Mirrors: Movie Review

Mirrors: Movie Review

Rating: 7/10
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Amy Smart
Director: Alexandre Aja
Remakes of Korean horrors are all the rage these days. (Think the Ring, Dark Water, The Eye)
So it'll be no surprise to you to learn that the latest horror flick starring Kiefer "Jack Bauer" Sutherland is a remake of a 2003 South Korean horror Geoul Sokeuro.
Sutherland plays Ben Carlson, a cop retired from the force after an incident which led to the shooting of a fellow officer.
Estranged from his wife and son after a mini breakdown, he is now a night time security guard and starts work at a burnt out department store, which is ostensibly gutted - aside from mirrors all around the building.
On his first night there, Carlson suffers hallucinations - he also learns from his boss how the previous security guard died but had been obsessed with the mirrors.
As Carlson continues to tread his night time beat, the visions intensify and things get worse when he receives a package from the previous security guard who has been dead for a while&
And the situation gets even more terrifying as it becomes more obvious that Carlson's family is under threat from a mysterious and horrifying presence.
Mirrors is a pretty solid shocker - the idea there is a creature in the mirror which is your reflection and can motivate you to harming yourself isn't anything new - but is well visualised thanks to some impressive effects.
There are some real jump in your seat moments (director Aja who helmed the remake of The Hills Have Eyes) and some scenes will disturb you for a while to come -the demise of Carlson's sister (played by Amy Smart) will put many off bath tubs for a while.
Kiefer Sutherland is good too- whether it's because I've become used to him as save-the-day-at-whatever-cost Jack Bauer, seeing him play a man on the edge or falling apart because of internal (and external) demons is nothing new - but he brings his usual intensity to the film which could have been unoriginal.
The only time the film falls apart is with its confrontation with the demon at the end which sees it degenerate into Resident Evil territory in the sewers; but the ending of the film redeemed it in my eyes.

The real question is why this wasn't released on Halloween over here - with some smart chills and genuine edge of the seat moments, it would have been infinitely better to watch rather than endure 90 minutes with yet another of the Saw franchise.