User reviews

I watched Mirror Mirror many years ago back in I think 1991. I seem to remember it being a pretty good film. After all these years, with the help of EBay, I found another copy and just got done watching it. Very interesting film.

The movie starts out back in the 30's. A young woman appears to have murdered her friend with an ominous looking mirror in the background. Now, skip to present day (1990), Megan and her mother have just moved into the same house in which that murder took place. The same ominous mirror is still in the house and instead of disposing of it, Megan has grown a liking to it. Now, Megan is a teenager and dresses like a goth kid so naturally she is tormented in the new school she is going to. But, she discovers that this mirror is giving her powers and her tolerance for the kids at school is wearing thin.

I know this description of the movie sounds a bit cheesy but you have to watch the movie to really catch the atmosphere. The camera angling is absolutely wonderful, the score is wonderful, the acting is okay (except Karen Black who is always welcome), the special effects are okay considering that this movies strong point was its atmosphere. And the ending is quite original. All in all, I give this a 7/10. Good effort.

"Mirror, Mirror" is at its best in the first half, with its simple but effective depiction of school life. In the second half, a few of the death scenes leave something to be desired, but others (bathtub drowning) are good. Karen Black and Yvonne De Carlo may be the draws in the cast, but it's their younger co-stars that do almost all the hard work: Rainbow Harvest makes a believable transformation from a "Winona Ryder in Bettlejuice" - wannabe to a wicked villainess, Kristin Dattilo is also convincing as one of the sweetest persons you'll ever meet, and Charlie Spradling plays the spoiled b*tch to perfection (and is downright GORGEOUS to boot). The movie does seem to go on a bit too long, but stick with it because the ending is the cleverest part. (**1/2)

An 80s goth girl (Rainbow Harvest) and her goofy single mom (Karen Black) move to a new suburban town. She gets picked on by her new classmates and generally despises life in typical 80s goth girl fashion. She discovers a mysterious mirror in her room left by the previous owners and finds that it gives her the power to get what she wants...ie, the death of those who mess with her! The tagline for this movie is something about being a cross between "Carrie" and "Heathers". Well, it is nowhere near either of those classics. It is, however, a surprisingly charming little B-movie! The actors' style is late 80s/early 90s in the worst possible way but it is totally endearing. There is some witty dialogue and some really sick and twisted scenes (including a fair amount of gore). Karen Black is totally over the top. It seems like Rainbow Harvest (?!) was only cast because she looks like Winona Rider circa "Beetlejuice"...a more charismatic lead would have helped this movie. It also would have been more satisfying if the lead character had some attitude beyond her clothing and were a bit more hardcore (a la Ginger Snaps) instead of being a wimpering loser. But for a B-movie this was pretty damn entertaining. Recommended to fans of 80s B-horror as well as estro-infused horror flicks. My Rating: 6.5/10

The dtv equivalent of click bait.

The opening scene promises Giallo style gothic horror as a bumpkin bumps her kin but one we navigate the credits it's Heathers meets Carrie meets Beetlejuice played straight.

There's little or no explanation on offer other than expository diary readings; each member of the cast then meets a grisly end in scenes that are elongated and mostly repetitive while the drama is played out so staccato the effect is soporific.

It's like a record stuck in the same groove playing the same few bars over and over again before someone bumps the needle into another stuck groove. Until someone bumps the needle into another...

Rainbow Harvest is not a good actress and Marina Sargenti is not a good director while both remaining competent at least, most of the supporting cast are good and make the film bearable.

Just like the demon in the film I'm not sure why this exists and why it exists just to show its head and then go back in again. It must be Groundhog Day for demons. And it's more winter on the way.

Los Angeles punkster Megan (Rainbow Harvest) moves with her mother (Karen Black) to a small California suburb. Megan doesn't fit in at her new private school, but to make matters even worse, there is a massive antique mirror left behind in her new bedroom that boasts dangerous supernatural powers.

"Mirror Mirror" is an under-viewed gem from the early nineties that is corny and shocking in equal measure. The film is admittedly a bit dated, and the singular element that I found most alluring in it was the late eighties/early nineties atmospherics that are reminiscent of an "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode; make no bones about it though, "Mirror Mirror" is considerably more gratuitous.

Director Marina Sargenti, who only has a small handful of credits to her name (all of them nineties television films and horror pictures) handles the material here very well. The film blends Gothic elements with an early '90s California sensibility, and the composition is surprisingly nice. The opening scene details a gruesome murder in the 1930s that takes place before the eponymous mirror, and occult elements pervade as its origins are uncovered.

Plot-wise, the film is nothing remotely original, and that may be its only significant downfall. Elements of "Carrie" and "The Boogeyman" abound, and the narrative progression is predictable to say the least. The upside is that the material is handled with much more sophistication than a film like this demands, and the horror creeps in, growing more and more violent as Megan's powers grow stronger and stronger. Great performances elevate the film above standard teen horror fodder as well; Rainbow Harvest (gotta love that name) plays the Gothic, "Beetlejuice"-era Winona Ryder character. We also have performances from veterans Karen Black as Megan's boozy Beverly Hills mother, and Yvonne De Carlo as the inquisitive estate handler; both Black and De Carlo's presences are welcome and they handle these supporting roles with considerable class.

Overall, "Mirror Mirror" is a well-made snapshot of late eighties-early nineties teen horror that is entertaining and thoughtfully made. While it lacks originality and could be heavier on stylistic flair, I appreciated the film as a time capsule for an in-between era of the horror genre as it transitioned from the celebrated eighties slasher to the onslaught of a nineties new wave. 7/10.

Where credit is due, 'Mirror, Mirror' is a hot and steamy little Gothic horror oddity that won't blow you away from its originality, but by confident performances (headed by the likable Karen Black and Yvonne De Carlo) and director Marina Sargenti's presentably moody handling which simply builds towards the ghastly shocks. The script is standard, but its focus on an outcast's passage through school-life remains stimulating… no matter how many times we've come across it before. This can be attributed to the sincere acting of Rainbow Harvest (as the shy Goth girl who has a striking resemblance to a 'Beetlejuice' star Wino Ryder), Kristin Dattilo and the buxom Charlie Spradling as the stuck-up bully. Then revenge is served, as those you get in Harvest's way… bites the dust in many unexpected ways.

Megan and her mother arrive at their new home and a mirror (which did belong to the original residents) in Megan's bedroom catches her attention. Starting school isn't easy, and she's made fun of instantly. Her anger is soon picked up by the mysterious mirror, which suddenly gives her the ability to cause some 'accidents'. Soon she begins to pick on these things and virtually it takes control of Megan, which would go on to hurt those who she cares for.

The low-key back-story could have been a little clearer about the supernatural link (but the conclusion holds a witty touch), and the story could have been tighten since it dragged on too long. The low-budget look didn't stop the atmospheric camera-work (like POV from the mirror) and lighting being effective. Sargenti stylishly uses slow motion efficiently, and crafts some lasting scenes (some bloody and cringe-like scenes) and the eerie flight of the shady score works trumps.

Very passable horror feature.

Yeah, I was indeed looking forward to this movie due to Karen Black being in it. I guess the premise about the mirror although not exactly original is fine. But, as with any film, it needs a strong director, decent writing, and at least acceptable acting to carry it off. This one unfortunately has none of these.

The acting/direction I feel takes the biggest hit due to really, really poorly portrayed characters. Now, a GOOD director can still take these less than stellar performances, even poor writing, and by being a good director they can at least shape and form the performances to bring the best out of them. Not so in this case.

The acting is SO bad, seriously... The woman who runs the shop is absolutely horrible. The daughter is not that great, and even the great Karen Black's performance is super over the top. Yes, I know her character is meant to be that way, but it is SO damn superficial and not done well, that again I think if the director had had any true talent at all, at least she could have evoked a much better performance with such an established actress. The final blame for the performances, especially when dealing with experienced actors, falls primarily on the director.

The interactions between the rival students is pretty bad too. And then, the first true Horror scene (not counting the intro) with the daughter in bed and is visited supposedly by her dead Dad, is done SO terribly that quite honestly at that point it was very clear that this was not going to be a very good film at all.

Normally I don't go out of my way to leave negative reviews and I did at least give this a '4' (Don't know exactly why...) but, with such anticipation of Karen Black being in this movie and also the fact that I rather like Horror films about mirrors (the one with Kiefer Sutherland is actually quite good!) really left me very disappointed. So, I felt that perhaps I'd leave my honest impressions here so that someone else who may also be looking forward to a better movie might at least have some insight as to what to expect.

Better director - Better acting

Better director - Better movie

In my lowly and wretched opinion this director seriously did NOT know what the hell she was doing... Sad, but true I feel...

Pretty funny little horror movie...better than one might expect. Karen steals it in a variety of different wigs as the wacky mother of Rainbow Harvest who's the new girl in school, tormented by her classmates because she dresses "punk". Kind of a cross between "Carrie" and "Heathers".

"Mirror Mirror" is a fairly entertaining horror movie which is held back by a flimsy presence and an uninteresting "villain", if villain she be.

It is about an apparently haunted mirror which gives its owner magical powers. The mirror is inherited by a young goth girl who is bullied at school. Soon her mirror allows her to get revenge on her tormentors and teachers, steaming a stuck up popular girl in the shower room at school, and giving poor Stephen Tobolowsky a heart attack. The only one who can stop the mounting body count is the only girl who was nice to the goth when she first came to school.

For a movie with such a silly premise, "Mirror Mirror" actually has fairly good production values, featuring a few different locations and a few actors you might recognize: aside from Tobolowsky, there's also Karen Black and William Sanderson. However, I was just never able to swallow the premise that the mirror is evil. I've had my issues with mirrors - I've never liked the look of the guy I see when I look at one - but the one in this movie isn't even particularly scary looking. Furthermore, how is it granting the goth girl powers? Does she stand in front of it and ask it questions? We never find out. It seems that it would have been fairly straight forward to depict a being in the mirror speaking to the goth girl, but instead they just show a bunch of people dying in generic supernatural ways and leave it to us to figure out that the mirror is somehow involved.

Further, the goth girl could have been a typical sympathetic villain, someone whose actions we understand even if we don't approve of them, but the movie doesn't make her likeable or interesting, and nor does it even make her tormentors worthy of contempt.

The result is a horror movie which does nothing to rise above mediocrity, and has nothing to remember it by, aside a single silly idea.

This film is excellent, and it is so underrated. The atmosphere is good. Excellent acting...Rainbow Harvest does a great performance as Megan. Karen Black does a fairly good performance as the wacky mother. The ending to this film is one of the most brilliant endings I have seen in my lifetime. No other ending like it. The film is not really scary, thought I am sure some may find it scary. I like the look of the mirror, also. Special effects are pretty good for the low budget.Film is hard to find to rent, best bet is either to buy the MIRROR, MIRROR COLLECTION (worth the 20 bucks just for the first 2 films, 3 and are crap) or to go to a Ma and Pa Video Store. Recommended for horror fans everywhere! 8/10

I can see a bit of rip-off from "Carrie", "Christine", "Beetlejuice"

& "Edward Scissorhands" in this film.

The teen girl looks like she just walked out the mid-80s New Wave Goth scene (That Beetlejuice look about her lol).

There is quite a bit of comedy in this for it not to be a comedy-horror. Cutesy stuff like one would see from "Edward Scissorhands" - the mom, Karen Black's character and the woman showing off the house in the start of the film.

The goth daughter's attitude towards her new friend after she has the power from the mirror is quite a bit like Arnie's from "Christine".

Finally, the entire film is a teen revenge film using some sort of otherworldly power similar to "Carrie".

I was hoping this was going to be a good ghost story when I started the film but it is NOT ... I never saw the previews for this one, just watched it on Amazon Prime.

The film is not as the film's poster looks... nor nearly as good as it is described to be.

2/10

From the 12 film Hollywood Horror DVD (UK) collection, came Mirror Mirror (1990) a teen high school flick, come haunted house, come slasher blood fest. This movie is at least fairly pacy but lacks any kind of character development and totally lacks dread or tension. Sometimes i though,t is this meant to be black humour, if so it is rather flat.However Karen Black of airport 1975 fame is watchable as a somewhat self obsessed mother, but overall this B movie romp is just a little to stale.

Mirror Mirror: 7 out of 10: Goth Kid moves from LA to small-town America and her new bedroom comes with a haunted mirror. Grab hold of your dirty pillows and watch out for pigs blood cause we got ourselves a real-life Carrie up in these parts.

The Good: This is really not that bad a horror movie. A good background story involving the titular mirror. A Lydia from Beetlejuice cosplayer played by Rainbow Harvest. Good girl best friend (Kristin Datillo), Bad girl vixen (Charlie Spradling) and whacky wig wearing mother (Karen Black) round out the much better than it needed to be cast.

In addition, the horror scenes are quite well done. There are some fun surprises in store when everyday appliances get possed by "The Mirror"

The Bad: While originality is often overrated (some of the worst films I have ever seen are swimming in originality) one would be mistaken not to point out that certain elements of this film may harken back to other films. In Mirror Mirror's defense, it itself was copied by more than a few films.

In conclusion: It is a nice quiet well made horror film. It is no Death Spa however. Chances are you will have forgotten you have seen it by the time it rolls back on your streaming service.

This is made in the era when nobody was watching horror any more. The slashers were over and nobody liked horror, it was not done. Most of the flicks made after the slashers were a bit lame and didn't over anything. Mirror Mirror was made in that era. This flick was directed by Marina Sargenti before she left the movie business (only made 2 flicks, this being her first attempt) before entering the field of series (Models inc.). For making her first flicks it do had some names in it like Karen Black and Yvonne De Carlo. For me it was funny to see a short appearance of True Blood's sheriff William Sanderson.

Naturally in those kind of flicks were the supernatural or witchcraft is important the outcasts of society are the main reason to experience with those powers. Here we have a Culture Club look-a-like supposed to be a Goth. But once she knows the power of a mirror left at her new home she starts using it as a revenge because nobody wants to be her friend and boys are rejecting her. The story itself is a bit slow on today's norms but some effects do their work. For being made in 1990 the effect used with the mirror was a bit laughable but the burned skin and the return of a deceased one is pretty done.

It's a kind of movie that they could have aired at a Saturday night. It delivers some good stuff and for the perverted out there it even contains a shower scene of Charlie Spradling. It's a perfect example that back then horror was on the run searching for what to become next. You can see the effects go away from latex towards cheap computer effects (won't call it CGI). A mediocre effort.

Teenager Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest) styles herself after Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, which makes her a laughing stock at her new school, which is populated exclusively by preppy types. Nikki Chandler (Kristin Dattilo), candidate for school president, befriends Megan, but doesn't realise the danger she is putting herself in by doing so, for Megan is being controlled by the demonic force that resides behind the glass of the antique mirror in her bedroom.

While not particularly original, the idea of mirrors as portals for evil having existed for centuries, Mirror Mirror proves to be an entertaining piece of early '90s horror thanks to strong performances from a decent cast, solid direction by first-time director Marina Sargenti, and several memorable set-pieces, including a blistering shower scene.

As Megan is slowly seduced by the malevolent being on the other side of her mirror, she sets about evening the score with her tormentors, which means giving school bully Charleen (drop-dead-gorgeous Charlie Spradling) a nose bleed in the cafeteria, causing science teacher Mr. Anderson (Stephen Tobolowsky) to have a seizure, and scaring nosy house clearance lady Emelin (Yvonne De Carlo) away from her prized possession.

Eventually, Megan's power spirals out of control, resulting in death: when Charleen's boyfriend Jeff (Tom Bresnahan) spurns her affection, Megan feeds him to the demon; Emelin is impaled by a shard of glass; Megan's mother Susan (played by horror icon Karen Black) has her arm mangled by the waste disposal; and Nikki's boyfriend Ron (Ricky Paull Goldin) is killed by an evil doppelganger of his girlfriend. Best of all is Charleen's death while taking the aforementioned shower: a totally naked Spradling (so hot that she even out-scorched Sherilyn Fenn in Meridian) is scalded all over by jets of steam.

All of this is so much fun that it's easy to forgive the slightly overlong runtime, the rather confusing ending, and William Sanderson's limp ponytail.

When the gothic teenager Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest) moves with her widowed mother Susan Gordon (Karen Black) from Los Angeles to a house in Iowa that belonged to the Weatherford Family, she loves the antique mirror that was forgotten in corner of her bedroom by the auctioneer Emelin (Yvonne De Carlo) that is responsible to clear the house. Megan is bullied at school by her mates, but the student Nikki Chandler (Kristin Dattilo) welcomes her and soon becomes her best friend. She also feels attraction for the handsome Jeff (Tom Breznahan), who is the boyfriend of the cruel Charleen Kane (Charlie Spradling) that is running for class president against Nikki. Out of the blue, Megan is possessed by her mirror and the demoniac force affects the people around her in a crime spree. Meanwhile, Emelin researches old newspapers and discloses a secret about the Weatherford's mirror.

"Mirror, Mirror" is a great teen horror movie from the 1990. Never released on DVD or Blu-Ray in Brazil, this is the third time that I watch this film on VHS. The storyline, screenplay and special effects are appreciable and the cast is excellent for a horror film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Reflexo do Demônio" ("Reflex of the Demon')

Mirror, Mirror (1990)

If I did see trailer which dose show most of the movie but It didn't really a fact the movie that much but it better seeing this movie , before even thinking about the trailer.

I really enjoyed it was a lot of fun to watch,

This movie had some very creepy moment that worked really with really good tense before some very gross moment and some of death scenes were really gory and very well done.

The death in shower is was total unexpected really took me by surprised

This had from the very first second of the movie until decent ending of the movie.

Great acting from the whole cast

I giving this movie 8! out of 10

GREAT Fun movie! UNDERRATED)

A single mother (Karen Black) and her misfit 'goth' daughter (Rainbow Harvest) try to start over at a new location in a small town, but the girl is harassed at school and turns to a leftover mirror for succor. Havoc ensues.

"Mirror Mirror" (1990) is King-inspired horror with a high school milieu. The basic plot harkens back to "Christine" (1983) in which a persecuted unpopular person gains an advantage from some dubious source and proceeds to wreak vengeance on harassers. "The Rage: Carrie 2" (1999) and "The Unhealer" (2021) are more recent examples.

While "Christine" and, especially, "The Rage: Carrie 2" are superior, this one's not far off and has its points of interest, like Charlie Spradling as the haughty Charleen and Kristin Dattilo as Megan's sole friend at the new school.

Yvonne De Carlo is on hand as the auctioneer in charge of the house clearance. She was 66 during shooting and decades past her days of beauty, but give her credit for continuing in her craft, beautiful or not. Meanwhile William Sanderson plays the mother's new beau.

There was an okay 1994 sequel, "Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance," but it's an all-around downgrade by comparison. Two other sequels followed in 1995 and 2000.

The film is a little long at 1 hour, 44 minutes. It was shot in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles (as opposed to the big city sections, like downtown, so the locations look like small town, USA).

GRADE: B.

This movie is for pure mediocre horror entertainment and nothing more. I bought this film simply because of the great scream queen Karen Black but she really did not fit in with this movie at all, she was as ditzy and goofy as a blond bimbo in this movie that through the whole movie she just did not have a clue as to what was going on her daughters bedroom . Her acting was wooden and the change of style of wigs she wore in the movie, what was the purpose of that? And the way she acted moments before she left her daughters bedroom after having a nightmare when she just stubbornly said "It was just a bad dream....mow go to bed" was the strongest line she ever said in the movie. Another reason why I bought this movie was for Yvonne DeCarlo's acting in this movie whom is known to play so pretty flop horror movies in her past. She was more colorful than Black was in this movie. This movie had sorta of an 80's feel to it. The look of the characters playing in this movie were taken from the 80's and if i hadn't known he year that it was made I could have sworn that it was made in 1985 which is why I liked this movie was the 80 feel to it. The "Goth" chick Meagan looked more like a washed out Boy George than the creepy goth looking character that she was supposed to play and it looked more funny than Gothic. There were some pretty gory scenes in this movie that are worth checking out like the scene with Meagan and her dad in her room and the lunchroom scene were pretty gross. It's worth a one time renting but after that, pretty forgettable movie.