   The Wraparound segment was written and directed by Mike Bowler, the maker of the films Hell Spa (1992 ) and Club Dead ( 2000).

Each filmmaker's section of the film transitioned smoothly into the other, forming a cohesive whole.

The lighting was great and really worked well to help create atmosphere such as the chiaroscuro lighting throughout the Wraparound segment and The Thing From The Lab segment.  A great noirish atmosphere was created in the The Thing From The Lab segment Where the Stone character talks to the man who hires him to track down the Westside Slasher. Other interesting lighting setups include a green lit scene of a young man trying to evade pursuit in the Wraparound segment, and a scene with red lighting in The Thing From The Lab where the photography investigates a noise and is killed. Several interesting shot compositions as well ( off kilter shots, interesting camera angles ).

The themes in each segment are about the idea of  ' playing roles ', and things ( people and situations ) not appearing as they seem.  The theme of playing roles is expressed by some of the dialogue of  the Dean F Keene character.  Lines such as : " You live other lives.  Never stay one person for too long". and " I've played alot of roles in my time".  Playing various roles  and the theme things not appearing as they seem is seen in the various characters throughout such as Dean F Keene the novelist / storyteller , Angela the photographer, Stace the greedy wife and so on.  The interesting twists and the surprise endings of each story share this leitmotif as well.  An excellent film that captures the scary stories around a campfire feeling.  That's my opinion, yours may differ.