Reflections, whether on glass, mirror, or water, have always, from Narcissus to Poltergeist, had
confrontational, psychological, existential and inherently uncanny
undertones for what they might (or might not) show us and what that might
stir up inside of us.
A mirror, or a
reflective surface in the broader sense (a television screen, a
photographic lens, a camera's eye, a celluloid film, etc.), shows the
bare truth - and yet it is impossible for us to touch, smell, hear or
taste that truth. We can only see it. So on the one hand it has the
claim of reliability, but on the other hand it lacks depth. There is a conflict there, which, of course, provides perfect fodder for the horror imagination. It is
not our world, thus it must be a different one. It is illusion through
and through and yet tells us so much about ourselves and our fears;
vanity, introspection, evil twins, parallel universes, the future...
What's not to like in that, from a horror fan's point of view?
Luckily
horror cinema has more than enough movies with iconic mirror scenes, to
the point of exhaustion really, for us to gorge on...
Welcome back to Portal Portal, my series about mirrors in horror movies!
Moving forward chronologically, in this second installment we will take a look at three movies from the 80s in which the mirror plays roles of differing magnitude and importance. Although I really wished to only include films in which the mirror plays a central role, I ended up including some movies where the mirror is but a side reflection of something else as well as movies that have iconic mirror scenes that are not essential to the plot. Enjoy!
P.S. I do spoil here, so if that's something important to you, I'd suggest you watch the movies before reading this post.
"A secret that can no longer be retained."
A group of quantum physics scientists and academics is called to conduct research in a church and analyze a big cylinder containing a green swirling liquid found in the basement. It was discovered after the death of one of their priests who, on his death bed, issued the warning that "the sleeper awakens". In the same basement there is also a hidden writing that has been written over and over again, making it nearly impossible to decipher. Mysterious...
The liquid's influence is growing and it sprays itself into the face of a researcher, who in turn kills and infects other people. While most of the research team is either killed or infected, outside of the church a group of increasingly hostile homeless people lead by Alice Cooper is waiting for them, ready to kill.
Meanwhile the analysis reveals that the cylinder is several millions years old, can only be opened from within, and contains a substance that is basically alive. The ancient text's translation reveals references to advanced mathematics and claims that the cylinder holds Satan himself. One of the infected, a research assistant, becomes a sort of vessel for Satan, trying to free his father, the Anti-God, through a handheld mirror. But the mirror is too small and the effort fails. So Satan goes and finds a bigger mirror and reaches through and holds and pulls out Anti-God's disgustingly clawed hand (see picture).
Seasoned horror fans will know that there is only one way to go in the infrequent case in which an evil entity is being pulled through a portal from another dimension into our world. The monster needs to be pushed back into the mirror which, if possible, must be immediately destroyed. In some cases where the push is realized with too much momentum and the pusher happens to pass to the other side of the mirror, this can end up in self-sacrifice, and that's what happens here too. Luckily Carpenter finds a neat way to tie this sacrifice to an emotional ending that isn't tacky or clichéd, but highly satisfying.
Prince of Darkness is the second part of John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy", coming after the fantastic The Thing (1982) and before the terrifying In the Mouth of Madness (1994). As in the other installments too, Carpenter's self-made background music sets the tone and tension here, and the tension is high from minute one, gradually increasing throughout the movie.
Mirror as a portal to the unknown is almost a trite thing - but mirrors as portals to literal hell? And hell as a cosmic horror concept? According to Carpenter, the apocalypse is Lovecraftian, and his implementation of the genre is interesting to say the least, if not revolutionary. Jesus as an extraterrestrial alien to warn Earthlings? An Anti-God as father to the Devil? Anti-God coming over through a portal/mirror? All this is so awesome... Add to it other elements he uses to create an oppressive, foreboding atmosphere (aside from the score): worms accumulating on the windows of the church; the homeless, the wrecked of the Earth standing outside, watching; the liquid swirling fast and faster, the terrifying mythology... All this is more than enough to amount Prince of Darkness to a legendary status in the realm of cosmic horror and the use of mirrors is good too. Not great, but good.
Ash Williams is known to be the goofy hero of the horror world, and Evil Dead II: Dead Until Dawn is the movie that earned him that title, because the first installment of the franchise was still very much serious. But things change when Ash and his girlfriend Linda drive out to a remote cabin in the woods for a romantic getaway. It is, incidentally, the cabin of a dead archeologist who happened to leave a tape there with passages from the Book of the Dead, Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, and of course, Ash happens to play it. The incantation unleashes an evil entity, the Kandarian Demon, which ends up killing Linda and taking control of her body. Ash has to decapitate her and while burying her body in the woods, he is briefly possessed by the demon himself, but is saved by the sun rising.
The rest of the movie consists of a series of comical and gory scenes of Ash trying to fight off and escape various forms the evil entity trying to get him. His efforts are boosted when the archeologist's daughter Annie and her research partner come to the cabin and give him some scientific help after some more funny fighting. The movie ends with Ash and his old car being pulled into a wormhole and landing in the Middle Ages, where he is mistaken for some kind of hero who has fallen from the sky, and Ash realizing he is the hero prophesied in the Necronomicon, breaks down and screams.
Mirror scene: After a series of traumatizing attacks by the presence in the cabin, Ash needs a moment, and chooses to look at his reflection in a mirror on the wall. You know those moments... He wants to see that despite all the craziness, everything is still kind of OK, that he still looks normal, after all. He needs a visual assurance of that. But what is supposed to be an introspective moment turns into a new nightmare when his mirror image turns evil and jumps out to attack him and grab his throat to shake him back to harsh reality "You just killed your girlfriend with a chainsaw, nothing is fine!" It's the first moment in the movie where the audience has the feeling that Ash didn't really get away from the entity after all, and it can enter and leave him as it wants.
The mirror scene constitutes a split. From this moment on, Ash's own body turns against him, and the scene is followed by the iconic "hand possession" which forces him to cut his own hand and later in the movie mount a chainsaw at the place of his missing hand, making him the legendary Ash with the Chainsaw Hand we all know and love.
Bruce Campbell is phenomenal in all these torture scenes. He has a somewhat comedic presence that enlightens heavy and gory horror, notably his face and mimics. Plus, the chase scene between Ash and his own escaping hand has a sort of "Tom&Jerry" feel to it, and is thus wonderfully light-hearted, almost macabre considering the environment it takes place in.
So, although the mirror scene here is, compared to other movies with more prominent mirror scenes, somewhat less significant, it still marks an important moment in the main character's arc, and is still iconic. Plus, even if it's not the mirror-portal, Ash eventually gets sucked into a sort of portal that will bring about one of the most entertaining endings in horror cinema.
If anyone ever understood the concept of mirror horror and drove it to the max, it's Gary Sherman who took that concept and shot Poltergeist 3, the final original Poltergeist installment, which is set in places literally surrounded, all around paved with mirror walls.
After being consistently followed and harassed by the spirits of cult leader Reverend Henry Kane and his followers, young Carol Anne Freeling is sent to live with her aunt Pat and her family (Pat is the stepmother to the daughter of her husband, played by Lara Flynn Boyle) who lives in a huge skyscraper building in Chicago - apparently the John Hancock Center, which is a real building you can go visit, today I learned. The housing units have impossibly huge windows, and for whatever reason Carol Anne's room is surrounded by mirrors. A nightmare for a person like me - being an earth and sea person who likes to have my feet on the ground and my fun in the sea, I would feel terribly exposed and not well in such a setting, but to each their taste.
They also basically spend their hole lives in this building, which includes a shopping mall, a pool area, a gym, an art gallery and Pat's husband Bruce also manages the building and has special access to various levels with a key.
Carol Anne is the only one who has a life outside of this building, she attends a school for kids with special skills, and is being insanely patronized by her teacher and psychiatrist Dr. Seaton who keeps insinuating that she's manipulating everyone and hypnotizing (!) them to explain the supernatural visions he has. During one of their counseling sessions Carol Anne mentions Reverend Kane's name, which allows him to gain power and exit the limbo he was in, starting to harass the little girl through the many mirrors, which really are everywhere, as gateways for his antics. Do I need to mention that there is a huge mirror in her classroom too?
During an especially bad attack, Tangina Barrons, medium and Carol Anne's personal deus ex machina, gets involved, as she can sense that Kane has found Carol Anne. She travels all the way from California to Chicago to protect the girl. The reverend kidnaps the two girls of the family into a different plane of existence from which the family can only come out with lots of love, faith and Tangina's sacrifice.
So I don't know how they pitched this movie, but Sherman and his team really didn't miss a single opportunity to convey mirror and reflection horror: rooms covered in mirrors reflecting open skies, constant feeling of being exposed, reflections acting autonomously, reflections doing creepy things, people watching from behind mirrors, mirrors cracking to open portals to evil other worlds, pool water turning into reflective ice - they really use the full range, and so Poltergeist 3 too, is very worthy of taking its proud and deserved place in this list.
Next part we will take a look at: Mirror Mirror (1990), Into the Mirror (2003), and Mirrors (2008).
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