A powerful witch, Sara(Isabela Corona)who devotes her entire being to Satan, has the unique ability of seeing the fate of others through a mirror. In the opening narration, it is explained that a veritable few have this gift of seeing not only the future but other supernatural things. Sara vows vengeance towards the husband, Eduardo(Armando Calvo), who poisons her god daughter, Elena(Dina de Marco). You see, Eduardo has a lover, Deborah(Rosa Arenas)and wishes to remove Elena from his life for good. What he doesn't suspect is his housekeeper, who has earned his trust and loyalty, being a witch who wishes to make his life miserable..Sara! In secret, Sara plots patiently, contacting, through the mirror, the soul of Elena as they plot their revenge. The other target is obviously Deborah, even more so when she becomes the new woman of the house wishing for Elena's entire memory(..including the favorite flowers of Elena's)erased so that she doesn't stand reminded of her adulteries. But, Elena doesn't want her memory erased and spooky happenings plague Deborah as Eduardo is away. When Eduardo, suffering from the guilt of the murder, begins seeing what Deborah has experienced, that's when the real ghoulish music from director Chano Ureta is woven. We see Elena's ghost appear from the mirror, flowers Deborah had replaced Elena's with wither and burn, the house piano playing Elena's favorite tune by itself, the flame blazing the wood in the fireplace goes out unexpectedly, there's an ominous loud groan, & the front door exploding open with furious wind and leaves intruding. Wishing to put an end to the hocus pocus, Eduardo slings a kerosene lamp at the mirror of Elena's room as both he and Deborah see her spirit coming towards them. What Eduardo doesn't expect is that his wife's body will instantly set on fire horribly scarring her.Then, the film takes on an even more twisted path. Eduardo becomes quite mad as he uses the skin from dead stolen corpses thanks to his paid assistant, Gustavo(Carlos Nieto)experimenting on a way to repair Deborah's face so that she can embrace her beauty once again(..clearly inspired by Franju's Eyes Without a Face). We know he's on a crazed journey with no return when, in the flick's darkest moment, Eduardo amputates the lovely hands of a woman who was buried alive after having been presumed dead when in actuality she had a case of catalepsy. Yet, what he doesn't see coming is a classic case of the ole "switcheroo"..Sara cremates the amputated hands and replaces them with the hands of Elena!! So, Deborah has the hands of Elena which sets in motion the revenge Sara sought with many prayers to her lord Lucifer.This is my favorite of the few Casa Negra releases I've seen. It's definitely warped, with quite a few tacky, but inspired, special effects(..due to a low budget, director Ureta had his hands tied, but does what he can). The story itself keeps reinventing itself..certainly has a "kitchen sink" screenplay, that's for sure. I didn't particularly mind this myself since it all leads to Sara and Elena getting their revenge while Deborah and Eduardo suffer for the crimes they committed. What I found very fascinating, and thought it was successful, was that we side with the Satanic witch, because Eduardo is the one who commits the true ghoulish acts not to mention that Deborah is selfish and self-centered. I think my favorite scene exposes Deborah for who she really is. We see Eduardo grafting skin to Deborah's face and await the final result..whether it's a success or failure. Deborah finds out about how Eduardo secures the skin applied to her face and the hands that replaced her charred ones. She is quite upset..that is until she sees that Eduardo's work was a success then all is forgiven. One might make a statement, and deservedly so, that all the characters in this flick are so corrupt there is no one to root for. The ones being tormented committed terrible acts to Elena, who is the true victim. Even so, Sara is a witch who worships Satan and behind the horrors that occur in the act of seeking retribution for a murder she couldn't stop. But, I think that is actually beneficial that the film doesn't choose sides exactly, although the film clearly backs Sara and her nefarious way(..you can lie to me if you wish, but sure you were rooting for the witch). Heck, the audacity to this, making the witch the heroine I mean, deserves mention. This is quite a nasty piece of work, but loaded with atmospheric flourish and a stew of demented ideas(I must admit, though, it's certainly a patchwork of borrowed ideas).

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.

A great Horror entry made in Mexico at a time when their film industry was still robust and interesting. The theme of The Witch's Mirror can equally fall into the genre of supernatural just as much as horror. Either way it's a Macabre film, very well shot in black and white and director Chano Urueta makes excellent use of some great special effects for the time. Isabel Carona plays the witch who uses her magic mirror to cast revenge on Armando Calvo, who is really great as the sinister, twisted mad-scientist of sorts. Most of the film takes place in what appears to be a old Mexican castle although the outside of it is never shown but it's very Gothic and atmospheric with brooding shadows around every corner. The Witch's Mirror is definitely Classic Mexican Cinema and sadly many of these films produced from this era have gone un-noticed for far too long. If you plan on seeing it I recommend you make some popcorn, turn off the lights and enjoy this fun little picture from the days when Mexican cinema was still golden.

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+.