Reflections: Mirror, Mirror (1990)

It's a weird, bastard child of shitty horror movies.  Today's film is Mirror, Mirror- the 1990 film, that is.  For the 2012 film, you'll have to wait a while.  The film is interesting, if only because it's reminiscent of a film series that people don't want to remember.  The film series- The Amityville Horror.  No, it's not really like the original film- it's like the sequels.  To be fair, the bulk of the really shitty sequels came out after this one.  It did, however, follow the 1983 3-D movie as well as Amityville 4 and 5 (the one that has eluded me thus far).  The plot involves an evil spirit in a mirror exerting its evil power to kill people.  This does pre-date the evil mirror film in the Amityville series, but is not exactly higher quality.  To add to the familiarity, they basically take Winona Ryder's character from Beetlejuice and make her the film's hero/villain.  It's kind of complicated, so stick with me here.  Unfortunately, I'm at the mercy of the Internet for this review, as my computer decided that the movie was not fit to play on it.  Regardless, stop checking yourself out in the mirror and read on...

There's a new girl in town.  Her name is Rainbow Harvest.

Actually, that's the name of the Actress.  I just felt like I had to mention that.

Our main heroine is a popular girl who decides to be nice to the Goth girl.  Dig that '90s fashion, folks!

This mirror is evil due to a murder that happened in the '30s.  The victim and killer are played by the same Actresses who play the Goth girl and the nice girl.  Gee, that's not going to be important, is it?

Since the mirror is the host for an evil spirit, it tries to find a host for its evil and what not.

With all of the people being dicks to her, Rainbow Harvest- it's fun to write that silly name- decides to make a wish and uses the power to punish others.

This includes giving her teacher- Stephen Tobolowsky- a heart attack (I think) and burning the popular girl with some pipes in the school.  Yes, this spirit can affect pipes...somewhere else.

I hope you like this shot of someone licking the mirror while blood drips down- its in all FOUR of them.

Since I'm lacking my better shots, I'll summarize by telling you that Rainbow tries to turn good- after about a dozen deaths- but her and her friend can't stop the mirror.  Our heroine- the only one left- does the one thing that she shouldn't- she makes a wish.

The mirror transports back to the opening kill, but only after the murder takes place.  Vicious cycle?  The End.

How can a movie this weird feel so generic?  With a plot involving an evil spirit in a mirror wreaking havoc in a High School, it's amazing how dull this is.  The pacing is a bit weird, choosing to really build up how out of place Rainbow is.  I get that you're doing build-up, but you could pick up the pace a little.  The story is pretty haphazard too, seeing as how the mirror will kill some people right out, while it will taunt/scare others first.  I should also mention that there's a plot thread involving a woman trying to find the mirror.  Her job- to deliver exposition about the plot and then die before she actually accomplishes anything.  Karen Black is here too, proving that the 'cat-lady' face is never good.  I guess she does okay here, but it's hard to get past that face.  Speaking of faces, William Sanderson- aka 'Larry' from Newhart- is here playing a crazy guy dating Black.  It's weird enough that he was a Dog Abuser in Man's Best Friend or the evil Hacker in Hologram Man, but this is just ridiculous.  Next you're going to tell me that he was in Sometimes, They Come Back, Lone Wolf McQuade and Blade Runner.  Oh.  To be honest, I didn't hate this movie.  It just didn't do all that much to hold my attention.  For its goofy moments, it's worth a look though.

Next up, the first sequel w/ that damned mirror back.  The most interesting part- an Avengers Actor in an early role!  Stay tuned...