Horror Becomes Her - Mirror Mirror (1990)
Horror and films directed by women are both big blind spots for me, so I am taking this deep dive into some of the more outre films I have come across in my movie watching.
My first thought when I saw Rainbow Harvest in this movie was “Lydia Deetz!” She looks so much like the main character in Beetlejuice that I was almost sure that this movie was copying her. In fact, the plot of Mirror Mirror isn’t too dissimilar to that movie. Megan moves into a new house with her mother where an old mirror from the previous mirror has been left behind. It turns out that the mirror is possessed of some serious dark magic and soon Megan starts to use the mirror to take revenge on the teenagers who torture her at her new school.
There isn’t too much to distinguish this movie honestly. It is interesting to see how incidental the male characters are compared to the female characters. Most of the movie focuses on Megan’s friendship with Nikki, the one girl who is nice to her. Also, while Megan might be a Goth girl, she isn’t necessarily completely socially inept, just really shy like a lot of introverts. Basically, she’s willing to open to those who give her a chance. If anything, without the supernatural element, this would be kind of a believable high school friendship until all the grisly murders start happening. It’s again a disappointment that Marina Sargenti had a background in music videos, but none of that is really apparent in the direction. The friendship between the girls and how that develops and how the murders are fairly grisly and creative are the best things about this movie.