Wednesday, April 7, 2021

'00s Trash?: Decoys- The Second Seduction

 After all of this wait, the Film is...well, you'll see.  This is Decoys: The Second Seduction, a 2007 Sci-Fi Horror Film.  Well, that *might* be the Title.  According to the Film itself, it is Decoys 2: Alien Seduction.  Which is better?  I lean more towards the former, as the latter is a bit redundant.  The last Film was *also* about Alien Seduction, so why highlight it here?  In contrast, this is the second time we're shown this happening (the implication is that they've been around for a while), so it makes sense.  There- that whole, important thing is settled.  Returning for the Sequel, we have Corey Sevier, but not his friend that betrayed him at the end.  Was she too busy?  Instead of that logical appearance, one of the two main Alien Ladies is back with no explanation (until the very end).  It's kind of silly, even for a Film with Alien Tentacle Ladies on a College Campus.  The Plot involves, well, a second seduction.  Have they worked out the kinks in the process or not?  To find out, read on...

In the cold (no pun intended) open, a couple make-out in a Car until the girl reveals her tentacles and kills him.

Whelp, more of the same.
Sevier is back and you're probably wondering why he's not dead.

Well, the Film *eventually* exposition dumps about it.

In short, he was 'in love' with the girl/alien and his body adjusted more gradually to the temperature drop (or something) and he woke up in a Hospital.

Presumably, the mating process worked, which is important to remember for later.
Our main focus is not on Sevier, but on some friends who make a March Madness-type thing where they 'score points' for 'scoring' with ladies.

Our Heroes!
A local Doctor is actually the Alien in disguise, who, again, was killed in the last Film.  Did she just get better?

She's watching Sevier and setting him up to look crazy, which, to be fair, is really damn easy!
Saw's Tobin Bell is here to basically sleepwalk through another easy role- like in Boogeyman 2.

He's the Professor who Sevier works for, asks him about some drawings of the Alien Girls and then gets killed off-screen.  Yea?
The big change here is that the Alien Girls know that acting on Guys' fantasies will make them less likely to die (for some reason).

As such, they can now read minds and morph into whatever outfit works.

It's a decent gimmick, so fair play.
Sevier continues to get manipulated easily and looks crazy, leading his Doctor- filling in the Supportive Female Side Character part from the last Film- to giving him lots of pills.

Basically, his whole Arc is stolen wholesale from *the original* Fright Night 2, complete with him not believing the last Film really happened...until he just does.
The Film layers a few random Sub-Plots in to reach 90 minutes, most notably our young Hero not being sure if his lady friend is an Alien (like in the last Film).

It all ends with a big series of showdowns with the Aliens, culminating in the main one.  She says that Sevier 'killed one of her clones' and that's all you get for an explantion.

She dies (again).
Throughout the Film, the bodies of the victims have gone missing and now we find out how- they were hidden by the Alien Girls.

Our Heroes and Heroines see the bodies as a new spawn emerges and...a cliffhanger ending?  The hell?!?!?
An improvement, for the most part.  I've talked about Sequelitis many times before.  If you don't know, it is the need to one-up things for the Sequel(s).  It sometimes ends well, like getting multiple Aliens in, well, Aliens.  Other times it gets a bit silly, like all of the fetish-y Werewolf stuff and new lore in Howling 2.  This one manages to kind of sneak by through the middle.  We don't really get new Aliens- just the new gimmick/power.  On its own, it is a fine bit of growth.  We don't get anything especially crazy though, like some sort of new transformation or anything.  The Plot growth kind of works.  The original Alien (kind of) manipulating Sevier works, even if Bell's part is pretty minor.  For getting top billing, Sevier doesn't do as much as you might think.  He's there for, I guess, the Star Power.  Quick- name another Corey Sevier Film that isn't Decoys!  Speaking of which, they name drop the Aliens here and act like Sevier coined that term in the last Film.  Did I miss that?  It's not a bad name, although the meaning is a bit dubious all things considered.  Decoys 2 (or whatever you want to call it) is a decent, but not-that-impressive Sequel.  As a follow-up, it's good.  On its own, it's alright, but that's about it.  At least you can enjoy all of the Dialog in way more languages than you might expect...

Next time, a Film from the 1980s that got minor attention due to its Stars.  Considering that DVDs are sparse however and my copy is on VHS, it didn't amount to much.  Stay tuned...

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