14 Cameras (3/5)

14 Cameras still features the slumlord of your nightmares and Neville Archambault is brilliant yet again. This movie might make you want to change your vacation plans!

14 Cameras is the sequel of the intensely creepy 13 Cameras, which we were pretty crazy about. You can read our review of 13 Cameras here >

Okay, in all honesty, we were just blown away by Neville Archambault in his role as the slumlord. But do not fear (or rather, do fear), because he is back in the starring role once again.

This time, the “Slumlord” is renting out vacation homes. And, once again, he has cameras in every room. 14 Cameras to be exact. Also, he’s turned his little hobby into a business. People can subscribe to a live streaming of the inhabitants in the vacation homes.

So yeah, you might want to reconsider that Airbnb booking, you’ve booked for your summer vacation or weekend getaway.

The perfect way to update the story

To me, 14 Cameras has managed to update the story perfectly with this new angle. The slumlord gets to have a lot more people to look at, and he can make money to support his hobby.

However, he also takes a lot more chances since he’s involving strangers in this little endeavor.

You’d think so, anyway, right?! But actually, the people subscribing to his streaming service seem to be even more intense and f*cked up than he is. In fact, we get to a point where the slumlord feels like the subscribers are asking for too much.

Clearly, money isn’t everything to this guy. Neville Archambault gives a stellar performance as the slumlord from Hell, who lives entirely according to his own rules.

In real life, Neville Archambault is a big ol’ sweetheart, but he just takes on this role so completely. I pretty much adore the guy! In fact, we even wrote a little feature about him after 13 Cameras, so you can read more about him here.

Not quite as sharp

There’s one thing I wasn’t crazy about with 14 Cameras. Of course, the shock of the surveillance and the weird slumlord character is nothing new. For this reason alone, they need to update the story.

As stated before, the writer (Victor Zarcoff) does this perfectly with the streaming twist.

The flip side of this is the need to create new twists and shocks. I get annoyed when I feel characters are acting strange (or just less believable) and that happened a few times with 14 Cameras. Nothing that ruins the overall experience, but enough to make me roll my eyes at the screen.

The horror of body hair

Also, I do love the way it ties in with 13 Cameras, but the timeline is a bit off. Or at the very least, I find it hard to believe that anyone being held hostage and only gets bathed every now and then, still has perfectly smooth legs. If that’s to be believable, I need a scene where the woman gets her legs shaved.

I know, I know… it’s the same with everything from Lost to The Walking Dead. It just seems so ridiculous to me. Women can be on deserted islands for months or be kidnapped in a basement, but their legs are still gorgeously smooth.

When will a movie have enough guts, to let a woman look like she’s actually been away from her “beauty regiment”? Just my pet peeve, I guess. And one of many other women.

It just feels like a woman with hairy legs or armpits is scarier than a woman being trapped by some psycho. That’s just sad – and a really creepy viewpoint!

New directors for the sequel

While 13 Cameras was written and directed by Victor Zarcoff, 14 Cameras have new directors on board. As mentioned earlier, Victor Zarcoff did write the script for this movie, and I did like the story.

The job of directing the movie was handled by co-directors, Seth Fuller and Scott Hussion. It’s the feature film debut for both of them and a very decent one. The storytelling isn’t as sharp for me and there are some continuity issues in certain places.

Still, if you liked 13 Cameras, then you absolutely need to watch 14 Cameras as well. And the opportunity to see Neville Archambault as the slumlord once again is more than enough reason to watch it.

14 Cameras will be out on VOD and in US theaters on July 27, 2018.

Details

Directors: Seth Fuller & Scott Hussion
Writer: Victor Zarcoff
Cast: Amber Midthunder, Neville Archambault, Brianne Moncrief, Tait Fletcher, Chelsea Edmundson

Plot

When a family of four rent a beautiful house for their summer vacation, the price seems too good to be true. Unbeknownst to them, the lascivious owner has set up a series of spy cams throughout the house, documenting their most intimate moments and live streaming them to the dark web.