Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched when you look in the mirror? Sure you are since there you are looking back out at yourself. Are you looking at the mirror or is it looking at you? Deborah Martin moves into a new house that has a mysterious past and finds that there is something hiding in the mirrors.
Deborah (Lisa Vidal) and her husband Jim (David Chisum) are having trouble agreeing on a new home. Deborah has rejected all the previous places that they’ve looked at, but she’s suddenly fascinated with one house and hastily agrees to buy it. She, Jim, and their son Ian (Joshua Pelegrin) move into the small cottage.
The stay-at-home mom is an amateur photographer and one evening takes a picture in the mirror in one bathroom and is surprised when the photo shows the bathtub tile that is in the bathroom across the house. She goes into the further bathroom to try it again and is blown over by a mysterious flash.
She laughs at her superstitious thoughts, but begins to investigate the previous owners of the house and finds that they vanished without a trace. Soon a hooded figure is killing people who Deborah has taken pictures of and she is getting more paranoid and frightened.
Dark Mirror would easily be compared to Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, but a more recent comparison would be to the Kiefer Sutherland starrer Mirrors. I’d stick more with Polanski’s film though.
Mirrors moves more towards horror/action film (Jack Bauer versus his reflection) where Repulsion is more a character study like Dark Mirror. The whole of Dark Mirror falls on Lisa Vidal’s shoulders and she supports it admirably. Since she plays a big part you might say that the film is a horror movie for the Lifetime Network.
However, it can’t be dismissed that easily since it has an interesting storyline and does far more with its small budget than Mirrors did. Of course, the question becomes is there really something supernatural happening or is Deborah just losing her mind?
Dark Mirror is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include an audio commentary from writer/director Pablo Proenze, producer Erin Ploss-Campoamor, and Lisa Vidal. There’s also an 8 minute “Behind-the-scenes,” a 1 minute deleted scene, and the 86 second trailer.
Dark Mirror features a prominent female character and it may strike more of a cord with moms looking to balance career and home. However, there are some interesting horror/thriller concepts that should keep everyone interested.
Dark Mirror has some cracks, but it does more with its meager budget than better funded films have managed.
Dark Mirror is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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