The Girl In The Mirror Season 1 Review : A convoluted love story intertwined with the supernatural

With The Girl in the Mirror (Spanish: Alma) Sergio G. Sánchez uncovers a world that’s dark and diabolical and anything can happen. For a horror afficionado, this series therefore offers a plethora of takeaways – gore, sex, violence, intrigue, body horror, cults – the list is quite big. The protagonist, Alma, is a young girl who is recovering from losing her sister Lara to brain tumour. Her best friend, Deva, is dating a boy, Tom, who Alma is in love with. Deva is, however, in love with Alma, although she is dating Tom because he seems to be a nice catch.
However, this love triangle, albeit slightly unexpected, is quickly superseded as a fog spread all over the road the students were taking back home, and resulted in a horrific accident (that is extremely graphic and disturbingly similar to reality) that led to Deva’s demise along with several others, while Tom loses a part of his leg, and Alma wakes up with multiple injuries, especially on her face and eyes, which results in her wearing an eye patch later on. After Alma gains consciousness, she is diagnosed with temporary amnesia that may have happened due to shock.
The story then takes a supernatural turn, with seemingly unimportant characters suddenly gain much more momentum. As the mysteries pile up, many things start adding up. The director definitely keeps the intrigue aspect of this story, leaving the audience guessing to the end. It is further highlighted by use of simple but effective props, light sources, and the colours used in each scene and frame – from primal green and yellow, to shades of blues, to sombre browns and tans, picking the mood of the scene rather fittingly.
However, there are several issues with the development of the plot and the way it portrays those immediately around Alma. This is perhaps also seen in the stark changes in these students’ lives and the survivors’ general nonchalance with it. It is slightly unbelievable that someone like Tom, who was a swimmer before the accident, would be so callous with his response about what happened to him and the stark change that it had brought to his life. The other issue is perhaps the protagonists’ inability to really make the audience feel much empathy towards her. This is further caused by the pace of the narrative where everything unravels way too late into the end, and so, it feels slightly rushed, the director’s attempt to quickly tie up the loose ends safely. Watch it if horror, gore and the supernatural strike your fancy.
- Poorna Banerjee