Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Die Vampirschwestern 2", also known as "Fledermäuse im Bauch" or "Vampire Sisters 2: Bats in the Belly", is a German movie from 2014 and the number in the title already gives away that this is the sequel to the original film from 2012. It runs for 1.5 hours roughly and was made again by Groos and Gruber based on Gehm's novel. The cast also includes several familiar faces like the two girl actresses as well es Paul, Kessler, Müller and Erceg. New names include Amft and Friedrich for example, probably the most known. Friedrich (a recent German Film award winner) is a pretty good actor but here he was really only reduced to a gimmicky character that was all about the costume. Oh well and Amft was even worse than I expected. Then again, the writing also did not do them any favors at all. And this refers to pretty much everybody else too as well as the story as a whole. I have not read the books, so not sure if Gruber or Gehm is to blame for how unimpressive turned this one out. The story with one of the half vampire girls falling in love with that musician is as generic as uninspired and everything that relates to this central plot theme is just as forgettable. The performances were also relatively weak and nobody managed to truly elevate the material. Maybe a second film was already one too many, but perhaps I'm wrong and I just hope the third film (relesed not too long ago) is better once again. This one here gets a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
supermaggie
What is true for the first movie of this series is true for the second installment, it is a funny, entertaining, superbly cast and well-produced movie for open-minded vampire fans and teens. This second movie, however, lacks a bit of the wonderful charm of the first movie, and the great topics of tolerance, friendship and finding one's true self are - albeit present again (and prevailing in the end) - slightly pushed back for the sake of the new main topic "love and relationships" (hence the tag line "bats in the belly"). Since this still mainly is a vampire movie and never really gets into the shallow waters of a "usual" RomCom, however, it is still a very good movie and has enough charm and suspense to make up for it. An additional plus are the new cast members Diana Amft (who provides the funniest, most surprising twist at the end of the movie I have seen in a long while) and Tim Oliver Schultz - perfect as the vampire rock star and the love interest of Daka (sure, he was good in the truly funny/well-made movie "Systemfehler", but who would have guessed he can look sexy/ like a vampire/ like a sexy vampire?!), who provides (together with Laura Roge) a great vampire rock concert performance (forget "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" ;-) ) and a good, thrilling subplot with Georg Friedrich, who is great as the bad guy (it is the Vienna accent ...) and delivering some of the funniest lines of the movie. - Just do it like the creators of the movie: don't take it/ be too serious and you will have a great time watching (the first movie and) this sequel! Can't wait to see the third movie!
