Demonte Colony 2 Review

Demonte Colony 2 Review - Underwhelming sequel to the Cult Classic

Director Ajay Gnanamuthu made a solid debut with the near perfect pure horror 'Demonte Colony' released in 2015 that has attained cult status.  After eight years and the 'Cobra' debacle he has once again returned with the sequel 'Demonte Colony 2'. Whether the over stretched effort will strike a chord with the fans of the original remains to be seen.

'Demonte Colony 2' opens with a recap of the original with the main character Arulnidhi falling prey to the hideous demon.  The film then cuts to 2009 showing Debbie's  (Priya Bhavani Shankar) husband and his friends death by suicide under mysterious circumstances.  Unable to bear the loss, the young girl, feeling that his spirit is trying to convey something to her, approaches Buddhist monks to foray into the underworld.  Inside the portal where thousands of souls are trapped Debbie sees her husband crying for help.  But the monk tells her that the soul crying for help is not her husband but Srinivasan (Arulnithi).  She rescues him in a comatose stage and keeps in on life support.  Meanwhile Srinivasan's greedy twin Raghu (Arulnithi again) comes from Hyderabad to Chennai to take Srinivasan off life support so that he can have the majority of his father's wealth.  In an unexpected turn of events Raghu and Debbie along with the Buddhist monk are trapped in the  vicious Demonte Colony portal with evil souls thirsting for their blood.  Will the trio and  Srinivasan who is  also under the spell be able to escape the demon or not is what 'Demonte Colony 2' is all about.

Arulnithi plays dual roles as the comatose Srinivasan and the grey shaded Raghu in his usual casual manner.  His demon transformations help bring the chills to the viewer in a few places apart from the nostalgia of the original. Priya Bhavani Shankar has the most screen time in the film and she has done her best to pass off the character.  Her notable scenes are when she tries to impregnate herself with her dead husband's sperm and in the scene she realizes that she is carrying.   Muthukumar does justice to the important role as the loyal uncle of the twins. Nothing much to write home about the rest of the characters.

What works best in 'Demonte Colony 2' is the imaginative scenes that connect it to the first part.  The film does throw up a few novel scenes such as the heroine trying to carry her dead husband's child, the reason she goes into the Demonte Portal etc.  We are also given a villainous Arulnithi raising expectations of much much more than what is on offer.  Similarly the appearance of a little boy inside the restaurant and who he really is is quite interesting.

On the downside the good ideas are just handled at the surface level like for example Arulnithi's dual roles do not change the course of the screenplay in any way.  The visual graphics are of pretty low quality and especially the long drawn out bat effect is an assault on the senses.  The performances are all hollow, especially the monks and the girl victims shown at the end.   It is ridiculous why the demons select victims every six years and make them read a book and then lure them to the Demonte mansion and finish them instead of going for their throats directly.

Coming to the technical side Sam CS has scored some pretty loud background music to give the false impression of things being exciting on screen.  Harish Kannan's camera is constantly on the move giving the film the energy that the script lacks. The other technicalities are just what one expects from such films.  Ajay Gnanamuthu has a lot of ideas up his sleeve but few work on the screen.  The first part scored big because of the relatability of its characters and sequences with audiences transported into the housing board room.   In  'Demonte Colony 2' Ajay fails to write such characters and the sequences are also overstretched and tedious to watch.

Verdict : Go fo it if you fancy nostalgia over finesse in writing and making