Demonte Colony 2 has a near-perfect opening. It’s almost like found footage horror. A few boys are happily playing football in the rain, and one of the players is capturing the game. Suddenly, this entire group is witness to a person jumping from the tenth floor of the apartment. Then, one more jumps to their death. And finally, we zoom in and see someone hanging himself to death. A terrific cold open that establishes two things — the film will be a serious horror film, and the makers will not pull the stops in showing gore and the grotesque.
Unlike the four good-for-nothing youngsters from the first part, this time, Demonte Colony 2 begins with Debbie (a terrific Priya Bhavanishankar) reminiscing about the loss of her cancer survivor husband, who was one of the people who died in that building. The film is actually about her grief and redemption. She is someone who has been trying to get pregnant with the sperm frozen by her late husband. In fact, the film does a neat job of informing the audience about this aspect of IVF. Anyway, Demonte Colony 2 is very much about Debbie’s needs and desires, and incidentally, it gets intertwined with the life of Arulnithi’s character. I quite enjoyed how they connected Debbie to the first Demonte Colony. But, if you have watched the trailer, you know by now that Demonte Colony 2 has two Arulnithis, and there are no points for guessing how they are related. It is neither intriguing nor interesting, but it is definitely inexcusable in the way it gives rise to a grating comedy track featuring an Arulnithi and his step-family. No idea why this had to be in place because it underserves the film almost to the point of no return.
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Thankfully, the film gets back to its forte of horror in a chamber, but takes a convoluted detour that gives us Satanism, occult practices, visuals of the purgatory, and a cursory jab at unnecessary humour. However, once it gets to a series of well-staged scares, Demonte Colony 2 becomes an interesting watch. Honestly, there isn’t much for Arulnithi to do, and he eye-rolls his way through this role that doesn’t test him enough. His performance is more convincing when he doesn’t have to act scared, and points to Ajay and his team for giving him a menacing facet, which he aces with ease. It is through Priya Bhavanishankar that the film explores the idea of the ghost of Demonte, the cursed chain, and the powers it wields. While her new look takes some time getting used to, Priya aces the horror template reactions. She gets the shrieks and cries right, and gets the emotional notes even better. Also, it was interesting to see Buddhist monks be at the centre of the exorcism, and it is neatly written into the script, which subtly references medical practitioners believing in the occult without being judgmental.
My favourite part of Demonte Colony 2 is how the ghost at the centre of it all is a no-nonsense spirit that doesn’t wait for the protagonist to fulfil its unfulfilled dreams. However, this also removes any sort of novelty from the proceedings of the sequel. Considering there is nothing that the ghost wants, it removes all sorts of power from the protagonists who can only run and hide, and try their best to escape from the clutches of the paranormal entity. While this is a bummer, Ajay sets up the scares well enough. Be it the sequence with the infinite mirror, or the fish tank, or the flurry of bats, and even a completely new ghost that sets up Demonte Colony 3, Ajay gets a lot of things right. Also, points to Ajay for not pulling back the punches when it comes to representing gore and bloodshed. In the infinity mirror sequence, involving a young kid, Ajay doesn’t shy away from showing gore. We don’t often get to see this unabashedness in horror films here. However, he is undone by the lack of proper VFX that gives the scares a steady disconnect and an amateurish feel.
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Apart from the supernatural, I quite liked how Ajay sets up Demonte Colony 3 with newer villains, who stay true to the horror genre. Will this film see the light of day? Probably yes. Will I still be seated for the third part knowing novelty might not be the filmmaker’s forte? Probably yes, again. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Demonte Colony 2 movie review: Arulnithi, Priya Bhavanishankar, Antti Jaaskelainen, Tsering Dorjee, Arunpandian, Muthukumar, Meenakshi Govindarajan, Sarjano Khalid, Archana Ravichandran
Demonte Colony 2 movie director: Ajay R Gnanamuthu
Demonte Colony 2 movie rating: 2.5 stars
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