Review: My Ex 2 – Haunted Lover / Cert: 18 / Director: Piyapan Choopetch / Screenplay: Adirek Watleela, Piyapan Choopetch / Starring: Ratchawin Wongviriya, Atthama Chiwanitchapan, Thongpoom Siripipat, Marion Affolter / Release Date: February 4th
My Ex 2, you’ll not be too surprised to discover, is the follow-up to Thai shocker My Ex, both titles made back in 2010 with the latter released on DVD in the UK last autumn. The original didn’t float too many boats here at Starburst HQ but this sequel, whilst singing from the same horror hymn sheet as too many Eastern fright films, is a significant improvement even if the end result is something fairly unremarkable and pretty forgettable.
Aspiring young actress Cee (Wongviriya) is devastated when she sees her boyfriend Aof (Siripipat) out and about with Ying (Affolter). A confrontation leads to the other girl apparently throwing herself off the top of a Very Tall Building, whereupon Cee splits with the oafish Aof and heads off to an exotic island with some mates to make a horror film. But Cee is plagued by nightmarish visions of the dead girl – the usual white-faced, straggly-haired, claw-fingered wraith of most Japanese or Thai horror movies – who is clearly determined to destroy Cee and avenge her violent death.
My Ex 2, although barely deserving of its 18 rating, is intense and occasionally strong stuff, with a sense of creeping dread, some well-utilised tropical island locations and a director who shows a real affinity for the material. But it shoots itself in the foot with some fairly tame violence and blood-letting and an unimaginative and not very scary ghost. The vengeful Ying is too similar to the creatures in both The Grudge and The Ring, and this can’t help but remind us that they were much better pictures with a proper sense of gut-churning, visceral horror. By comparison, My Ex 2 has to settle for tame scares and a predictable, pedestrian storyline whose twists aren’t nearly surprising enough and whose characters aren’t sufficiently interesting for us to care what happens to any of them.
Although better than its predecessor, My Ex 2 is the sort of film that slips to the back of your memory as soon as the end credits roll. Good for a one-night stand but definitely not a keeper.
Extras: None
