Rating: B
Dir: Alper Mestçi
Star: Seyda Terzioglu, Bulut Akkale, Ece Edibe Baykal, Yavuz Cetin
While the opening credits here play out over a montage of moments from the first film, there’s no other connection. It’s a new scenario, with new characters, though the message remains the same. “Every day, thousands of people in Turkey either cast a spell on someone, or are exposed to a spell,” warns the caption at the end of this one. Remember, folks: only you can prevent occult curses. While that remains at the heart of the story, the structure here is basically reversed. In the first film, we knew from the start who had kicked things off, and for what purpose. Here, that is only explained, almost at the very end, and I think it sustains interest better.
Certainly can’t argue about the start making an impression. Adnan (Terzioglu) and Hicran (Akkale) are a happily married couple, until we see a wardrobe mysteriously topple over and crush their toddler son to death. Yeah, read that sentence twice: Turkish horror movies do not fuck around. This screws both parents up badly, for obvious reasons,. Mother Adnan’s pain in particular, is palpable to an almost awkward degree, and watching her feels voyeuristic. But as things unfold, it becomes clear that this was no accident, and is related to a family feud dating back before her birth, between her mother and her aunt. A lot of blood was spilled, and the ramifications of the dark magic used at the time, still echo down the generations.
It’s mostly Adnan’s story, as she visits her mother and grandmother, and picks away at the scab of some pretty sordid family history. This affects her personally in a huge way, and the way the film finishes reflects this. Without giving too much away, the ending feels very much a “swing for the fences” one, and it may or may not knock it out of the park. That’s likely a subjective assessment, but it worked for me, fitting in with the generally grim tone of proceedings generally. Nothing illustrates that better than Hicran’s fate. He initially seems a bit of a dick, blaming his wife for their son’s death. But it clearly has affected him every bit as much. Again: hard to watch.
If the audio department deserved praise for their work in the first film, here it’s the set dressers I want to single out. The old, abandoned house where all the shit went down, back in the day, is one of the creepiest looking dwellings (top) I’ve seen since The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s a real… fixer-upper, shall we say. Meanwhile, Mestçi loves him a good jump-scare or twenty. Normally, it would be the kind of thing I’d hate, but the director just keeps banging away with them, and it becomes almost endearing. After a somewhat ho-hum opening entry, this certainly delivers its quota of moments you will remember, and I find myself with greater expectations for future chapters from the Book of Sins.