My review was written in August 1984 after watching the film on Monterey video cassette.
"Mirrors" is a mediocre supernatural horror pic, lensed in New Orleans in 1974 under the title "Marianne". Though rated PG in 1977, film had virtually no theatrical exposure, but xi now available on video cassette.
Poorly developed premise has Marianne Whitman (Kitty Winn) arriving with her young husband Gary (Wiliam Burns) at a New Orleans hotel with a sinister-looking desk clerk Charbonnet (William Swetland) setting the stage for touristy views of the city.
After buying perfume from a sinister-looking (again) black woman, Marianne begins hallucinating freely, seeing images in mirrors and wandering around in her white nightgown (as all good gothic heroines are wont to do). It turns out that an ages-old voodoo specialist Marie Laveau is attempting to take possession of Marianne, with mirrors serving as the instrument to snatch one's soul away.
Following her husband's death (from a presumed asthma attack), Winn is hospitalized after a fainting spell, where kindly Dr. Godard (Peter Donat) befriends her. Considerable filler ensues until she finally is possessed by Marie Laveau.
Pic is technically deficient, with opening reel featuring poorly post-synched dialog that is an immediate turnoff. Winn, fresh from a supporting role in "The Exorcist" is miscast, never expressing the sense of vulnerability and mounting paranoia needed in the role. Sole point of interest here is several scenes which presage Paul Schrader's 1981 "Cat People", also set in New Orleans, such as the heroine fleeing by train.
Renowned fantasy author Ray Bradbury is credited as creative consultant, and as an unfair come-on, his name figures prominently on the home video packaging.
