Same. I couldn't figure it out. Not very intuitive. I tried looking at the reflections a few times but nothing happened so obviously I was doing something wrong. I ended up buying multiple health items, running through them, dying a few times. (Sometimes they walk over the mirror's hitbox, not sure if that's a glitch). One time I got lucky and managed to escape. If you try and go back they're still there. Reminded me of Pocket Mirror's mirror maze, which despite how frustrating it was, you had an idea of where to go and do for the most part. I'm just glad it wasn't a huge map.
I agree with you about the chase scenes and the layering issues. Although I do like the different monster designs, that horse was creepy. Also a really nice tile set. I played a similar game a while back that used similar graphics tiles, I have a screenshot if you're interested (I don't think it was ever finished). Also that broken giraffe sprite in the main park though, poor thing. :(