Carlos Revalos (Kyri Saphiris), a so far unsuccessful yet experienced
filmmaker, manages to sell his latest project, an effects-heavy horror
film, to big money producer Dirk Heinz (Andrew Tiernan), who promises him
10 million Pounds ... if only Carlos is able and willing to invest 500,000
of his own money as well. Heinz also has this bright idea to make this a
British/Nollywood co-production to cross over into that market, which
Carlos is not happy about from square one - but the money is too much of a
lure. Several weeks later, and only at the first day of shooting, Carlos
arrives at the set - to learn that the Nollywood producer Efi (Seye
Adelekan), when giving him the address, hasn't meant the studio building
that's situated there but the trailer right in front of it. That's the
first major let-down, but there's also the fact that the special effects
girl (Roxy Sternberg) Efi has hired has bought all her equipment in a
Pound store, and Efi hasn't got the first idea about high end filmmaking. But
it's not just the British big budget and Nigerian guerilla styles of
filmmaking that clash, it's also the fact that one of the actresses
(Denise Moreno) is apparently weak of heart and leaves the set eventually,
her replacement (Aiko Horiuchi) is Japanese and only has a faint idea of
the English language, the script editor (Jason Croot) is French and
refuses to understand English but also has a short fuse, the pair of
veteran horror actors (Eleanor James, Julian Lamoral-Roberts) hired are
too full of themselves to even listen to Carlos' direction, the French
cinematographer (Hadrien Mekki) wants to make art and is totally unhappy
with the direction the movie's taking (as is Carlos), and nevertheless
tries to pull every girl on set, the makeup artist is one horny and
bisexual broad, not one but all locations (even the scrappy trailer) fall
through, and so on and so forth - and that the film gets finished at all
is a major triumph for the director ... but will the film be a triumph at
the box office? Le Fear II: Le Sequel was quite
obviously made by someone familiar with the low budget end of filmmaking
who has probably had at least some similar experiences, as the movie
clearly goes beyond just poking fun at its basic premise, and while some
of the jokes are crude, there's also a slightly tragic note to everything,
and while some of the characters are caricatures pretty much out of
necessity, others (especially Carlos of course, but also others) do have
dramatic depth to them, and the film as such is told in a very engaging
way and carried by a very competent ensemble. Definitely worth your
while!
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