This very obscure supernatural thriller evidently had a difficult postproduction history--various sources cite it as being made in 1974 and 1978, and it seems not to have been released in any form (theatrical or video) in the U.S. until 1984. It's definitely a misfire, but not unwatchable, and the major participants are talented enough to suggest this might at one point (before script changes? editorial meddling?) looked pretty solid.
It was yet another 70s disappointment for director Noel Black, whose high promise after the excellent 1968 Tuesday Weld/Anthony Hopkins black comedy "Pretty Poison" fizzled out via such little-seen movies as "Cover Me Babe" (a failed counterculture movie with young Robert Forster), "Jennifer On My Mind" (the movie that killed "Love Story" author-scenarist Erich Segal's briefly hot movie career) and Canadian tax-shelter caper flick "A Man, A Woman and a Bank." Likewise, "Mirrors" did no favors for Kitty Winn, who'd been excellent in "Panic in Needle Park" and the first two "Exorcist" movies.
Too bad, because both Black and Winn do some interesting work here that's thwarted by a muddy and ultimately inconsequential story progress. She plays a newlywed who believes she's become possessed by some sort of voodoo spirit during a New Orleans honeymoon. Supernatural visions plague her, especially whenever she looks into a mirror. But everyone, including her husband, thinks she's simply high-strung and delusional.
The mirror motif in itself isn't quite scary or compelling enough to hang a whole thriller on, and "Mirrors" (also known as "Marianne") spends way too much time teasing potential shocks that are seldom really delivered. The film's refusal to deliver easy "horror" highlights is admirable, recalling at various points "Rosemary's Baby," the original "Exorcist," and its contemporary "Audrey Rose."
Still, there's just not enough payoff here, especially as it all leads to a rote final freeze-frame that's supposed to be chilling but just leaves everything dangling.
Nonetheless, Black handles the actors and atmospherics intelligently, and Winn really holds the film together--like Louise Fletcher and Ellen Burstyn, two other 70s actresses who flirted with above-the-title stardom (and got somewhat further), she's rather ordinary and non-glam looking, but exceptionally skilled at creating character empathy and communicating emotions with or without dialogue. Given that Marianne is pretty much panicked, hysterical or paralyzed by dread from start to finish, it's much to Winn's credit that she keeps this narrow range of reactions credible and interesting throughout. With better material, her performance might have been as memorable as Mia Farrow's in "Rosemary," Catherine Deneuve's in "Repulsion" or Nicole Kidman's in "The Others."
