Nevertheless, the disappointing supernatural thriller series was filmed by the Spaniard Sergio G. Sanchez, screenwriter of Bayona’s “Orphanages” and “The Impossible”, who himself made a solid debut as a director with “Marrowbone” a few years ago. And “Alma” or “The Girl in the Mirror”, as this nine-part series (with obvious pretensions for a second season) can be found on Netflix, can be placed somewhere between horror, thriller, fantasy and drama. Similar supernatural thrillers have been extremely popular in Spain in recent years, and this can be partly thanks to Sanchez and Bayona’s super-successful “Orphanat”, but this one was much weaker.
The story here is actually quite convoluted and convoluted and somewhat soapy, and Sanchez spiced it up a bit with the mystique of folk horror and the occult. It’s actually a shame that it’s all done rather sloppily because otherwise I’m extremely fond of movies or series that have a background in local mythology, demonology and similar creepy stories passed down through the generations. Everything starts here when a group of high school graduates has a serious car accident on their way back from their last trip together somewhere in the mountains of Asturias. After a mysterious, unnatural fog appears on the road and some strange properties seem to block the way, the bus will land in a precipice.
Out of about twenty students, only a few will survive, and among them is Alma (Mireia Oriol), who, among other things, will be injured in one of her eyes and will later have to wear that pirate’s blindfold, and she will also experience amnesia. She doesn’t remember anything about her life, not even the accident, and trying to remember who she really is, it will seem to her as if someone else has moved into her body. An important detail in this whole story is that a few months before the accident, Alma lost her twin sister Lara, who died of cancer, and we will keep going back in time to find out not only what happened before the accident, but also how to find out dynamics in relationships between friends.
We will understand that the accident was actually caused by Alma’s sister who tried to save her life through ancient demonology, esotericism and the occult, but instead she seems to have awakened some ancient evil that will cost many others dearly besides her. This series has a handful of surprises, twists and turns, most of which are not particularly coherent, and although it is said that the mosaic is slowly coming together over time and some things fall into place, “The Girl in the Mirror” turned out to be quite a disappointment.