Director – Brian Kilby (Guardia de Male, Boner and the Neudge)
Starring – Terence Lee Cover (Fangboner, Gay for Pray: The Erotic Adventures of Jesus Christ), Adam Lorenz (Chubbies, The Big F), and Luke Walters
Release Date – 2020
Rating – 3.5/5
Tagline – “The confusion will kill you”
Sometimes I never know when a movie is going to come along that makes me fall head of heals in love with it. I watch a lot of movies and I often come across one that I really like but it’s not everyday that I watch something that has me thinking about it constantly until I give it another watch.
A few years back I was at Cinema Wasteland and watch the Italian horror parody Guardia de Male from director Brian Kilby. Honestly, I laughed until I thought I was going to throw up. I grabbed a copy that weekend and when I returned home I forced my wife, the non-horror fan, to sit through it as I watched it again. I fucking loved it. A few weeks ago Kilby contacted me to check out the follow up that he recently completed. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Thanks Brian for sending a copy this way!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a random assortment of people that enter the cursed Lenzi Forest for various reasons. Some are looking to fish, while others are hunting, but they are all unaware of the evil lurking in the woods looking to claim souls to break the barrier that is containing it in the forest. **Spoiler Alert**
Kilby is known for his collaborations with Brian Papandrea and Nathan Rumler. The three bring a lot of fun to the indie horror community and I have to admit that the three are among my favorite filmmakers in the game at the moment. Guardia de Male brought some much needed laughs along with the things that make Italian horror films so much fun. I have to say that Kilby and company did it again with Guardia de Male 2. It was highly entertaining but a bit lengthy.
The acting in this one is exactly what you got in the first film. It’s not bad acting in a sense but the cast is hamming it up to capture that cheesy and dubbed acting that classic 70s Italian horror films are known for. The cast looks like they are really enjoying themselves and the characters are fun to watch. The dialogue and character reactions really brings the laughs in this one.
The story for this one is actually a pretty solid story. It’s nothing that original but it works for this parody film. I absolutely adore horror films that take place in the woods and this mixes very well with the humor, demon possession, and nudity. My only real complaint with the story is that it was too long. I did watch the extended cut so the theatrical cut may have been more my speed but the movie was just a little too long.
Finally, the film has several on screen kills. We get plenty of blood and practical effects. Much like the rest of the film, the death scenes are meant to make the viewer laugh. The practical effects are bad but they are bad on purpose to fit the tone of the film. Overall, Guardia de Male 2 is a hilarious spoof of classic Italian horror favorites but still delivers the bloody bits that horror fans crave. Hell, if horror comedies are not your thing then at least give it a spin to see Mallory Maneater nude! I highly suggest fans of indie horror pick this one up. I really enjoyed it.
