Shocktober 2024: Mirror, Mirror (Marina Sargenti, 1990)

Mrs Gordon (THE Karen Black) and her goth teen daughter Megan (played by the incredibly-named Rainbow Harvest, a likable Winona type whose career never really took off) leaves LA and moves to a generic small town, to start over following the non-mysterious death of Mr Gordon. Megan is a typical loner, gets bullied in school, doesn’t fit in among the dumb squares and rich assholes, but eventually befriends the only girl in school who is both popular and kind, Nikki. In Megan’s new room the previous owners of the house left a big, full-length mirror, which transfixes the moody teen. Soon weird things start to happen at home and in school. But there’s no way the mirror is cursed and/or a portal to a demon realm, right?

This is a fairly cozy horror movie that lands somewhere between Poltergeist, Carrie and Heathers; tonally it reminded me of Twilight Zone and Joe Dante — though not as good. There’s a very tense scene involving a garbage disposal. It doesn’t shy away from a bleak ending. And Tim & Eric heads will go nuts over the dinner scene, featuring Karen Black and legendary character actor William Sanderson (who plays her new boyfriend) — a template I never knew existed for the classic Cinco H’amb sketch on Awesome Show, Great Job! with the two actors.

Script by sisters Annette and Gina Cascone, helmed by Marina Sargenti. A horror film written and directed by women is still a rarity; in 1990, fugeddaboutit. Even though it lead to a couple of sequels the movie never catapulted the filmmakers to stardom, Sargenti mostly worked in TV after this, the Cascone sisters got into writing horror books for kids. Dr. Runtime has thoughts, but ultimately approves (103 mins).