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105 out of 146 people found the following comment useful :-
Mirrors: much better than you'd expect of a horror remake!, 16 August 2008

Author: dyl_gon from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Mirrors was pretty much doomed for terrible critical reviews from the start. Horror never scores big with film critics; in fact I can't remember the last horror film that got more positive reviews than negative. If the horror film in question is a remake, especially of a foreign movie, it's almost destined for critical failure. There's a reason for that: most horror remakes are utter garbage and are solely created so studios can make a quick buck. However, once in a while, a horror film remake will come along that actually isn't half bad, yet will still suffer negative reviews based on the fact that it's a horror film remake. It happened several years ago with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more recently, with The Hills Have Eyes.

Mirrors has suffered a similar fate. Directed by French horror director Alexandre Aja, the same man behind The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors is a remake of a Korean horror film, as well as the best wide-release horror film of the year thus far. While I'll admit I probably enjoyed the film much more than most will, it's still miles better than the critic's lousy reviews or lackluster promotion would have you believe.

Kiefer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, an ex-cop suffering from emotional issues after a "workplace accident" and a messy divorce. Sick of sleeping on his sister's couch, he takes up a job as a security guard at an abandoned department store that was devastated by a fire many years back. The job seems easy enough, primarily consisting of walking through the building every couple hours, making sure there are no trespassers. Things take a turn for the worse though, after several strange encounters involving the mirrors in the building, and Ben begins to find that his own reflection is haunting him, not only at the job, but in any mirror or reflective object (or liquid) he comes across. Soon enough, Ben find his life, as well as his families, in danger.

Mirrors biggest strength is the storyline, easily one of the best horror premises to hit the screen in years (even if it is recycled). Reflections are practically inescapable, not only appearing just in mirrors, but in doorknobs, windows and water. The inescapability of reflections is what makes the idea of one's reflection out to get them so chilling. They're everywhere. You can't escape them. Not since Nightmare on Elm Street, where ones own dreams were the cause of death, has there been a supernatural premise that has gotten so much under my skin. The fact that whatever the mirror images do to themselves happens to their real life counterparts, only heightens the hopelessness of Carson and his family.

Alexandre Aja has already proved his ability to create genuine scares with previous films, but most have been of the brutal, violent kind, as opposed to the atmospheric chills usually employed in supernatural horror movies that are more reliant on the mood and feeling than shocking acts of brutality for scares. Surprisingly, Aja's penchant for gore and violence complements the film surprisingly well. The sequences inside the derelict department store at night build up suspense very well, utilizing the eerie location with corpses manifesting themselves within the mirrors and screams emitting from within deep recesses of the building. It's fairly generic stuff for movies like this, but Aja is talented enough stylistically to pull them off. However, it's the sequences where Aja really lets loose that prove to be the most frightening. One sequence that takes place in a bathtub ends up being one of the most brutal and unsettling death scenes of the year. There are several of these sequences sprinkled throughout the film and they are extremely effective, utilizing a combination of brutality and atmospheric suspense that are, at the least, shocking. When a ghost pops out in one scene, it isn't a pale, long black haired Asian woman, nor a semi-transparent floating apparition: it's a half-naked female with half her body burned off, the flesh still sizzling off her burnt carcass as she wails in pain. That's the difference between Mirrors and most other ghost films.

The biggest downfall of the film is when it tries to provide an explanation for the horrific events taking place in the second half. The idea of one's image terrorizing oneself is horrifying on one level, but at the same time, it's extremely unrealistic. Trying to explain why this happened back fires on the film, as no explanation is going to make sense and instead, will just draw attention to the fact that this would never happen in real life, destroying a bit of the film's effect. The audience doesn't need to know why this happens. Ambiguity in this case would be much more frightening and wouldn't take away from any of the other scares. Once you throw in a sub-plot about mental institution experiments and haunting tragedies taking place in the building, you lose a lot of the suspense. Despite the unwise direction the movie takes in its second half, it's still entertaining and manages to retain a few good scares here and there, while finally rebounding in the last act.

Mirrors isn't perfect (what film is?), but its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses and in the end, it's the most enjoyable wide-release horror film of the year (although personally, the only other decent wide-release horror film this year would be The Strangers). Benefiting from a brilliant premise and the unlikely combination of French director Alexandre Aja's love of blood and brutality with an atmospheric, supernatural storyline, Mirrors is definitely much better than what one would expect of a typical Korean horror movie remake, let alone any horror movie that hits theaters.

- Dylan, allhorrorfilms.com

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94 out of 145 people found the following comment useful :-
Boo!, 17 August 2008

Author: nasakcuf-3 from Corcoran, CA

These days, at over $10 per movie ticket, the question I most ask when I go to these review boards is...was it worth it? The answer to that question depends upon how effectively the movie brings its genre across to the audience...the interesting plots, the action sequences, the drama. Yes, perhaps I've seen the movie's take on these things before, but to me the movie's worth is defined by the movies own merits, not necessarily the merits of what preceded it...

We have I think all seen variants of what Mirrors is about, yet I still recommend it. I found it to be atmospheric and suspenseful (with some gore, one effect in particular will probably make your jaw twitch for the remainder of the movie), although the suspense wears off once certain things are revealed about 3/4 of the way through the movie. The atmosphere remains intact however, and the ending of the movie delivers an unexpected twist that brings the movie full circle. While I'm not likely to see it a second time, I found a single viewing to be a worthy investment of my time and my $10.50....

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52 out of 83 people found the following comment useful :-
When a reflections does not reflect reality one can expect fatalities, 17 September 2008

Author: Pascal Zinken (LazySod) from Maastricht, The Netherlands

As a remake of a Korean film of 2003 this film tells the tale of a guy that picks up a job as a night-watchman in what is left over of a burned down department store. What starts as a somewhat dull somewhat creepy job quickly turns into a living nightmare.

There have been at least a dozen horror films where the evil lived on the other side of the mirror - nothing new here. Most of them share the same build up as this one: get to know the victim(s), get to know the evil(s), see them getting maimed/slaughtered/eaten one by one - nothing new here. In effect, this film is like nothing new all over and it would be a standard run of the mill one if it weren't for the fact that most of the settings used are worked out pretty nicely and that the ending isn't the normal sloppy one.

I haven't seen the original but I am interested into seeing it now that I have seen this one. It might be even better.

7 out of 10 mirrors on the wall

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55 out of 90 people found the following comment useful :-
First half: Great. Second half: The opposite., 14 August 2008

Author: Lando_Hass from The Thuderdome, b**ch!!

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Let me start off by saying: I was stoked about seeing Mirrors. I liked High Tension, and I loved Hills Have Eyes. Both were awesome, awesome movies....especially Hills Have Eyes. So of course, again, I was stoked to watch Mirrors, because it sounded interesting, it looked scary, and the guy who made to great horror movies made it. What happened when I finished Mirrors, you ask? I was left disappointed as hell. Very, very disappointed. Which sucks because it started off so scary and so interesting.

Kiefer Sutherland plays Ben, a down and out ex-cop who's battling an alcohol problem and the stigma of killing a man while in the line of duty. While waiting to be reinstated into the police force, he takes a job as a night watchmen at an old, burned down, creepy-ass shopping mall. Of course, once there, he notices insanely scary and creepy things going on inside, particularly with the mirrors inside. He starts seeing disturbing things in the mirrors: People burning alive, grotesque people lying on the floors, crying for help, things of that nature. Since Ben is so unstable, we're not sure what's going on, at least I wasn't. I wasn't sure if all this scary stuff was in his head, or if there was a genuine explanation for all of it. Well, I was wishing that the former was true, because that would've made the movie that much scarier and that much edgier. Instead, the latter was true.

The movie has some really, really scary parts....all of it is scary until they explain why everything's happening. Then you're just left there thinking, "Well, that's not that scary anymore." There's some really crazy gore effects, especially the opening scene and the scene with Amy Smart. These parts, especially the Amy Smart scene, will make you cringe just a little bit.

But after the first half, the half filled with mystery, intrigue, and scary, horrific moments, the movies take a turn down dumbass-idea boulevard:

SPOILER Ready for this? The reason for the all the strange happenings in the movie, i.e., in the mirrors, is because of.....ready?......demonic forces. No psychological reasons, which would've been cool and interesting, but because of stupid demonic forces that lived in the mirrors. Even if they didn't go down the psychological route, they could've at least handled it better and made it interesting instead of just saying, "Bad s*** lives in the mirrors. Jack Bauer's gonna take care of it." When his wife starts believing him and when you know for sure he isn't just crazy and broken, that's when all the interest is sucked away.

Everyone does a pretty good job with their roles, but since the movie doesn't get any deeper than "Bad stuff lives in the mirrors," there's not much to do with these characters, especially Ben, who's a pretty broken and messed up guy. But as the second half comes along, you forget that he's a recovering alcoholic with a pill problem who may or may not be completely insane. When there's no more doubt about his state-of-mind and sanity, the movie loses it's punch and mystery, at least I thought so.

SOME MORE SPOILERS The movie takes a turn for the absolutely ridiculous when all the demonic forces in the mirrors manifest themselves in an old nun. She pretty much turns into a freakin' licker from the Resident Evil games. She starts crawling up walls, jumping off walls, and gets into a physical brawl with Kiefer Sutherland as he tries to shoot her. She throws him through a freakin' brick wall, and he throws her like six feet away from him. I was just thinking to myself, "What the hell am I watching? Is it still the same movie?" This part was so stupid it pretty much ruined the rest of the movie. My God. It was so stupid.

I personally thought they could've done much more with the story instead of just saying "Bad things live in the mirrors." It started out scary, suspenseful, and frightening, but then just ends up being corny and stupid. The only thing that made the last half somewhat tolerable was the last few minutes, which was a little shocking and cool. Loved the ending.

But again, don't take this review as a definitive view on the movie. Go watch it for yourself and you might end up liking it very much. I didn't, even though I really, really wanted to.

Score: 5 out of 10.

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33 out of 50 people found the following comment useful :-
Good but it could be better, 20 October 2008

Author: barrys82 from Mexico

Mirrors is the U.S. remake of Korean horror movie Geoul Sokeuro, it is good and scary but not as much as the original one. The movie is about A mall security guard becomes wrapped up in a mystery involving a particular department store's mirrors which seem to bring out the worst in people. The story is almost the same as the original as well as the plot which are interesting although a little predictable. It has a good rhythm and the tension grows in its intensity as the movie moves along, these are two very good things because it never makes the movie tiresome to the viewer. The cast is good, Kiefer Sutherland gives a very convincing performance, although he reminded me of Jack Bauer in some moments of the film. Amy Smart's role was good but very short and Paula Patton as Kiefer character's wife gives a decent acting job. In conclusion, it was a good movie but it could be better.

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27 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Promising Beginning, Disappointing Resolution, 23 December 2008

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In New York, the former NYPD detective Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) is hired to work as night watch of the remains of the Mayflower Department Store that was partially destroyed by fire many years ago. Ben became alcoholic and was retired from the police force after killing a man in a shooting. His marriage was also destroyed and now he is living in the apartment of his younger sister Angie (Amy Smart). However he has not been drinking for three months and sees the employment as a chance to rebuild his life. When he goes to the rounds in his first night, he finds that the mirrors are impeccably clean and his colleague explains that the former night watch was obsessed by the mirrors. After a couple of nights, Ben sees weird images in the mirrors, but due to the lack of credibility of his past, his ex-wife Amy (Paula Patton) believes he has hallucinations as a side effect of his medication. When Angie is found brutally murdered in her bathtub, Ben discovers that there is an evil force in the mirror that is chasing him and jeopardizing his family.

The first half of "Mirrors" is intriguing, with a promising scary story with good special effects and good performances. Unfortunately, the resolution and the conclusion of the plot are very weak and disappointing, and the end is open for a sequel. The death of Angie is really the most impressive scene of this forgettable horror movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Espelhos da Morte" ("Mirrors of the Death")

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53 out of 95 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the better horror movies these days, 18 August 2008

Author: Spooky2001 (btvsfan@gmail.com) from Woodinville, Washington

This movie is certainly not the best horror movie I have seen but out of horror movies that come out now of days it is one of the better ones. The death scenes were a little over the top and gory but at least the movie didn't really on mostly gore that a lot of horror movies these days do. Keifer Suterland was pretty good and there were a few jump scares. I like it that they added a little bit of mystery to it. I give this movie a B for effort. It did seem a little long though, they could have made it at least a little bit shorter. They had some cool special effects like when the mirror got shot and the holes repaired themselves. Overall it was not that bad of a movie.

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21 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
Ludicrous empty nonsense from someone who should know better, 31 August 2008

Author: theskulI42 from Denver, CO

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Oh dios mio, Alexandre, what have you done?

Alexandre Aja is a talented director who has a splendid visual sensibility that can breathe life in otherwise tired premises. His version of The Hills Have Eyes features one-dimensional characters and a predictable storyline, but Aja elevated it thanks to its garish, glorious appearance. High Tension also looked great, and had a similarly premise, but was doomed by a lunkheaded twist. His second attempt at a remake, a Korean horror film, was destined to be a failure. The vague Asian ghost story has long since run its course, and it can be argued that only the movement's catalyst (The Ring) was successful. Mirrors is a profoundly troubling film, if only because you wonder how such a talented man could pump out such a dud.

The trouble begins right from the start with an uninspired opening. The film proper begins, with an opening credits sequence that is dizzying in the worst way, like the projectionist fed the reels wrong. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, an officer disgraced after killing a colleague. He is living with his sister (Amy Smart), and is estranged from his wife (Paula Patton), mother to his two children. He gets a new job as a night watchman for an old department store that was destroyed in a fire. Around here is when the questions start. The film's first third mines a lot of attempted suspense out of extended scenes where Sutherland is wandering around looking at old burned things, mainly statues, birds and mirrors. None of these are inherently scary, bringing to mind Dark Water, where we supposed to be terrified by bad pipes and a faulty washing machine. If Aja's seem less ludicrous, just wait. All of a sudden, in a manner more awkward than shocking, he starts having fake-looking visions of people burning, so Sutherland screams and hilariously writhes around. AAAHHH FIRE OH MY GOD Not coincidentally, this is the point at which derisive laughter began to emanate from the patrons of my theater.

The plot after that set-up is...honestly, a bit hard to explain. Characters are introduced, utilized in situations that would seem to encourage a fleshing-out, then are never heard from again, and are underused even in their minute facet. Despite the film being based upon another medium, in fact another FILM, Aja and co. seem to have no idea where they're going or what they're doing, to the point that they seem to be making it up as they go along. Every major occurrence in the film was laughably silly and gloriously incoherent. First off, isn't his job description merely to just protect the place from vandals? He's taking crazy pain pills and is still disturbed anyway, so why, after his first unpleasant bit of silliness, would he go wandering around to the waterlogged basement and to the empty reaches of the top floor? Are punk kids really breaking into this place and going to all these crazy obscure places? Can't he just sit out front? He runs home, screaming to his loved ones how mirrors are attacking him, and is somehow surprised when they think he's a nutcase.

From there, the film provides all these bizarre twists about a mysterious woman, and a mental ward and the fire and mirrors and demons and...it's all curiously empty, to the point that I can't honestly conceive how they managed to fill 110 minutes of film. Oh, there's one big gore scene, but the film had lost this crowd long before it, and it ends up smacking more of desperation than anything else. It kept me entertained just because I wanted to see the nonsensical depths it would plumb, and boy did it deliver. By the time he's abducting a nun at gunpoint and wrestling her demonic corpse (in a scene that somehow makes even less sense than everything that occurred before it), all the rules of believability or genuine enjoyment were out the window, and the film ends as incoherently as it began.

In the acting department, it's just as bad. Sutherland is horribly over-the-top (and his character is such an ill-tempered dick that we can't possibly sympathize with him), and everyone around him doesn't know how to act. Amy Smart, the only competent actor in the cast, is dispatched early on, in a scene that later is contradicted, as the film can't even follow it's own rules. Paula Patton was obviously cast for *ahem* other talents, so why they continually give her extended emotional scenes is beyond me. The kids are kids, the rest are forgettable and forgotten (Jason Flemyng is introduced early on as an important character, as the film seems to be setting up a tangent where Kiefer is suspected in his sister's death, but this is as forgotten as everything else in the film).

The film's original conceit is one that is if nothing else intriguing, but its only scene with the potential for genuine suspense (having someone look into a mirror, look away, and have the reflection stay) only works once, and only if you're not expecting it. But this film not only uses it extensively with most of its main characters, announces it in its title and plot, and utilized it in its marketing almost wholly. I could continue in this vein for another twelve paragraphs, but I think the most demonic thing about the film is that its influence has apparently gotten to my brain, because, reading over this, I don't think I've accurately conveyed WHY the film is bad, or at least why it deserves the rating I'm about to give it. In an attempt to inform you, I've also blathered epic-length with little effect. Curse you, Mirrors, your tremendous downside has doomed me to work as incoherent and meandering as you. God help us all.

{Grade: 0.5/10 (what is that, a high F?) / #64 (of 65) of 2008}

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10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Poop., 24 August 2008

Author: M W from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Haute Tension is one of my favorite movies. Hills Have Eyes & P2 kept me believing that Alexandre Aja was on the road to something big.Really big.Now usually I don't judge too harshly if an artist slips up & makes one or two stinkers so long as they rebound & hold steady. Mirrors already had several strikes against it. Another remake?Come on man. Kiefer Sutherland?Really?! Yet I pressed on its Aja if anyone can turn these strikes into lightning its him. Wrong.Wrong.Wrong. This movie falls victim to every horror movie cliché & makes some new ones for good measure along the way(anyone count the number of times the word mirror was used just in the 1st 1/2 hour?!). There's zero chemistry between the actors. There's no tension no build up of suspense. The horror moments are laughable like the Grudge 2 House of Wax & The Amityville Horror. Christ im about to put the final nail in the coffin on this man being the future of horror over this. I log on to IMDb to see what his next project is & its yet another remake. He pulled a Wes Craven in just under 5 years. I know I haven't written any details on the movie & its because I cant its just too idiotic & honestly hurts my head to recall what I just suffered through. Mr.Aja please get out of the gutter & get back into making kick ass horror movies.Please?!?!?

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16 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than most Asian remakes, but unfortunately it falls short once again, 20 August 2008

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Let me say something, I love mirrors, aren't they just wonderful at times? I mean, when you're looking hot, you just can't stop starring at yourself, it's a great pleasure. But what if those mirrors contained ghosts?! Not only that, but killing deadly ghosts! Oh, no! Great, we have another horror movie that takes the most simple and basic every day item we use and turns it into a scary thing and now we can't look into the mirrors because if you're easily scarable, then you're going to have a few bad hair days. Mirrors is another Asian remake, from a film I believe is called "Look into the Mirror" or something like that. This was one of the rare movies where I looked at the trailer, besides knowing that it was another remake, it looked interesting, so I saw it today in the theater, unfortunately, it turned typical, great story, but why did it have to get predictable? It could have been so much more.

Ben Carson is a former NYPD cop who had an accidental shooting, he's also a recovering alcoholic who is trying to get his life back on track and wants his family back. He gets a job working at a burned down department store as a security guard. But then as he looks into the mirrors, strange things start to happen, he starts seeing things in the mirrors of people burning, him dying, and now the spirits are going after his family. The only way he can prevent their deaths is if he gives the spirits what they want, the only person they can jump into and get into the outer world.

Mirrors is better than most Asian remakes, it does have some good scare moments, it has actual gore in it that will make you cringe. Amy Smart has an awesome death scene that is just horrific to watch, you'll just have to see what I mean. The ending is also kind of cool, like a Twilight Zone episode. I love Kiefer Sutherland, I love this guy with a passion, he's a great actor that still needs his big due on the silver screen, but he should have done a little more with his character in this story. One thing I'm sick of is a sane rational person starts to see ghosts, and they start screaming at people expecting them to believe as well how they're seeing ghosts and that someone is in danger. Mirrors is worth the look, I'd just recommend waiting for the rental, it's a watchable movie, just nothing special.

5/10

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