‘Gladiator II’ and ‘Death Whisperer 2’: A tale of two sequels

Malay Mail
Malay Mail

DEC 1 — There are many ways one can enjoy sequels, prequels and franchise films. The most obvious way is to be tuned in to the larger narrative involving the films, which will enable you to catch the many acts of fan service that the filmmakers will usually cram into the film, making it an even more enjoyable experience, especially when compared to the one you’d get walking into the film with no prior knowledge of such things.

There are also those with a more cynical point of view who see all this as nothing more than just another cash grab by the Hollywood studios, enjoying the act of identifying and pointing out the by-the-numbers plotting, lazy writing, sometimes hilariously phoned-In performances and often disinterested direction that usually plague these movies.

It’s almost as if the studios knew that people will flock to see these movies anyway, regardless of their quality, so there really is no need to try so hard to make a good movie.

It’s just my luck that two sequels — one a long-awaited sequel from Hollywood and the other a very quickly assembled sequel to a big Thai hit last year — opened within a week of each other in Malaysian cinemas recently, which gave me a chance to see if there’s a case to be made on how to make, and how not to make a sequel.

Gladiator II

Twenty-four years on from the Oscar-winning original film, in which the hero died a heroic death, who knew that Hollywood had it in them to conjure up a sequel?

I’m sure that back then, when we saw how Gladiator ended, all of us would’ve had the same thought in our minds – that’s that then.

Still, Ridley Scott had thought it wise to deliver to us a legacy sequel with Gladiator II, which now focuses on a character named Lucius Verus (a shockingly charismatic Paul Mescal, especially after what we saw of him in Aftersun), who is revealed to be the son of Maximus (Russell Crowe’s character in the original film), and who is hellbent on revenge against Roman General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who he blames for the death of his wife during the film’s opening action set-piece.

After his army lost the battle in that opening scene, Lucius was captured and enslaved and eventually ends up becoming a gladiator for Macrinus (Denzel Washington chewing up every bit of scenery he’s in and stealing the whole damn picture in the process).

It’s a nice enough setup, but for whatever reasons known only to Scott and writer David Scarpa, Gladiator II repeats so many of the plot points of the original film that you’ll start to question whether this is actually a disguised and glorified remake instead of the legacy sequel that is poses to be.

The acts of fan service here are so blatant, that the film even resorts to using footage from the original film, a lot!

It still answers one question, “Are you not entertained,” famously asked in the original film, in the affirmative. I’m just not sure if that’s enough reason to make a sequel.

Death Whisperer 2

While Gladiator II definitely makes a strong case for being another Hollywood cash grab, it’s quite hilarious that it took another obvious cash grab, but this time from Thailand, to show us how to properly make one.

The original Death Whisperer made THB502 million (RM65 million) from a THB20 million budget in 2023, so of course a sequel would make total sense business-wise.

It’s just quite shocking that a sequel arrived just a year later, and even more shocking that it has so far collected THB800 million in Thailand, overtaking the year’s breakout hit How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, making it the highest grossing Thai film of 2024 so far.

How did this happen? For once, director Taweewat Wantha made the bold decision not to repeat the formula and shenanigans of the first film.

The characters and main ghost are still the same, so we get the same good-looking family and siblings all with names that begin with the letter “Y” like Yak, Yod, Yad and Yos, all a little bit older a year after the tragic events of the first film, which killed their middle sister Yam, who was possessed by a ghost named Tee Yod.

The hunky Yak (Nadech Kugirniya from The Con-Heartist) has always suspected that Tee Yod would return to haunt their family, and has been on a ghost hunting expedition to get rid of Tee Yod once and for all, taking him and returning character Sarge Paphan into a demon/ghoul forest named Dong Khomot, which makes this part of the film kind of like something resembling the brutal action of Predator, but with ghouls and demons instead of aliens.

Happening concurrently is the impending marriage of their oldest sister Yad at a hotel, which makes this part of the film something like The Shining, but with Thai ghosts and lore.

It’s such a refreshing approach to making a sequel, that even if it’s a bit derivative in terms of inspiration, the way it’s all mashed up together to make it local and unmistakably Thai is what makes it such an entertaining watch, which is probably why people have been flocking to see it.

If the filmmakers keep going like this, I definitely wouldn’t mind a Death Whisperer 3 next year as well!

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.