ferbs54 I was surprised to learn that "The Witch's Mirror" came out a year BEFORE director Chano Urueta and producer Abel Salazar released their more-well-known cult horror film "The Brainiac" (1961), as this earlier effort by the same team strikes me as a much more polished, effective and professionally made piece of work. "The Brainiac" had almost seemed the result of a Mexican Ed Wood making his first film while on acid, whereas "The Witch's Mirror" turns out to be a bona fide find; one of the best horror films I've seen in a while. The picture can be seen as two distinct stories, actually, cleaving fairly evenly down the middle. The first half tells of the revenge that a witch, Sara (who reminded me of Dr. Joyce Brothers, of all people!), takes on the man who poisoned her goddaughter, as well as on this man's replacement bride. This first half has a positively Gothic feel and could easily take place anytime during the last 200 years. The second half of the film veers off suddenly into "Frankenstein" and "Eyes Without a Face" territory, with a more modern-day vibe. The film offers up some strikingly composed shots, beautiful B&W photography, some eerie moments and, most surprising, some shocking gross-out elements. The FX are, for the most part, very well done (those crawling hands excepted, perhaps), and the picture winds up most satisfyingly indeed. I'm not sure that Debra's (wife #2's) ultimate fate is deserved, but whatcha gonna do? This IS a horror picture, after all, and quite an excellent one at that. My thanks to Casa Negra for rescuing it from relative oblivion. All horror buffs, I feel, should pounce on this one.

Milo-Jeeder Most Latin American people are familiarized with those Mexican soap operas that are overflowing with baseless action and pitiful situations. They're undeniably amusing and it's all right to watch them if you're too bored and you want to have a good laugh. However, it's not funny anymore when you really trust an old Mexican Gothic horror film and you find one or two similarities between those ridiculous soap operas and the movie you wanted to see. Firstly, I would like to say that I do not mean to be rude to anyone with this review. I know Mexican people are very nationalistic and they tend to stand up for their films a lot. I understand that and to be honest, I actually really enjoy Mexican horror films too. That's the reason why I was somehow disenchanted when I found out that "El Espejo de la Bruja" was not exactly as good as I was expecting.The film sets in motion with a very well done introduction to the main characters, a beautiful woman named Elena and her godmother, Sara (also known as… The Witch!). The view is quite stylish and atmospheric. Both characters look darkly beautiful and yet naïve somehow. In this opening scene, Elena becomes aware of a very shattering truth about her approaching fate, through the magic mirror that belongs to her godmother. Unfortunately, this depressing reality cannot be altered, since all judicious witches know very well that the itinerary of life, is not meant to be disrespected. Broken-hearted and clueless, Elena has no choice but facing the reality and becoming a victim of her atrocious fate. As it was stated previously, all bright witches know very well that fate is not meant to be changed, however, there are no laws aligned with revenge. In "El Espejo de la Bruja", we see a resented woman trying to make justice and claim for the blood of those who harmed her goddaughter. Sara is the witch and when witches are good, they're very good, but when they're bad….It would be unfair to say that "El Espejo de la Bruja" is only laughable and overwhelming when it comes to making a reasonable balance. My only problem is that there was a little bit too much action for my taste. During the first half an hour, it is like the audience has nothing else to see, but there's still more and more and more. All of a sudden, a dramatic Gothic horror tale turns into "Re-Animator". The bad thing is that the humorous situations are not exactly intentional. Armando Calvo's performance is perhaps one of the worst in this film and his facial expressions are merely side-splitting. The rest of the cast is all right, but the problem is that Mr. Calvo looked over the top all the time, which is a tragedy, considering that he's the leading male character. Then, there are all these scenes in which we see Rosa Arenas's character wearing some kind of big bandage that covers her entire face, with the two little holes for the eyes. That is perhaps one of the most hysterical images ever and I'm not just talking about this particular film. It resembles the invisible man, but wearing a delicate night gown. "El Espejo de la Bruja" is full of action, which can be entertaining for moments and overwhelming for others. It has a few good things that make it enjoyable for all horror fans, for example, the already established but still welcomed clichés like: owls, dark shadows of Satan, lots of fire, graveyard scenes, phantasmagorical silhouettes and of course...black cats!. Overall, an okay flick, but I still think I'm not the only one who lost interest during the last minutes, ironically due to the overindulgence of action. If you're in the mood for a good Mexican Gothic horror film, rent "La Maldicion de la Llorona" instead.

bensonmum2 The Witch's Mirror is a veritable cornucopia of horror themes. Over the years, I've seen a number of very promising films ruined by an overly ambitious screenplay that tries to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. Fortunately, The Witch's Mirror defies the odds and most of varied plot elements work. The movie is sort of a mixture of an Italian Gothic ghost story (like Riccardo Freda's The Ghost) and a brilliant surgeon turned mad scientist film (like Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face) with a dash of grave robbing and devil worshipping. The fact that director Chano Urueta was able to combine all of these elements into an entertaining movie and effectively keep distractive plot holes to a minimum is amazing. As my examples would seem to indicate, while The Witch's Mirror is a Mexican made film, it has a definite European feel to it. And like its European counterparts, Urueta was able to effectively fill The Witch's Mirror with atmosphere to burn. If you're looking for that old-school, slow-burn, atmospheric type of horror, you can't go wrong with The Witch's Mirror.

evilskip You really never know what to expect from the Mexican Horror movies from the late 50's-early 60's. The rights to most were bought by K Gordon Murray.He dubbed the films generally using the same actors and the same stock music and ham handed re-editing cutting out crucial dialogue/scenes etc. Sometimes the dubbed dialogue is absolutely hysterical (and it shouldn't be).Every once in a while a great film sneaks through.The Witch's Mirror is much better than most.The story concerns a witch's(Sarah) godchild(Helen) who sees her own murder in a mirror. The killer is her husband (a doctor/scientist) who is having an affair.As much as the witch tries to prevent the murder she is unable to do so.Helen is poisoned leaving him free to marry Deborah.Sarah uses the powers of black magic to communicate with Helen in the grave. Helen is able to use the mirror to terrorize hubby and his bride.Flowers die instantly in a vase;cold winds blow through the house and the piano plays Helen's favorite songs..by itself.Blaming the mirror for the haunting the doctor shatters it with a lit oil lamp. Deborah somehow is turned into a screaming fiery torch.She lives but is horribly disfigured.The doctor tries skin grafts from cadavers to restore her beauty.Then he moves on to living women for his needed tissues.Then Helen really gets p----d and her revenge is cruel and ruthless.While you feel for Helen you also feel for Deborah who actually didn't know that her new hubby was married before.The cruelties inflicted on her are almost unwarranted.The husband deserved more punishment than she did.Then again having his wife's beauty destroyed ruins his life in a mad pursuit to restore her.The dubbing isn't as inane as often happens in this film. The plot is good and the film moves along nicely with no tedious scenes.There also isn't any of the usual quick edits in the scenes that jar these films so often.Studio Azteca is really not used to its full advantage as it has been in other films(The Vampire, The Brainiac etc).That's a minor quibble.Gets a big 9+.