Well, well, well. If it isn’t 2026. We’ve been waiting for you…
…because that’s how time works.
Anyway, a new Drunken Monkey movie series review is on deck! This time around I wanted to revisit the Mirror Mirror franchise. I don’t remember much of the second film and I had no fucking clue about the third one. I don’t have high hopes for those sequels, but I do remember enjoying the first movie. So let’s dive in, shall we?
SPOILERS: New year, new editor. And she’s already MIA. So spoilers will be had, okay?
Mirror Mirror – An Ancient Evil
So the quick story here is: An antique mirror holds an ancient evil. It influences anyone who figures out its power and, probably not necessary to say, but it never ends well for that person. The film opens with a flashback. There’s no exact date but it looks like the 1940s, possibly 1930s. A set of twin sisters, Mary and Elizabeth Weatherworth, enter the bedroom where this mirror is located. It’s obviously manipulating Elizabeth and Mary just wants to stop it.
Unfortunately, the only thing that can be done – because it’s impossible to physically destroy the mirror – is to kill the sister being used.
But we do what we gotta do. After that, Mary remains in the home, keeping that damned mirror covered up because a black bedsheet works WONDERS against demons, duh. She never marries; she never takes on a roommate; she lives alone until her death, keeping a conveniently detailed journal about her life and that cursed mirror.
Once Mary dies, a local antique dealer, Emelin (played by the incomparable Yvonne De Carlo) comes in to go through the estate and Mary’s possessions, trying to help out the real estate agent who looks like she’s about 11 months pregnant. She has it all moved to her store, including Mary’s journals, books on occult, and that mirror.
Once the house is cleared, a recent widow and her daughter, Susan (Karen Black) and Megan Gordon (Rainbow Harvest), move in. Seems Susan’s husband just died a month earlier and her psychiatrist said a move would be good for her. Also get a couple dogs and start dating.
Who the fuck is this psychiatrist and why does he have a license??
Megan, doing her best Lydia Deetz impersonation, bemoans her terrible fate but lucky enough for her, though all the local kids think she’s a freak, she finds a friend in Nikki Chandler (Kristin Dattilo).
Oh, and did I mention? That antique mirror has mysteriously made its way back into the house, into Megan’s room, and she loves it. Because, of COURSE she does.
Seven Years of Bad Luck and Death
As you can probably deduce, Megan ends up figuring out the mirror will grant her power. All she has to do is tell it what she wants and it’ll take care of the rest. While we don’t get a detailed receipt of what this will cost Megan in the long run, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you’ve already figured it out. One way or another, Megan will be paying big time. And why do I get the feeling the mirror charges time and a half?
Anyway, a lot of death and chaos ensues, mostly toward anyone Megan doesn’t like. The school bitch, Charleen, gets the most brutal steam bath ever, Charleen’s bestie, Mom’s potential romantic suitor, Megan’s potential romantic suitor, Mom, Nikki’s boyfriend and also Nikki when she tries to avoid Megan.
The dogs!
Though, to be fair, they weren’t Megan’s doing. The mirror just didn’t wanna get peed on.
Now, through all of this, Emelin is reading the Weatherworth diaries and catching up on the history and all-around evil nature of the mirror. She and Nikki try to work together to stop it and/or Megan before any demons can enter our world.
Notice I said try.
Emelin is killed remotely (I mean, damn that mirror is powerful). Eventually, Megan realizes how bad the mirror is, and when she and Nikki try to stop the literal whirlwind it’s creating inside the house, Megan dies. Utterly traumatized, Nikki does the one thing she should never do – she makes a request. Out loud.
And the mirror obliges.
In the most cruel twist (and I will not spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t seen it – I actually got goosebumps this time around,) Nikki gets her wish, and the cycle begins again.
DON’T PISS OFF THE WEIRD ONES, M’KAY KIDS?
It had been a while since I’d last watched this Mirror Mirror. And while it lacks in some areas, makes me scratch my head in others, and roll my eyes at the lengthy, inappropriately egregious underwater camera shots of the girls playing water polo for gym class, I think this is the most I’ve enjoyed Mirror Mirror compared to all the other times I’ve seen it. Maybe that’s from a reviewer’s perspective, or I just noticed things as an adult that I didn’t catch as a youngster.
While some of the acting is less than stellar, mostly from the young cast, it didn’t really detract from the film. Even Rainbow Harvest – yes, that is her real name – while having minimal acting experience, was still fun to watch. And she rocked the goth look! But if you look at the rest of the cast, we’ve got some major heavy hitters here: Karen Black (please tell me you know who she is,) Yvonne De Carlo (dear gods please tell me you know who SHE is,) William Sanderson (he’s Larry and has two brothers, Darryl and Darryl,) and Stephen Tobolowsky (too many credits to name here.) I think their acting chops balanced out the inexperience of the others in the film.
The pacing is spot on. I never felt like anything dragged, despite the movie being 1 hour and 45 minutes. We can’t expect Megan to catch on too fast to the mirror’s evil nature; every death or attack felt necessary (EXCEPT THE DOGS). The pace allowed a natural progression for character development.
The story is nothing new but most of us can relate to or understand that feeling of being an outsider, unseen, or even over scrutinized as the new kid. And though I didn’t appreciate Emelin’s voice over while reading through the journals that makes me think the writers expected the audience to be dumber than a sack of roadkill and therefore, unable to suss out the storyline themselves, it gave Yvonne a bigger and more active role in the film.
There weren’t a ton of special effects, but 98% of them were practical. I think the only optical effect was for the demon coming out of the mirror. Everything else was good old latex, fake blood, and the “Mirror Cam” POV was simply a blue filter over the lens. Maybe a little warbly visual enhancement.
Director, and co-writer, Marina Sargenti, gave us this girl power anthem long before the Spice Girls came on the scene. The main male characters were either fodder or warnings. Every other important character in this story is a woman. I loathe, even in passing, the use of that crusty trope of witches calling forth demons for their magic…
…but it’s only mentioned once, and I never associated Megan, or Elizabeth Weatherworth, as witches of this outdated and incorrect definition.
So that’s something. I guess.
But, you know what I noticed this time around and NEVER caught before? Every character, except Megan and sometimes her mom, dress in all blue and white. Everything is blue and white: school colors, students’ clothing, the blue filter for the mirror; I think even the house is white with blue trim! I don’t know if that was used to accentuate Megan’s aesthetic, placing her even further out of place. Perhaps it was to showcase the mom starting out in blue and white and switching colors and hair styles as she tries to find her place in the world without her husband, or as a metaphor for the normal world outside trauma and grief.
I just don’t know! But it was kinda cool.
So, for our first installment in this series, Mirror Mirror is a fun nineties romp into a world full of demons, teenage angst, goth culture, navigating tissue thin self-esteem, and careful what you wish for tomfoolery. Though it feels a titch campy 35+ years later, it definitely explores some heavier life experiences through a young woman’s eyes, and what we can, should, and definitely should not do in order to navigate our ever-changing world at large.
4 margaritas (out of 5)
