Mirror Mirror (dir. Marina Sargenti, 1990)
After the death of her father, a teen goth girl named Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest) moves with her mother Susan (Karen Black) far away from Los Angeles. This new house in a generic suburban wasteland has a cursed mirror, which Megan claims as her own. At school, Megan is quickly alienated from her classmates, though makes quick friends with Nikki (Kristin Dattilo) and her distractingly old looking boyfriend Ron (Ricky Paul Goldin). Nikki is running for class president in a heated campaign against the loathsome Charlene Kane (Charlie Spradling).
The mirror is, as always the case, a gateway to hell, and the demon within has begun manipulating and empowering Megan for its own evil purposes. Charlene gushes blood from her nose while at lunch. A rude teacher has a spontaneous asthma attack. Megan goes from looking like Lydia Deetz version of Winona Ryder to a gothier Veronica Sawyer Winona Ryder as the mirror’s powers grow darker and deadlier.
It’s a fun little movie. It has an amazing supporting cast in Karen Black, Stephen Tobolowsky, and William Sanderson, and the lead actresses are good as well. The student election subplot with Nikki and Charlene competing viciously for an entirely powerless position is a nice comic counterpoint to the more serious supernatural story. I liked how the mirror’s effects escalated over the film. It made the first death that it caused legitimately a little shocking.
You will, however, see some truly appalling sandwich making in the film. Who puts on the condiment not only last, but also directly onto the meat?
October 24, 2018
oliveresque 