‘Spirit of the Glass 2: The Haunted’ review: Death by jibber-jabber

Jose Javier Reyes’ Spirit of the Glass isn’t a film that’s really begging for a sequel. However, for reasons that behoove both logic and fairness, a sequel has resurfaced.

Complete rehash

The 2004 original, which had then-young stars Dingdong Dantes, Marvin Agustin, Rica Paralejo, and a few others play bored youngsters who decide to tinker with an antique Ouija board, boasts of plentiful star power but lacks in essential frights.

It is that kind of uneventful scarer that is bound to be forgotten. It probably has been forgotten, which could be the reason why this sequel feels like it has nothing to do with the original except for the use of the Ouija board as its main source of conceit.

The plot of Spirit of the Glass 2: The Haunted is a complete rehash.

Again, a group of bored youngsters who are this time bound by a certain connection to the world of celebrity start fiddling with another Ouija board, opening their uninteresting lives filled with shallow intrigue to some form of excitement by way of meddling ghosts. To stop the cumbersome haunting, they try to get to the bottom of why their very clingy spirits perished in the first place, first by using the internet and later on, by actually talking to the people left behind by the restless dead.

Chats and babble

The film is drowning in jibber jabber.

The characters spend more time talking to each other, either personally or through phone or video calls, than experiencing anything remotely scary. It would help if Reyes concocted a mystery that is actually intriguing. Sadly, the investigation that preoccupies most of the film is both regurgitated and boring fluff. The film stretches very obvious points with lengthy conversations that only serve the purpose of convenient exposition.

What is more shocking is that despite all their chitter-chatter, their characters remain woefully undeveloped. By the film’s end, which couldn’t have arrived soon enough, the characters still remain to be shells that are more memorable because of the popularity of the actors and actresses portraying them and not because of their contribution to the plot. They are all dispensable.

It really is quite unfortunate. There is an interesting subtext here that Reyes might be proposing given the film’s insistence on surrounding itself with characters who are celebrities. It seems to be saying something about the fleeting nature of fame, but sadly, the film doesn’t really dig deep enough.

No scares

The only thing really scary about Spirit of the Glass 2: The Haunted is the amount of babble one has to endure to get anything out of the film. Like the original film, this is bound to be forgotten. – Rappler.com

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass’. Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema.