Mirror's & witches & gangsters

Title - Mirror Mirror 3: The Voyeur
Language - English
Genre - Horror, action

Characters:

The mirror - A magic mirror possessed by a demon. Our Mcgubbin

Anthony - the main protagonist. An artist

Cassandra - A Witch and Anthonys lover

Carolyn - Anthonys Partner/Wife

Joey - Anthony’s brother, also sleeping with Carolyn

Julio - Cassandra’s abusive husband. A drug dealer and not a nice person

DEA Agent Kobeck - A DEA agent looking for Cassandra and Julio.

The third film in the Tail’s of the Mirror Mirror series, the Voyeur takes a different approach than the previous two.  First off it’s gotten rid of the ‘time loop’ that is present in the other films, both of which start with the death of a previous user who the protagonist then seems destined to become.  Instead of this we see the current user, Cassandra who is using the mirror along with her own magic.  Cassandra has obviously been using the mirror for some time and is embracing it power instead of fearing it as the previous two protagonists did.

The main storyline of The voyeur is also taking a different approach.  Both Mirror Mirror 1 and Raven dance were ‘High School Horror’ type films in a similar vein as something like ‘the Craft’  or ‘ginger snaps’ but the Voyeur is trying to be a gangster/action film with the supernatural thrown in an idea that when it’s done right, like in ‘Dusk till Dawn’ can work but with the Voyeur it just seems that two elements are too separate creating two different storylines.

The story follows Anthony an artist and his lover Cassandra, a witch who is the current owner of the Mirror and who is married to Julio a gangster. Two months after Cassandra & Julio disappear Anthony and Joey move into Cassandra’s house.  The house is being watched by Agent Kobeck from the DEA who is looking for the money that Julio claims to have left there.  Not long after moving in Anthony starts seeing Cassandra, who becomes jealous of Carolyn.

There are, in my opinion a few problems with the Voyeur, first up Julio’s storyline is told mainly through flashbacks via the mirror overlayed with changing color filters making a slightly confusing mess which is made worse by the reveal of a body in the basement which may or may not be Julio.  If it is then how did it get there and if it’s not then who's is it.

The DEA agent is a confusing character.  It is implied halfway through the film that he has, in the past taken bribes  from Julio but that now he has stopped now and yet he is now after the money that Julio hid.  He calms that he is looking for Cassandra and does seem a bit concerned to what has happened to her, he has the house under surveillance including the bedrooms but he never mentions anything about Anthony talking to Cassandra which , even if he couldn't see her should have raised some concerns with him.

Carolyn is also a confusing character, her purpose in the film is obviously to give Cassandra an enemy and a reason for her to go mad but her relationship with the other characters is odd.  She says that she runs the gallery where Anthony displays his  work but she never seems to know what he is working on or the times & dates of his exhibitions, none of which seem to be at her gallery anyway.  We know that she is sleeping with Anthony and, when we first meet her their relationship seems very close but she does not live with him.  She is also sleeping with Joey, when we first meet them it seems that Joey is not really into the relationship and that it is Carolyn who is in control but part way through it is Joey who is arranging their meetings.

And then there is the sex, The Voyeur is not shy about it’s sex scenes and, lets face it it’s title implies that there will be some sex but we have a sex scene before the first title credits, a few times during the main film and flashbacks to the other scenes in the film.  Now I’m not against sex scenes and most of the time they have a purpose, often to show use why the kill has targeted those kids first, like in Friday 13th, or as some kind of comic relief like in ‘Shoot ‘em Up’ and occasion they are even used to cause tension as in ‘My Little eye’ or ‘Delicatessens’ but the Voyeur just seems to go over the top.

I think the Voyeur has the potential to be a better film, if they had improved the relationships between the characters and had Cassandra actually make Julio disappear they could have turned it into more of a psychological thriller.   They could even have left in all the sex.

Over all the voyeur was a slightly disappointing attempt to take the franchise in another direction which is a shame as it is an interesting idea to see how other people would use and be trapped by the mirror.  

Quatermass and the Pit

Title - Quatermass and the pit  (five million years to earth)
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Sci-Fi

Quatermass and the pit is the third Quatermass film, the first in colour and the last one by Hammer horror.

The film starts with a team of workers digging to extend the ‘Hobb’s end’ tube station in the London underground when they discover a number of skulls and skeletons.  The site is then handed over to Dr Mathew Roney who believes that the skulls belong to an ancestor of man who roamed the earth five million years ago.  The excavation is halted when the team discover a strange item that is believed to be a bomb of some type.

At the same time Professor Quatermass has been called in to a meeting with Colonel Breen who tells him that his rocket/moon project is now being controlled by the military, Quatermass is not happy about this.  The meeting is interrupted by a message to Colonel Breen asking for him to go to the Hobbs end site with bomb disposal to examine the object they have found.

The object is said to be safe so it is fully uncovered.  The team find an entrance and, once inside they find a room full of what appears to be giant insects.  Breen believes that is an old experimental German V weapon and the creatures are fake, put there to scare British during the war but Quatermass and the archaeological team believe it is something else and that is is tied to all the tales of haunting that have been reported around Hobbs end all through history.

Out of the four films Quatermass and the Pit the most different, the other three concern themselves with an alien threat that has come from beyond the stars and, even though the first two take some influence from horror as well as sci-fi Quatermass and the pit is, at it’s core a horror film with leanings towards Sci-Fi.

There seems to be an anti military message in Quatermass and the pit.  this is first evident when Quatermass finds out that his project is going to be taken over by the military, he is outraged as he sees the colonization of other planets as a way of leaving our old warlike  behind.  The theme is carried on by the way the army is portrayed.  Both  Quatermass & Breen  refuse to believe that any of the supernatural events are connected to the find at hobbs end, in fact both refuse to believe in the supernatural at all, but as the film goes on  Quatermass begins to accept that there is something odd happening and that it is connected to the aliens whereas Breen just becomes more and more stubborn and un-receptive to anything other than his own theory.  There is also a hint of an army with the aliens/ possessed human as they go ahead with the racial cull.

The Aliens in this film seem to be better developed that in the previous two films, they have a better back story and more of a reason to want to conquer us although this does cause a problem with the effects.  This is overcome well though, the scenes on Mars are always seen through grainy footage and the alien corps’ are meant to be degrading so they are not seen for long.

The intertwining of Sci-Fi and horror is also handled well, the way the memories of the aliens have become change over time to become our devils is used well and the explanation that phenomenon such as ghosts and poltergeists are actually caused by latent psychic power inherited from the Martians is interesting.  It is interesting to note that there a similar theories about poltergeists in the real word, minus the aliens of course.

I feel that Quatermass and the pit is best of the four films, it has a strong story and a good mix of horror and Sci-Fi and is definitely well worth a watch.