Movie Review: Paranormal Farm 2: Closer To The Truth (2018)

Last December I had the putrid pleasure of layin’ my eerie eyeballs on Paranormal Farm; a frightfully fantastic found footage flick done absolutely right (you can read my thoughts on that on right here). I was pleased as a preternatural pig wallowing in supernatural shit when I found out a second installment had been made, and without further ado, here’s my revoltin review of Paranormal Farm 2: Closer to the Truth!
Filmmaker/Paranormal Investigator Carl Medland (in front of and behind the camera) is back again, and returns to the scene of the crime, such at is, to talk to the participants of the first endeavor about their opinions of the first film, and to check in on how life of the farm has carried on since his last visit…all to be included as special features on the impending DVD release of the first film. Once there, we learn that some of the events in the first film were a put on…but, based on “real” events (and yeah, I know it’s all actually fiction…I’m not half the boob you boils n’ ghouls take me for; I’m the whole tit baby!)…and now even stranger things are going down around that freaky farm…namely tales of a strange beast stalking the land…a beast supposedly responsible for a young girl’s disappearance (the real event the fiction of the first film was based on)! Will Carl be able to get to the bottom of the ghoulish goings-on and lay things to rights, or is he up against a monstrous menace that will be too much for even his mediocre psychic talent and investigating skills?
First of all, the concept of returning to the scene of a found footage flick to see how the events of the first film effected those involved in the events is one hell of a bloody fuckin’ brilliant, spectacularly unique idea, and really made this a twisting meta mind fuck! What of the first film actually took place, what was faked, and how does it all tie into the new terror experienced by our erstwhile hero? All our answered in surprising ways, and along with the laughs come a fantastic bit of world building and mythology, as well as a mystery packed with sinister secrets as art begins to imitate “real” life!
Additionally, it’s fun to see the viewing public’s reaction to the film…reactions Carl is quick to show to Lucy and Darren which they seem delighted by no matter how cruel the reviews are. Speaking of Carl; he’s every bit as engaging and likable a dude he was in the first go around…and as you know; likable guides into the found footage salt mines are not exactly plentiful. The rest of the cast is excellent as well; including those off-center rural lovers Darren (Darren Earl Williams) and Lucy (Lucy French), who once again are personable and down to Earth…minus all those dark streaks bubblin’ just below the surface. I loved these two the first time out, and I grew to love them even more in this installment as they became even more nuanced. Additionally Producer Mumtaz “Taz” Yildirimlar provides the perfect every-man character that finds himself in the middle of way too much horror biz!
As before, this one takes a bit to get to the full on craziness, buuut, it’s so much fun revisiting this world and it’s characters, and the new twists are so fresh that the one hour and forty seven minute runtime (much beyond my personal fright flick sweet spot of eighty to ninety minutes tops) absolutely flies by…so again, kudos to Medland for pullin’ that one off my fiends!
Every bit as funny and fright filled an experience as the first film; Paranormal Farm 2: Closer to the Truth is another wicked winner from good ol’ Creepy Carl (I mean his film’s are…I’m sure he’s a lovely person)…it’s pure down home demonic deviltry and crazy cult madness that manages to breath a breath of fresh air into the shriveled corpse lungs of the found footage genre, and shouldn’t be missed by horror hounds!