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SYNOPSIS:
Once again another video made by Brandon has made its way to the surface. This time however the video doesn’t come alone, it also brings a glimpse into Brandon’s troubled teenage years that led him to become the Amateur P*rn Star Killer
REVIEW:
Director: Shane Ryan
Starring: Shane Ryan and Kai Lanette
“No one needs degrees these days.”
Independent cinema brings a lot of strange things into a lot of people’s living rooms every year. It isn’t any secret that independent films are usually the only types of films that will dwell into certain taboos that mainstream Hollywood simply wont touch at all. It isn’t any wonder that eventually a film like Amateur P*rn Star Killer would show up on the independent circuit, after all the pseudo snuff film has been done all the way back to the 80’s (Flower of Flesh and Blood) and well into the 2000’s (Toetag films August Underground series). The thing that surprised me was when I first saw the title Amateur P*rn Star Killer 2 was that it was an actual sequel so I went back and did some research and came away with an upset stomach and a bad need to take a shower.
Amateur P*rn Star Killer 2 (I’m gonna start calling it APSK2) is more adventures from a serial killer named Brandon who likes to have sex, humiliate and ultimately kill his victims while filming on a small camcorder. The film sells itself as one of Brandon’s own tapes so the quality is of course not very good. The quality of the film being bad is what Shane Ryan was going for, however too many times during the film the viewer is treated to various camera effects which while amusing really do take away from the realism of the project.
One of the first things a viewer sees when the put in APSK2 is the black and white footage of a woman who is struggling while her assailant, a man holding a camera, tortures her. After the initial shock of this footage wears off the viewer is treated with a long, about four to five minutes, credit sequence in which the camera operator seems to be stalking pretty young girls. I like the approach for the opening credits, however the four to five minutes is a bit too long and again it takes away from the realism that Shane Ryan might have been trying to capture. There is also a soundtrack that plays throughout the film that once again, although it is quite good in parts, does take away from the realism of the film.
When APSK2 finally does start to take off the camera operator, Brandon, literally runs up on a random girl who is introduced to the viewer as “Victim #9” so once again the viewer already knows what is going to happen to her, again its the little things like this that made the film almost kind of boring.
Brandon carries on some small talk with Victim #9 and eventually talks her into coming back to his place for a little party. Victim #9 seriously has to be one of the dumbest women in the history of horror films and there are several reasons that are played out throughout the entire film, the first one is the scene where she gets to Brandon’s place and notices that it is empty but continues to stay there and drink with him.
Really that’s about the just of the film for the most part is Brandon and Victim #9 talking and then eventually she begins to tease Brandon with some costumes that she has brought from home (again is this girl serious….?). Brandon eventually starts to get overly grabby and continuously starts to pull the young girls pants down.
During these scenes involving Brandon and Victim #9 the viewer is allowed glimpses into Brandon’s past with yet more videos. Some of these videos are kind of twisted as they show Brandon raping a woman with the help of another girl, after the rape is over the other woman says to the victim “See I told you that wouldn’t take long”. There is footage of a sex tape that went horribly bad after the girl tried to leave, there is a grimy sequence involving a woman in a car where most of the footage is left to the viewers imagination. There is also some footage of Brandon filming some street fights. With each of these little film clips comes a back story such as that Brandon committed his first murder at the age of 16.
It is the scenes that show glimpses into Brandon’s past and the scenes with victim #9 with no dialogue that are the most interesting. The body language between Kai Lanette and Shane Ryan is there and in a lot of the scenes sometimes all a viewer really needs is a look from Kai and they know what is going on. The dialogue during the film however does leave the viewer kind of dumbfounded at parts, mainly because Victim #9 really does have to be the stupidest woman in the history of genre cinema.
In an effort to make the graphic murder that the viewer knows is going to happen seem more realistic Shane allows us to glimpse scenes of actual hardcore p*rnography. That’s right you aren’t gonna find this baby sitting on a shelf at your local Wal Mart any time soon! The scenes of p*rnography are done amateur and in a grimy fashion that does almost make the scenes of murder believable, well until the soundtrack kicks in.
If pseudo snuff films are your thing than Amateur P*rn Star Killer 2 is right up your alley, it does leave quite the after taste in your mouth when it is over. I however will probably skip on Amateur P*rn Star Killer 3
Amateur P*rn Star Killer 2 (2008)
