Movies
Set Visit Preview: A Reflection of ‘Mirrors II’
Back in January Bloody Disgusting’s Chris Eggertsen took a trip down to the set of Fox Home Entertainment’s Mirrors II, the direct-to-video sequel to Alex Aja’s remake arriving in stores this coming October. With a full set report forthcoming, below you’ll find a quick little teaser from the Victor Garcia directed sequel.
A few months back I visited the set of Twentieth Century Fox’s upcoming Mirrors 2, the sequel to the Alexandre Aja original starring Kiefer Sutherland. Helming this time around is Victor Garcia (director of Return to House on Haunted Hill from 2007), and taking over for Sutherland as the main protagonist is Terminator 3 thesp Nick Stahl. The actor stars as Max Matheson, a night time security guard/recovering drug addict who takes a job at his father’s department store and is haunted by visions of a young woman in the store’s mirrors. When he becomes a suspect in several grisly murders, Max is forced to solve the mystery behind the ghostly apparitions in order to prove his innocence.
Unfortunately Stahl was not present during the two-day shoot I witnessed, but I did get an opportunity to speak with director Garcia, producer Todd Williams, in-camera f/x men Alex Diaz and Kevin Wasner, and visual f/x man Sean Findley. The scene being filmed was a grisly one involving co-star Jon Michael Davis, an evil mirror double, and a couple of sliced Achilles tendons, Hostel-style. The setting? Bar/apartment complex (yeah, you read that right) Boudreaux & Thibodeaux in Baton Rouge, LA, in a third-floor loft-style apartment manned by Garcia, a large crew, and a bevy of bright lights which effectively turned the small space into a sweltering hotbox.
I’m prohibited from giving too much else away regarding the visit at this early date, but I will say that fans of the first movie can expect lots of gore (inflatable intestines – nice!), a closer adherence to the original Korean film, and perhaps a little gratuitous boobage.
Stay tuned for updates and interviews soon.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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