Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A PURE HORROR FILM...., July 16, 2006
"The Witch's Mirror" is one of the few horror films I've seen that relies solely on horror to tell it's story. A surgeon murders his wife and his mother-in-law, a practicing witch, plots her revenge. When he remarries, the mother-in-law, now his housekeeper, sets her revenge into action with a host of occult devices at her fingertips. One of these being a huge mirror through which she summons the ghost of her daughter back to haunt the newlywed couple. But this is only part of the story. The new wife's face and hands end up being being accidentally burned and the doctor attempts to restore them through bloody surgeries and skin grafts. But the avenging witch and her ghost daughter aren't through yet. The acting in "Witch's Mirror" ranges from wildly overwrought to solemnly sincere and is never boring. The photography is excellent and glorious in b&w and the whole film drips with Gothic atmosphere. There are some wonderfully creepy scenes throughout including a piano playing by itself and scenes of the witch/mother-in-law summoning the powers of darkness to her aid. I loved this film. The DVD print from CasaNegra is immaculate. It's subtitled and there are lots of interesting extras. Not all Mexican horror films were campy and silly. "The Witch's Mirror" is a good example of a fine director in control of his subject matter and who intended to tell a horror story as a horror story. Recommended and enjoy.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine Gothic Chiller From Mexico, October 12, 2006
Wow!! Viewing this film was a real kick. Like another reviewer here I have seen and loved many of the old school gothic style horror films from Universal, Hammer, AIP, AMICUS and many of the early Italian horror films from Mario Bava and others. Well, I thought that I had seen just about all the genre had to offer and would probably never see anything new from this area of horror film again; for as the saying goes..."they just don't make films like that anymore". Fortunately I've been ignorant of Mexican horror cinema all these years. Oh sure I had heard about films from Mexico that featured masked wrestler heroes fighting vampire devil robots from Mars but I, quite ignorantly, thought that was about it for Mexican horror flicks. All I can say is I was wrong and am more than glad to admit it.
"The Witch's Mirror" is a worthy gothic horror film effort that fits quite snugly in among the old Hammer and Universal films. In fact it borrows quite liberally and shamelessly from many of those old classics. While watching it I kept seeing elements from all kinds of sources including: "Rebecca", "Frankenstein", "Mad Love", traditional ghost stories, revenge plots, etc. Now you might think that such a hodge podge could never work well together but director Chano Urueta pulls it together seamlessly, giving those of us who love this kind of thing an hour and a half of thrills and chills.
I'm not good at summarizing plots but here is a quote from the product description: "A poetic tale of madness and horror from director Chano Urueta. The Witch's Mirror is one of the landmark films of the Mexi-horror genre. A benevolent witch (Isabela Corona) enchants a magic mirror to protect her adopted daughter Elena (Dina de Marco) from her cruel husband (Armando Calvo). When the incantation fails and the girl is murdered, the witch vows revenge using every unholy principle of the supernatural that she can conjure" This barely does the story justice but to reveal more would, in my opinion, rob you of many of the joys I had of watching this film. I would just like to comment on how the film positively drips atmosphere. Director Chano Urueta had an excellent directorial style and he employs the black and white cinematography to good effect. And while the special effects don't always work when they do they are spot on and will raise a goose pimple or two even among many jaded horror fans. Also the film has a great music score as well and it reminded me of Bernard Herrmann at times.
In summary this is an excellent gothic period piece thriller and if you are looking for good old fashioned horror thrills you could do a lot worse than "The Witch's Mirror". This would be an excellent film to curl up with by your self or with someone you love on a chill October evening. So, I say go ahead and purchase it or rent it if you can and settle in for some good creepy fun.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WHOA! WHAT"S THIS ALL ABOUT!, July 28, 2006
This is Mexican Horror. It's funny, but I've been a wandering fan of horror films all my life, and I'd thought I'd seen just about all the classic horror cinema that was worth watching since I was a kid, Italion Giallo and Zombie films, The Universal Horror cycle, the British Hammer Horror, the AIP cheepies, some of which are absolute gems. Then suddenly comes along "The Witch's Mirror", which I read about on a website that said this was an absolutely wonderful horror film, with a great story, and dripping with atmosphere. I'd always thought Mexican Horror was supposed to be cheesy and hokey. But I've got to tell you, except for a few things limited by the budget that this little gem had, there isn't much cheese here, folks. This is a very well made horror film, and yes it is dark and atmospheric. It is old world horror, dredged up from folklore and given a classy coming out party.
The story is a simple, yet layered story of revenge. Take the basic premise of a husband whose tired of his first wife and having an affair with another woman, who by the way doesn't know he's still married, and he decides to kill his wife so he can marry the woman he loves.
Now add in some satanic black magic. A godmother who is a full-blown powerful witch, who prays to Satan to let her protect her goddaughter (the wife) from the impending murder, only to have the big red cheese say "No!" And he absolutely means NO! So the murder takes place, the witch decides on revenge, which of course satan agrees whole-heartedly with. In todays shallow scripted horror vehicles, that would be enough. Witch gets horrific revenge-Beautiful, innocent "other woman" becomes horribly scared by fire. The end.
Wait a minute though! The husband is a brilliant surgeon and scientist who views everything scientifically (except himself, apparently) and he comes up with a surgical procedure to graft the skin of dead people onto his wife's face and arms to restore her to her former beauty. Boom! Now the witch is really ticked.
The film takes elements from gothic horror and mixes them with the meat-grind medical horror that would not become popular for another whole decade,the 70's, and creates a creepy double-whammy of science and sorcery horror. From the gothic country mansion, to the basement laboratory of the doctor, to grave robbing and resurrected ghosts, this is a movie that loves its audience, and we love it. You need to watch the film in its original Spanish with English subtitles, it's much more satisfying than the English Dub soundtrack. The sound is sharp and clear. And the picture quality is absolutely AMAZING. This is a black-and-white horror film that revels in it's medium. The folks at Casanegra apparently have put a great deal of time restoring this film, as well as the sister release, "The Curse of the Crying Woman", which I also purchased, and frankly, from what I've heard, I can't wait to watch it as well.
There are quite a few nice extras here, from an audio commentary by IVTV founder, Frank Coleman, to some nice essay's on the Mexican cult films of director Chano Urueta.
I've found a whole new medium of horror films to explore now, and I can't be happier about it.
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