My Ex 2: Haunted Lover (2010) Review

sadsadLet me tell you about My Ex. My Ex is a nightmare, My Ex is scary, My Ex is a horror story and My Ex is so popular it has a sequel.

Actually to be honest I don’t know anything about the original My Ex at all and as I was about to watch My Ex 2: Haunted Lover the Thai sequel to 2010’s revenge filled horror movie I thought it best to read up on My Ex straight away.

Luckily I had Brundlefly’s brilliant review to fill me in what My Ex was all about but sadly what I read didn’t give me much hope for the follow up. Never one to judge a horror before its started (I will judge it 2 seconds in but not before its started!) I put the disc in the player and sat down with a cup of coffee, a blank sheet of paper and an open mind.

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The opening pleased me greatly as we see the end credits of the original movie scrolling up the screen as a trio of girls including Cee (Ratchawin Wongviriya) exiting a cinema after watching My Ex.imgres

While discussing what a bastard the guy in the film was they happen to see Cee’s boyfriend about to take another girl into a movie. Angry and hurt Cee rushes home and latter confronts her beau Aof (Thongpoom Siripipat) who tells her that although he’s been cheating the girl he was with means nothing to him.

Unfortunately the girl in question overhears this and heads for the roof of the apartment building they all live in and throws herself off. Distraught and unhappy yet unaware of the incident Cee decides to take time out for herself heading out to an idyllic resort with her sister where both are set to star in a horror movie being filmed.

On the horror set things in real life start to get scary however when Cee and her friends start to see the disfigured and bloodied figure of a girl everywhere they go. With Aof constantly ringing her and his ex haunting her it’s not long before Cee starts to think she is losing her mind and maybe, just maybe she is.

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My Ex 2: Haunted Lover lays out its plotline and principle horror in the title opting for the vary familiar format of fear with the ghostly girl appearing in reflections, at the edge of the frame here there and everywhere and the rest of the characters jumping and screaming accordingly.

The scares are woven into the story well and for anyone who is a fan of this type of horror it is affective although for many the jumps are just a bit too obvious along with the ghostly apparition which is straight up J-Horror wearing the requisite uniform of a white dress, grey skin, and long black hair over the face which we have seen so many times before apparently also in the first My Ex.

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One innovation My Ex 2 offers up is its persistent post modernism found in the opening mentioned and in the fact that Cee and her sister are actresses first auditioning and then staring in a horror movie.

Although this is interesting at first it does end up frustratingly leading to some annoying fake scares which combined with the films love of dream sequences can be annoying when you find out it was all just a dream or fake.

These quibbles aside the films tries its hardest to scare and the cast is solid and the climax is wonderfully nutty and gory saving the movie slightly in the final few frames by delivering some nasty violence and insanity amongst all the fake jumps and relationship problems.

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If you loved My Ex you’ll love My Ex 2 however anyone who doesn’t know anything about Thai horror should go away and watch the original Pang Brothers movie The Eye immediately an amazing horror that represents what the country has to offer better than either My Ex’s does.

There’s a reason My Ex is My Ex I guess.

Movie Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Trailer:

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Alex Humphrey

Alex studied film at the University of Kent and went on to work for Universal Pictures in their Post Room gaining an inside look at the movie industry from the very bottom. Constantly writing reviews in everything from local magazines to Hip Hop sites Alex honed his critical skills even spending a brief period as a restaurant critic. Read more

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