Tuesday 16 December 2014

dancers & ravens & mirrors, oh my

Title - Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance
Language - English
Genre - Horror, demon


















Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance

Raven dance is the first sequel to the 1990’s horror  Mirror mirror and, in my opinion is a much better film.  Raven Dance does not follow on from the first Mirror Mirror but is a complete new story with a new set of characters.  



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.

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