''Mirror, Mirror'' is a 1990 American supernatural horror film directed by

Marina Sargenti Marina Rae Sargenti (born July 21, 1947) is an American director, writer, and producer. Sargenti's first film was the 1990 horror film '' Mirror, Mirror'', which she co-wrote. She later directed several episodes of '' Models Inc.'' (1994–95), ...

, based on a screenplay by

Annette Cascone Annette Cascone is an American author and screenwriter. She lives in New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on ...

and

Gina Cascone Gina Cascone is an American author and screenwriter. Works Gina Cascone is an author and TV script writer. She has written two memoirs; Pagan Babies and Other Catholic Memories, a child's eye view of her years in Catholic school, and Life al Den ...

. It stars

Karen Black Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her work in various studio and independent films in the 1970s, frequently portrayi ...

Rainbow Harvest Rainbow Harvest (born August 26, 1966) is an American actress best known for her roles as Karen in Old Enough, Megan Gordon in Mirror, Mirror, and Daryl Tarses in television sitcom series FM. She was active between 1983 and 1991 before leavin ...

Yvonne De Carlo Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and late ...

and

William Sanderson William Sanderson (born January 10, 1944) is an American retired actor. He played J. F. Sebastian in the feature film ''Blade Runner'' (1982), and had regular roles on several television series such as Larry on ''Newhart'' (1982–1990), E. B. ...

. The film follows a teenage outcast who finds herself drawn to an antique mirror left in the house she and her mother have moved into. A soundtrack for ''Mirror, Mirror'' was released in 1990 through Orphan Records.

Plot

In 1950s Iowa, Mary Weatherford

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

s her sister Elizabeth in front of a large

mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

, stabbing her to death on a bed. Decades later, Megan Gordon, a shy teenage

goth A Goth is a member of the Goths, a group of East Germanic tribes. Two major political entities of the Goths were: *Visigoths, prominent in Spanish history *Ostrogoths, prominent in Italian history Goth or Goths may also refer to: * Goth (surname) ...

, moves to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with her recently widowed mother Susan. In her new bedroom, Megan finds the large mirror in the corner left behind by the previous owners. Emelin, the auctioneer in charge of the house clearance, finds a cache of journals that describe the mirror's apparent possession by a demonic force able to grant wishes. At her new school, Megan is taunted mercilessly by her peers, apart from the friendly Nikki as well as handsome, athletic Ron. Charleen, a bully running for class president against Nikki, quickly targets Megan. Meanwhile, as Megan becomes drawn to the mirror in her room, she's plagued by bizarre incidents at home; her mother's dog mysteriously dies, she's visited by a gruesome apparition of her dead father, and the mirror begins inexplicably dripping blood. Megan becomes convinced that the mirror is responsible for a series of misfortunes involving those around her, including Charleen experiencing a massive nosebleed in the cafeteria, and her teacher, Mr. Anderson, having a severe asthma attack during class. Realizing the mirror's powers, Megan begins harnessing them herself, using them to manipulate Jeff, Charleen's love interest, into developing a crush on her instead. When Jeff stops a sexual encounter, the demon in the mirror brutally murders him before making his body disappear. The next day, Emelin attempts to retrieve the mirror from the house while Megan and Susan are gone, but her hands are mysteriously impaled, leading her to flee. When Nikki loses the student council race to Charleen, Megan harnesses the mirror's powers to scald Charleen to death in the girls' locker room showers, before killing Charleen's friend Kim in a bathroom. Nikki becomes discomforted by Megan's change in personality, and is disturbed when Megan suggests she "helped" her usurp the class presidency. Nikki meets with Mrs. Perfili, the local real estate agent, and Emelin to inquire about the history of Megan's house and the mirror. Emelin reveals the content of the journals to Nikki, and explains that Mary Weatherford sacrificed her sister in front of the mirror decades ago hoping to appease it. After Nikki leaves, Emelin is impaled to death with a shard of glass at her antiques store. That night, Ron is attacked by a

doppelgänger A doppelgänger (), a compound noun formed by combining the two nouns (double) and (walker or goer) (), doppelgaenger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person. In fiction and mythology, a doppelg ...

of Nikki in his house and brutally murdered. After finding Ron's body, Nikki receives a phone call from Megan asking her to come to her house. Meanwhile, Susan has her hand mangled in the

garbage disposal A garbage disposal unit (also known as a waste disposal unit, garbage disposer, garburator etc.) is a device, usually electrically powered, installed under a kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap. The disposal unit shreds food was ...

in the kitchen and bleeds to death, leading Megan to turn against the mirror. Nikki arrives armed with a dagger and attempts to shatter the mirror, but it is resistant. She and Megan attempt to flee as a torrent of wind fills the house, but are unable to escape. Megan sacrifices herself to the mirror, thus ending its reign of terror. Nikki invokes the mirror, begging it to restore things back to how they were before. She awakens in the room on the bed, dagger in hand, with Megan's corpse beneath her, in the same position as Mary Weatherford, having been subjected to an apparent time loop. The demon shows itself in the mirror before retreating, and Nikki fearfully covers it with a sheet.

Cast

Production

The film (initially titled ''The Black Glass'') was shot in Los Angeles, and Zelda Rubenstein was originally slated to make an appearance in the film. The cast and crew were approximately sixty-percent female. The film's production company, Orphan Eyes, was based in Detroit, Michigan.

Release

''Mirror, Mirror'' screened theatrically at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in May 1990, and was released theatrically in the United States on August 31 that year, opening first in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. It also screened at the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

on October 19, 1990.

Critical reception

Overall reception for the film has been mixed to positive, with

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

giving ''Mirror, Mirror'' a "B−" rating. In his book ''Generation Multiplex'',

Timothy Shary Timothy Shary (born August 17, 1967) is an American film scholar, and a leading authority on the representation of youth in movies. He has been a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Clark University, and the University of Oklahoma. He ...

called ''Mirror, Mirror'' "one of the best teen horror films in general" and citing it as an example of "the tyranny of teen popularity." ''Creature Features'' panned the film, giving it two stars and criticizing it as a "compendium of cliches."

Soundtrack

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for ''Mirror, Mirror'' was released on CD through Orphan Records in 1990.

Jimmy Lifton James Ian Lifton (born January 13, 1955), also known as Jimmy Lifton, is an American musician and a producer. Lifton's first major film production was the horror cult classic '' Mirror, Mirror'' (1990). Since then, he has produced 18 feature films ...

composed and performed the movie's orchestral tracts, with the movie also featuring songs by Scott Campbell, Jim Walker, and Gene Evaro.

Track list

Home media

The film was released on DVD on October 28, 2000 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. On March 6, 2004, it was re-released as part of a four-film set featuring the film's three sequels, called the "Mirror, Mirror Collection," also by Anchor Bay. The set was packaged in a reflective foil case. Both releases are

out of print __NOTOC__ An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...

Sequels

''Mirror, Mirror'' was followed by three sequels, '' Mirror, Mirror II: Raven Dance'' (1994), '' Mirror, Mirror III: The Voyeur'' (1995), and ''Mirror, Mirror IV: Reflection'' (2000). Reception for the sequels was largely negative, with the

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

criticizing ''Raven Dance'' as "reflect ngpoorly on heclassic original".

was the only actor from the first film to return for the second movie, albeit in a different role. The second film notably featured an early film appearance for Mark Ruffalo.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * {{Mirror, Mirror 1990 films 1990 horror films 1990s high school films 1990 independent films Films about witchcraft 1990s supernatural films 1990s teen horror films American high school films American independent films American supernatural horror films American teen horror films Films set in California Films shot in Los Angeles 1990s English-language films 1990s American films