Devil Ant - 2: Devil Ant Rises from the Grave

David "The Rock" Nelson is still the only working filmmaker that really puts his own blood into his cinema. It's true! He frequently sells his own plasma to buy videotape and other equipment. Even Roberto Rodriguez can't match that claim. In this epic, sequel to the award winning original Devil Ant, Det. Rock (David "The Rock" Nelson) visits the Devil Ant's grave. But is the Potent Pismire really dead, killed by TV horror host Svengoolie? No! A bolt of lightning revives the oversize rubber formicid, and its reign of terror continues! The incredulous Rock is called in on the case, but as usual, is too lazy to do much about it. 

Meanwhile, Devil Ant goes on a drunken rampage in Chicago. While Det. Rock is kept busy with obscene phone calls from his fans, a dancin' mad doctor (David "The Rock" Nelson) clones one of Devil Ant's previous victims, just so the monster can kill him again. Eventually, some competition for Devil Ant appears in the form of an oversize atomic mutant Devil Cicada! Weakened after a fight with bikers (and their cat), can Devil Ant survive an encounter with this stridulating terror? Or will the Devil Cicada just be forgotten and disappear from the movie? And will Det. Rock ever interrupt his snacking and sleeping to do some actual detective work?

While Devil Ant featured a guest cameo by Hilary Clinton, the sequel brings us clips her husband Bill, as well as a campaigning G.W. Bush. Devil Ant 2 leans way too much on recycled footage from the first film (and other old Nelson flicks). Some of the footage used is ten years old! Nelson also again overuses his video solarizing effect, but does slip in an amusing new trick: cutting in a clip of countdown leader, as if the video is undergoing a reel change. 

The bulk of the picture is composed of Nelson's visits to bars, parties, conventions, and other events, where he whips out the camera and ant to amuse or annoy friends, celebrities, and anyone else who gets too close for a video verité encounter with the weird world of Rocky Nelson. This is cut together with occasionally hilarious footage of Rock playing various characters, whether they have anything to do with the rickety "plot" or not. There's even some old home movies of Nelson in the Marine Corps as "Private Nelly" (see Marines play on a swing set!). While sometimes the patchwork technique produces moments of sublime dada weirdness - as in the sequence in which a man repeatedly runs over the novelty insect with a paint roller - there's also quite a bit that will test the patience of all but die-hard Rock fans. But hey, isn't everybody a Rock fan by now?  

Body count: 50 in 119 minutes - down slightly from the first Devil Ant, but ten times as many as Friday the 13th 2!

Blood; mutant bloodthirsty toy insect demon from hell;  p-stars Nelson, Ackerman, Roger Corman, Tom Savini, Svengoolie, Conrad Brooks, Vernon & Harriet Nelson, Haruo Nakajima, Kenpachiro Satsuma, Don Post, Fred Olen Ray, Ted Bohus, Richard Crowe, Mike Flores, Brian Thomas, Janet Lynn.

Lookee! A special David "the Rock" Nelson section  in It's Only A Movie !

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