I reviewed the first movie in this series, Cast a Deadly Spell, yesterday.
Dennis Hopper (who replaces Fred Ward as the lead) said this was the weirdest movie he ever made. And this was after Blue Velvet.
Fun to see Sheryl Lee Ralph, now America’s favorite teacher on Abbott Elementary, in a unique early roll. Julian Sands and Penelope Ann Miller are clearly having a blast as well.
Important note as this isn’t a sequel so much as a reboot. We move to the fifties and witchcraft replaces communism as the cultural bugaboo. The villain in the piece is a Joseph McCarthy stand-in who is using fear and paranoia about witchcraft to increase his political power.
Couple of great lines here. Including one I can’t believe they got away with and a speech at a funeral that had me rolling.
Hopper pretty clearly has no idea what’s going on but he makes the best of it. Check out his reaction when a warlock turns a woman into a mannequin.
“Somebody put the whammy on her. She probably thought she was at the Rose Parade!”
And when an actress testifies before congress.
“The woman is good,” his partner says.
“Ah she’s gotta be good,” Hopper’s Harry Phillip Lovecraft replies. “She doesn’t have a (Hollywood) contract anymore.”
It’s pretty much the same level of cringy badness mixed with occasional moments that made me chuckle as the first one.
Not as horror oriented. I will note that a crowd of people showing up to waive flags and celebrate while someone they don’t like is burned at the stake is as solid a commentary on America as you will ever come across.
But while Paul Schrader may have directed it, this doesn’t have any of things you might expect from a Schrader outing.
Hey, everybody’s got to make a living.
Dark Highways 
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