Name: The Brotherhood II: Young Warlocks (2001)
IMDb: link to The Brotherhood II page
Genres: Horror. Country of origin: USA.
Cast: Forest Cochran as Luc, Sean Faris as John Van Owen, Stacey Scowly as Mary Stewart, Julie Briggs as Headmistress Grimes, Jennifer Capo as Ms. Stevens.
Directed by: David DeCoteau. Written by: Matthew Jason Walsh and David DeCoteau.
The Three Acts:
Initial tableaux:
Set at a private high school, the film quickly details cliques, jealousies, violent reprisals, under age drinking, homicides, date rape, gratuitous skin, bullying, and other teen issues.
The new kid in school, John, has been taken in by the omega males (the other end of the social spectrum from alpha males). When John is getting hazed, Luc gets him out of it.
Delineation of conflicts:
Later Luc promises the loser group that he can help them get what they want in life in exchange for loyalty, honesty, and breaking commandments. They rush in without finding out what the consequences are. Luc's plan does not even survive the first round of breaking commandments.
Resolution:
The climax is not worth the wait.
One line summary: YA film with many context free crimes committed.
Statistics:
Cinematography: 8/10 It's a bit soft-focus, but mostly OK. Has the 4:3 aspect ratio, so the image on my HD streaming service is smaller than most.
Sound: 5/10 Actors are well-miked, but the incidental music is obnoxious.
Acting: 0/10 What acting? By and large, people show up, hit their marks, read their lines. In this case, anyway, that was not enough. Interchangeable young actors: very dark eyes, all-day morning hair liberally treated with bear grease, appear perhaps 25-30 years old, look both bemused and bored. The actors being too old for their roles is noticeable.
Screenplay: 2/10 Warlock promises to help a loser group of males at a private school. This would have been a reasonable 20 minute short, but 80 minutes? No thanks. What is this 'felony misdemeanor' the history teacher mentioned? Felony and misdemeanor are mutually exclusive.
Young men walk around while bad music plays; no language, no interactions. Schlock! Worse yet, these interludes that do not advance the story are repeated perhaps half a dozen times.
Grand theft auto (not the video game) committed in broad daylight, and no one notices. Seems unlikely. Drugging then using a female classmate with whom there had been no previous sexual relationship. I don't think so--not without consequences.
Final Rating: 1/10, with two black holes for acting and screenplay.
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