When we first meet socialite Catherine Burgess (model-turned-sex-star Catherine Erhardt, billed here under her character’s name), she’s already got three strikes against her, so it’s no surprise that things quickly go from bad to complete and utter shit for her. Saddled with a drinking problem and a jackass husband who opens mocks her spacey disposition and frigidity, Catherine also labors under an unshakable fixation on her dear and departed daddy (Jamie Gillis), who’s a regular if unobtainable guest star in her dreams. Late one night, after fruitlessly chasing Papa through her subconscious, Catherine wanders up into the attic, where she finds the ornate full-length mirror from her childhood bedroom. One glance into its reflective surface, and she’s overcome by the need to strip off her nightgown and diddle herself ferociously while a torrent of filthy talk streams from her refined and well-bred mouth. Faster than you can say, “Hey, is she possessed?” out from the mirror pops a demon (also Gillis), who makes a beeline straight into Catherine through her downstairs entrance (in the first of the film’s many jaw-dropping scenes, a mini-cam provides Evil Jamie’s POV as it tunnels into her vagina). Once inside, the demon tempts her with glimpses of a fantasy playground that exists inside the mirror (Catherine bumps uglies with her social rival in a baby oil-soaked tussle, then gets served up as the centerpiece at a horny tea party a la Alice in Wonderland), as well as a vision of her younger self consummating her long-simmering lust for Daddy. It’s all waiting for her on the other side of the mirror, sez Jamie the Devil – all she has to do is step through. Oh, and if she can also bring her teenage daughter (Louise Nicholson) up to the attic for a little fun and games, that would be just perfect. Cue the crescendo of scary music…

Yeesh. So if you haven’t already guessed, producer/writer/director Jonas Middleton’s Through the Looking Glass is a creepy mix of hardcore porn, Euro-style horror, and the worst sex nightmare you’ve ever had -- remember the one where you’re fucking your first high school girlfriend and her twat suddenly sprouts fangs, or where you think you’re banging Monica Belluci, only it turns into your seventh grade math teacher? It’s like that, only with an extra layer of hallucinogenic freakery in the final third (after Catherine goes through the looking glass) involving bathtubs full of shit and piss, guys jerking off into their own faces or humping dirt, and people shoving carrots and bananas into pussies. It’s definitely not stroke material for straight-up flesh beasts – Catherine Erhardt uses a body double for any hardcore footage, and the sex tends to be brief and stained with weirdness (the two “hottest” scenes feature Jamie Gillis getting blown by his daughter and Edward Gorey-esque maid Terri Hall sucking off her brother). But for retro-minded Dr. Kinkensteins, or for viewers compiling a mental catalog of bizarre movies, Through the Looking Glass definitely delivers the weird-oh goods, and with considerably more style and skill than most porn from the period, or horror movies, for that matter.

Through the Looking Glass is one of a huge and impressive collection of vintage smut from Video-X-Pix, which is making the triple-X back catalog of New York’s venerable Distribpix available for DVD deviants. The disc offers a full-screen print of the film with only minor technical glitches, as well as trailers for Blue Jeans (“If they want to survive, ambitious girls learn to serve men!”) and Female Athletes, starring Annette Haven and the “exciting” John Holmes, both of which are available from the fine filth peddlers at Video-X-Pix.

– The Ultimate Degenerate