Language - English
Genre - Horror, demon
Mirror Mirror 2:
Raven Dance
Set
in a church Orphanage Marlee and her brother Jeffrey are talking to a
rock band who are playing a charity gig when they uncover an old
mirror and it’s not long before strange events and deaths
start occurring. Throw in a jealous corrupt relative and a
mysterious stranger and you have a volatile mix,
Everywhere
you look ravens dance is a battle between good and evil, the most
obvious is mirror and it’s temptation of Marlee as it helps her by
fixing her problems some of which it caused in first place. We
also have Sister Marion trying to do what she thinks is best for
Marlee who she sees as disruptive and chaotic & Roslyn and doctor
Dr. Lasky trying to get Marlee committed so that they can get her
money.
The
second theme that runs through the film is desire, as with the first
film the mirror is trying to control people through the things they
desire, Sister Marion only desires the smooth running of the
Orphanage, Roslyn desires money and to a smaller extent to be liked,
Dr. Lasky seems to desire Marlee and Marlee desires Christian. All
of which leads to a number of plot threads that could have become
quite confusing but Raven dance manages to pull it off quite well.
The
characters in ravens dance are well defined and definitely better
than those of the first film which were did just seem to be generic
stereotypes you could find in any high school horror. There are
a couple of characters that do leave you guessing at what they know:
Sister
Marion is only interested in the smooth running of the
orphanage to the point where he will ignore anything that may put it
in danger even if she has the proof that similar events have
happened before. She has Sister Aja locked in a room so that
she can not interfere with the running of the building. we are
never sure if she really believes what Dr Laskie is saying but she
only ever makes one small attempt to use the orphanage doctor
instead. It seems that once the accident with the band happens
she sees Marlee as a hindrance and just wants to wash her hands of
her.
Christian
is another character who keeps us guessing, he is mysterious and
tempting but we never know which side he is on until the end.
Although
Raven Dance does not share the ‘high school horror’ themes that
it’s predecessor does it does have a couple of similarities;
Both films have a female ‘young adult’ protagonist both of whom
do spend a lot of the films moping around feeling sorry for
themselves but, in Raven dances case i feel that there is more of a
reason or at least Marlee is a more sympathetic character. Both
films also hint at witchcraft but never really use it much, the act
of making a wish is akin to spell casting The mirror contains a
demon that was trapped there in an unseen past. Both girls make
a ‘blood pact’ with the mirror (although I still can’t
understand why, when they see the mirror bleed their first reaction
is to taste it and then press themselves into it). In Raven Dance the
magic witchcraft theme is expanded slightly, Marlee has a cat
who acts like a familiar (a witches pet) and near the end Sister
Marion does ask for help from god. There is also an after
credit scene with some mini monks that may be a set up for some other
ceremony, or they could just be messing around.
It
is never said whether it is the same mirror from the first film and
I’m tempted to think not. even though it looks the same it is
never explained how it was taken out of the old house (this was
impossible in the first film) and the time periods would be out a
bit.
At the end credits the film is listed as Raven Dance a tale of the Mirror Mirror. As the first film is listed as a tale it is probably fair to say that there was probably not going to be any sequels. There are two more films in the series which ill be reviewed next.
