Objects in “Mirrors” Are Better Than They Appear

When I saw the trailer for “Mirrors” I thought it was going to be another in a long line of horrible remakes of good Japanese horror movies (like “The Ring”).

But, I was pleasantly surprised.

I think one saving grace was Alexandre Aja (director of “High Tension” and the 2006 “Hills Have Eyes Remake”). He handles creepy horror extremely well, and this… is very creepy horror. Next, instead of remaking another Japanese horror movie, they moved on to a Korean movie called “Geoul sokeuro” (“Into the Mirror”). I haven’t seen the original, but I definitely want to now that I’ve seen “Mirrors”.

Now, I’ve read other reviews that have said the movie is cliche. Firstly, all horror is slightly cliche at this point, but I disagree, there are similarities to other movies. But, having a male protagonist is a big step in the right direction. I have gotten very tired of seeing the female horror protagonist who never knows what’s going on until half of her friends are dead, and even then she has to have it spelled out for her.

Here we have a disgraced cop, down on his luck, taking a security guard job and winding up being tormented by some evil force that uses mirrors to watch, and if necessary harm those it follows.

Of course, unlike most horror protagonists, our hero (Kiefer Sutherland still giving us Jack Bauer) gets to work as soon as he fully accepts what is happening.

I did feel Amy Smart was kind of wasted as Kiefer’s sister in the movie, but she does a solid job.

One thing I felt they did right in this movie was the back-story for what is happening. Instead of the usual “angry spirit” Japanese horror movie cliche, they go for full-on demonic entity. This makes the horror feel a little more real for me because angry spirits are SO much easier to handle than demons. Spirits are lost souls that can be dealt with, demons are just pure evil.

Also, I won’t give any major spoilers, but I really like how they handled the ending.

So, if you’re a fan of horror, check out “Mirrors”. I think you’ll enjoy it.

William, the Movie Nerdfighter
who’s probably a little over-confident in his abilities handling angry spirits