Dark Mirror Review

Dark Mirror Review

 

Year: 2007 made, 2009 DTV release

Stars: Lisa Vidal, David Chisum and Joshua Pelegrin

Directed: Pablo Proenza

Running Time:  86 Mins Approx.

 

Dark Mirror, initially shown to a small Latino audience in 2007, it was then debuted direct to video in 2009 for the rest of us.

Another film I cannot find a budget for despite looking high and low on the internet!
Directed by Pablo Proenza who before and since this film has very little else under his belt either writing or directing.
The plot follows a family of three; mother Deborah, Lisa Vidal she has some minor film roles and TV series parts to her credit and some good ones at that too such as southland, the Event and a bit part in American horror story.
Father Jim, David Chisum who was in zombie movie Flight of the Living Dead the same year, which I’m sure I’ll get round to reviewing one day, also some less notable TV series parts most notable recent Castle episodes.
Son Ian, Joshua Pelegrin. He has nothing past or up to date under his belt in the way of movies. This movie is one of them ones that start with the end at the beginning briefly then suddenly 3 months earlier.
They all move to L.A. from Seattle after Deb is entranced by a house with beautiful glass pane windows, where we see our first evidence of something not quite right as an apparition is seen in one window as the family walk up, though we aren’t quite sure if Deb sees it. Not surprising Joshua doesn’t have much else in his repertoire he is a young child actor we may yet see him pop up in future stuff. He is playing your typical naughty boy in this film more on that later though.

As the family settles in, Deb attempts to resume her career as a photographer which we see proof of near the beginning of the film, while simultaneously taking care of her son as Jim is usually working late. Her job searching doesn’t go to well so she gets drawn into the house as a focus more over the course of the film.

The acting in this movie is near bad to middling to me, I’ve seen worse in b-movies I’ve also seen a lot better though some of the middling is good and there’s more of it than bad.
Some poorly delivered lines which seem to be purposely there to build character in some situations make it just feel more like the actors are trying to remember lines rather than deliver a character enhancing insight.
Over all acting though isn’t too bad some good family moments at the beginning, which as usual in b-movies involving families it deteriorates throughout the film.
After having some strange experiences with the mirrors and windows in the house, first one being she takes a picture of herself in the bathroom mirror which gets reflected a number of times back and forth through a mirror at her back to. She decides to talk to her chatty neighbour, who we see first in a shot looking dead! She isn’t and looks out the window at Deb beckoning her over.
She tells her a famous artist and his family used to reside there (a fact we know from the estate agent) until they mysteriously disappeared. We also occasionally see a black mackintosh wearing man. Later her mother visits they’ve had a minor argument at some point, though nothing 30 seconds of dialogue doesn’t clean up. Debs son seems irrationally scared of his gran, but then what boy isn’t? Seemingly spiritual she tells Deb that in Feng-Shui window panes are used to trap evil spirits and stop them from harming anyone.

Deb continues to experience strange occurrences and explores the dark history of the house becoming convinced that something evil resides in the mirrors and windows. It takes so long for this film to get proper rolling which is one of its major flaws. Yes not a long film but it takes till nearly 50% of the way through to start anything significant. In an 86 minute film you don’t want a build-up of almost forty minutes thirty maybe, though this is just my tastes and the beginning being the end does help the slow build up somewhat.

Anyway when people she has photographed start dying, she is convinced that the evil spirit has infiltrated her camera lens and is killing people.
The effects in this film aren’t too bad, they are certainly low budget that doesn’t stand up to anything these days, but for a 2007 film not bad for a b-movie at all. With some clever uses of light streaming through windows just gives a good effect to some of it.
Some of the filming looks a little grainy from time to time mainly on the long shots though so nothing to serious there.

So the film comes full circle and we learn what happens to get Deb into the state she’s in at the start of the film. Which as usual I won’t spoil for you but I’ll just say it isn’t half bad just like the rest of the film.

I would definitely give this film a go if you see it on Netflix or I love film, maybe even in a cheap bin somewhere, not a bad one to spend your ninety minutes free time on for sure. This film gets a good three star rating from me.

As usual thanks and peace out The Horror Nation.