The Brotherhood II: Young Warlocks (2001)

   

Produced & Directed by: David DeCoteau

Written by: Matthew Jason Walsh

Story by: David DeCoteau, Dave Parker & Matthew Jason Walsh

Starring:

Forrest Cochran .... Luc
Sean Faris .... John Van Owen
Stacey Scowley .... Mary Stewart
Noah Frank .... Harlan Ratcliff
Greg Lyczkowski .... Randall
Jennifer Capo .... Ms. Stevens
Justin Allen .... Matt Slayton
C.J. Thomason .... Marcus Ratner
Ari Welkom .... Alex

Release Date: Direct-to-DVD: September 25, 2001

 

Rating:

 

A new student named John (Sean Faris) goes to an exclusive private school. He is having good grades and learning about witches and warlocks in history class but the trouble is, he doesn't belong with the rest of the student whom are bullying jocks that are jealous that he is dating one of the popular girls at the campus.
Two other students are having the same issues with the bullying jocks but all three of them run into a tough as nails outsider too named Luc (Forrest Cochran) as he gets together with the three of them at the campus' swimming pool and offers them power.
They all combine their powers together and agree to break the ten commandments in order to get even with their enemies which leads to killing, stealing and making out with their girlfriends.
John however, doesn't have the courage to break the ten commandments and tries to get out of the group. Luc doesn't approve of that and puts John in danger.

 

The story looked promising in the beginning but it gets a little tiresome. There's many shots on the bullies playing catch with their shirts off which is a typical scene for a DeCoteau flick and gay themed too although the character's aren't gay themselves. Things happen very fast and unnatural like one of the bullies hitting one of the outsiders in the head with the ball and them tormenting this poor fellow. Also we spot a dull narration by the lead character John Van Owen introducing his friends and such. I just didn't dig it at all.
We also spot one of the character's named Harlan Ratcliff jogging in the woods as well as one of the bullies Alex approaching him making out he's nice to him which gives it a good feel that he's gonna be up to his nasty tricks while we watch this moment which makes you watch carefully on what's going to happen next.
Some energetic shots with the head warlock Luc and the outsiders taking off their clothes except for their Calvin Klein underwear (Of course!) and jumping into a swimming pool as well as them splashing each other and having a good time which didn't look too badly done here. Plus a carefully focused discussion with all of them gathering in the pool while Luc uses his so called powers on them as well as shots on certain ones tasting each others faces and other situations like that which is a good focus on the horror gay market as well. This seemed a little too cheesy.
Then the next day looks impressive with the newly born Brotherhood wearing dress suits and sunglasses almost having that Men in Black type of image while glaring at their enemies and planning something.
Also we spot some stale moments on them breaking the ten commandments by what they're doing which looked uninspirational and terribly rushed too.
Yet there is a decent and concentrated situation with all of them doing a small ceremony with a formed pentagram and candles surrounding this along with them tearing out pictures from a yearbook on their enemies and their plans on killing them for revenge which looked not too shabbily done. Defientely a nice drawing card in the horror story.
We spot a moment with a popular school girl drinking some wine from a bottle and getting hooked on it like this was some voodoo magic and her getting into a trance which looked good and mysterious but then we see pointed concentrated shots on one of the Brotherhood members taking his clothes off till he's in his underwear again and lusting for her yet we see no skin from the girl and the lusting looked too long as usual.
A nice scene with John having a discussion with his girlfriend Mary Stewart in a cafe and then a door swings open and good still camera shots slowly closing in on Luc glaring at him with thunder and lightning crashing as it gave the film a nice low budget horror feel to this. Plus a nice dark shot on Luc talking towards John when he wants to get out of the Bortherhood and his dark answers which looked strongly put in.
My favourite vengeful scene in the film is when Harlan gets vicious towards Alex and the tables are turned this time as well as good slow motion shots on a chasing scene.
A nice moment with John's friends along with Luc closing in on him showing a nasty threat if he left the Brotherhood which really spiced the horror story up showing that his friends are not themselves at all and in a trance. A nice put in scene indeed.
The best was yet to come as we spot one of the headmistress' at the school Ms. Stevens trying to save the day trying to put an end to the evil Brotherhood warlock cult as well as neat effects on them turning inot demonic types with fun cheesy demonic voice effects on them talking. The battling here looked impressive as well as John trying to come in when you don't expect him to.
Bottom line is that the story was a bit rough this time and uninspired as I was wondering what went wrong here and just saved it from being average due to the final battles in the story which looked campy and enjoyable. But, I liked the first one better although this beared no resemblance.

The acting is quite descent like in the first film. I enjoyed Forrest Cochran (Luc) as the demonic warlock, especially when he was putting a school bully in his place by having a good stern attitude and just coming across very slick with this. Also he shows some nice devilish expressions in other parts of the film which grabs your attention. Does well with his tempting in a swimming pool while putting a spell on the other actors as the outsiders in which he sounded good, calm and soothing too. He certainly got into this scene poerfectly well. Also shows a good calm but wicked attitude when he gets manipulative. Showed off great energy with his aggressions as well as he brought alot of this to a fair life.
Sean Faris (John Van Owen) was very stiff with what he had to do in his role even if he tried to be energetic but didn't seem to know his role all that well and you could tell that he was having a hard time with it. He just doesn't seem like a character actor at all while watching all of this. He tried when he acted discouraged or upset in some spots but he just fails with it alltogether and was extremely bland when he did the voice over narrations introducing himself and his onscreen friends.
Stacey Scowley
(Mary Stewart) showed some interesting spunk ito her part as the girlfriend and just acted as lively as possible by what she had to do here. She was well alert while getting into a discussion which really shows off here. Also knew on how to act tensed up while being mugged by the onscreen Brotherhood. She wasn't all spectacular but did what she had to do to pull off her role.
Noah Frank
(Harlan Ratcliff) was one of the best cast members here having the perfect looks as a stoner type of outsider along with having a good tense and choked up speaking especially while confronting his onscreen foe's in the flick. Plus showed a great versatality when he acts vengeful with his vicious and cold speaking aklong with lunging for the attack. He drew it all in superbly and can be well remembered for his work in this film even if this flick wasn't very good to watch.
Jennifer Capo (Ms. Stevens) was the best out of the cast I must say even if her role wasn't totally big but came off powerfully in her presence when we do see her work in it. Does a great job with perfect and serious concerns when something terrifying is going to happen. ALso showed her stuff as the hero perfectly well with her mockery and no nonsense beahvior towards her onscreen foe. She was perfectly sharp with whatever she did in this scene. She for sure studied her part as someone with a perfect secret about her that no one knows.
Ari Welkom (Alex) stood out the most as one of the bullies at the campus with his masculine and dumb ass type of looks. Yet his performance was another story since he seemed a bit wooden while acting mean and mocking which needed to come across as a bit more realistic. Yet he does a nice job doing the nice guy act only to pull a mean trick. ALso was perfect with his scared emotions near the end of his performance while trying to get away from his oncreen maker which he showed some great adrenalised energy into all of this.

Jeffrey Walton returns to compose the music for this one as he offers some nice hissing sounds and metal scraping type of effects for the dark and silent moments as well as good deep sounds in other spots too sounding very retro horror like. Also has some good strong trombone and classical violin playing especially for a chasing scene where we also hear great powerful drum playing too. Also some nice clear strong chanting sounds which sounded a bit different compared to the first flick. There's also some techno composing in certain areas which seems to be for today's standards in teenager flick but didn't do anything for me also there was techno mixed with piano playing for a lustful sequence as this sounded quite irritating to listen to. He does however do a splendid job composing music for the closing credits which sounded very strongly done and well orchestrated with good fast beats.