Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance

There where the original "Mirror Mirror" was a surprisingly fun and atypical early 90s slasher/demonic horror movie, the sequel very much is an unsurprisingly weak and typically annoying mid-90s horror sequel. Gone is the light-hearted atmosphere of the original, and all the likable characters and gory set-pieces with it.

What's even more frustrating, but sadly also typical for 90s horror, is that "Raven Dance" nevertheless holds a massive lot of potential, but the untalented director Jimmy Lifton (whoever he is...) does nothing with it. The convent/orphanage setting is terrific, for instance, but there only seem to be two nuns living there and all the orphans are on vacation. What?! The wicked older stepsister plots to mentally break the lead girl, and pump her full of drugs, but she already falls apart herself when she sees the wrinkles in her own face. The film stars none other than B-movie queen Veronica Cartwright as a hysterical blind nun, but the director keeps her locked up in a dark room pretty much the entire time. The "innocent" 9-year-old can supposedly defeat the evil forces, but he's played by such a dreadfully annoying and untalented kid that you wish for him to die in the most excruciatingly painful way imaginable. And - worst of all - whenever the script becomes senseless or heads towards a dead end (and this happens frequently, believe me) Lifton's solution is to insert endlessly long footage of lead actress Tracy Wells dancing in her room.

The impressive, for such a lousy flick at least, star-power is totally wasted. Next to Cartwright, "Raven Dance" also stars a young Mark Ruffalo (I still don't know whether he's supposed to be good or evil) and the always-deranged Roddy McDowall (can somebody explain to me what happened to his character, by the way). William Sanderson also briefly appears, but as a different and totally unrelated character than he depicted in the original "Mirror Mirror"; - that's how consistent this movie is. I only just found out today there also exists a "Mirror Mirror 3", and even a "Mirror Mirror 4", but I think I'll politely pass on those.

"Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance" follows an orphaned teenager, Marlee, and her young brother who are sent to a remote convent after their parents die in a car accident. While there, Marlee is electrocuted in a bizarre accident, and temporarily loses her vision. Her significantly older stepsister (Sally Kellerman) arrives with a doctor (Roddy MacDowall), both of whom have a sinister plan to incapacitate her and take control of her inheritance, but a mysterious mirror in the convent housing supernatural powers has other plans.

A mostly-unrelated sequel to the original 1990 film, "Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance" is a stilted and generally poorly-written film that is a significant letdown from its predecessor. The first film, while not a masterpiece, was a solid genre entry that marked the end of eighties horror; this sequel, however, is disappointing on several levels.

One of the film's major pitfalls is its haphazard editing, which leaves the vast majority of the film feeling disjointed, if not downright confusing at times. The second major stickler is the writing, which is supplanted with drawn-out, unrealistic dialogue, and further disjointedness as characters go in and out of the story without explanation; the themes and images surrounding the raven and Marlee's dance career are half-baked at best, and their relationship to everything else happening with the mirror is rather bewildering. The film is also chock full of early-nineties laser beam special effects, which are laughable by today's standards.

Tracy Wells, the lead of the film, is awful in the role, though not as bad as the boy playing her brother. With her role being the center of the film, it's difficult to stay engaged with such a hammy performance. Sally Kellerman and Roddy MacDowall—both of whose involvement with the film I can't quite understand—rise above the material as much as they can. Veronica Cartwright is as shrill as she always is, this time playing a hysterical blind nun, but she brings some character to the picture. A young and admittedly suave Mark Ruffalo plays a ghostly bad boy, and has a few decent scenes, one with Kellerman which may be the highlight of the film.

The film does have a few positive elements, however: the cinematography is actually quite nice, and the blue-tinted perspective shots from the mirror are surreal and creepy. The Catholic orphanage is also extremely atmospheric and is nicely photographed. In spite of the film's general disjointedness, the ending is quite clever, and because of it, I ended up not completely hating the film.

Overall, "Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance" is a fairly poor sequel to the original film. It falters as a result of its terrible lead actress, choppy editing, and a weak, underdeveloped script. Sally Kellerman and Roddy MacDowall are nice presences to have in the film, so it may be of some intrigue to their respective fans. Aside from that and the respectable cinematography, I think the best part of the film was getting to see a young, ridiculously handsome Mark Ruffalo at the beginning of his career. 4/10.

The first film, released in 1990, was no great peak of horror, nor storytelling or film-making generally, but it was suitably well made and enjoyable. It also felt a lot like something that could've been easily mistaken for a Charles Band production with the somewhat middling nature of most facets, from basic production values and music to the way that dialogue, scenes, and characters were written. And, well, then one sits to watch the sequel. Let me speak plainly: this immediately comes off as substantially weaker, an inferior revisit of a less than stellar product. There are some recognizable names and faces involved, and we know what they're capable of, but between what was very apparently a modest budget and the seemingly unpracticed skills of some chief figures the end result is tiresomely flimsy right from the start. 'Raven dance' is just sadly just not very good.

While Jimmy Lifton produced the predecessor, this was his first work as a director, and to be frank, it shows. The direction readily comes off as scattered and inconsistent (but mostly just meager). In turn the acting is highly variable in its quality (but mostly just unconvincing); in fairness, I wonder about the skills of some of the actors in the first place. The plot at large feels very forced (and sometimes almost downright incohesive), and the scene writing shares all these mentioned qualities while also often seeming unfinished - part of an idea, but not fully conjured. It goes without saying that all this applies to the dialogue, too, and as an aside, please note a content warning for substantial, ugly ableist language. The pacing was lax in 1990; in 1994 it's rather slothful. 'Mirror mirror II' relies a lot more on post-production effects, and as these evidently received the least portion of those resources available to the feature, they do not come off well.

This was only Mark Ruffalo's first full-length film, but in all honesty even in a supporting part he acts circles around all his co-stars, especially (but definitely not limited to) Veronica Cartwright and Lois Nettleton. To whatever extent Lifton's direction can be faulted for the bad performances, the cast obviously share some responsibility, too. I guess the art direction is easy on the eyes, and the choreography; of all things the cinematography is unexpectedly strong. The costume design, hair, and makeup are nice. But then, Lifton's music is mostly even more bland here than it was the first time around, with only bits and pieces of real flavor. While there may be some good ideas in the screenplay Lifton concocted with Virginia Perfili, they are very few, and quite meek in the first place. And I must repeat that by and large the writing is just feeble, and though I'll grant some allowances based on Lifton's inexperience as a director, there's no getting around how flimsy his work is in that capacity.

The more the plot advances, the more deeply questionable and unbelievable that it is. A moment at the start of the third act, precipitating the remainder and specifically "mirroring" a similar instance from the first movie, is terribly contrived for the fact that there's no build-up to it. It's not even firmly, plausibly established why Marlee and Jeffrey are at the "Catholic orphanage" in the first place when literally no one else is. I guess we're just intended to take all this at face value, but I have a very hard time doing that. And for whatever violence, blood, gore, and otherwise horror the previous title may have offered, it's worth observing that there's just simply less of it in this followup. My expectations were mixed to low when I sat to watch, and still I'm rather confounded by how astonishingly unsteady, languid, and limp this picture is. It doesn't make a good impression at the outset, and it only ever gets worse; I'd say the ending is at least appreciable, except it's unabashedly imitative. Whatever it is you're looking for in 'Mirror mirror II,' I really just don't think you're going to find it, and there are far, far better ways to spend your time.

Most films are only as good as the screenplay or adaptation from where they originate. Although the cast of this film is experienced, with most receiving an award of some kind in their careers, one would never know that from the performances of this lot! There is one exception however, young Ms. Tracy Wells does indeed show that she has developed beyond the childhood actress she was at one time.

Moreover, Tracy is able to really show off her skills in some rather compromising scenes. She is wonderful in a seduction scene where, while being possessed, she is able to (convincingly) go through a sequence of erotic dreams. And again, and even more prominent, she is able to showcase her dancing talent, relentlessly, that earned her high praises as well as the Pepsi gig with Michael "Jacko" Jackson. In fact, the high point of this film is the breathtaking camera work that moves with Tracy from one side of the room to the other. The dance sequence alone rushed this critic enough to sit through an otherwise butt-numbing movie.

RAVEN DANCE is a typical straight-to-video horror sequel of the early 1990s, made without much in the way of a plot and with a heavy emphasis on style which has dated plenty since this film's first release. The inspiration here seems to be the first two in the HELLRAISER series in terms of lighting and set dressing, but the effect is far from the same: this is pedestrian, uninteresting, and entirely forgettable. Once more there's a cursed mirror and a few bloody death and cheesy computer effects, the best bit being when stained glass comes to life, but mostly it's all talk and boring characterisation. Roddy McDowell sleepwalks through a villain role and William Sanderson lends his typically kooky presence to the proceedings, although for modern viewers the most fun comes from seeing Mark Ruffalo acting right at the outset of his career.