Dark Mirror

This third-rate rip-off of The Shining (and about two dozen other horror thrillers) trucks out every conceivable cliché one can imagine. As far as the story about insufferable yuppies moving into a house in which strange goings-on are going on, we've seen this all before...and done much better than this derivative turkey. Too bad. This is actually an interesting premise but it's all handled so poorly with little imagination or originality. The characters are so cardboard and annoying- especially the I'm-too-sexy-for-myself neighbor- one almost hopes they get clocked! Just when we think the film is about to partially redeem itself with a satisfying conclusion, it's a let-down. Don't waste your time.

After moving into a new house, a woman and her family are confronted with a series of bizarre and increasingly more frightening visions that she finds is connected to a long-forgotten mystery involving the previous residents of the house.

This was quite a decent if troubling effort. One of its' better tactics is the use of photographs for the mirror which amounts to some of the better scenes in here. Among the better ones is the first attempt as the flashing light distorts the husbands face into a demonic figure while a second figure is seen in the mirror, the same distortion attempts plague the second photographs while the final attempt manages to feature plenty of utterly creepy images on everyone in the photographs before throwing a rather impressive freak-out that comes out of nowhere for a pretty exciting scene. Other big scenes are based highly on the tactic of throwing frightening visuals around at the most unexpected times which includes scenes as the sequence with the old woman across the hall which gets quite frantic with the house search with all the blood found throughout while also focusing on those reality distortion that have been utilized throughout here as well as numerous scenes of rattling windows and shimmering light which is the best part going for the film. The other big positive here is the rather enjoyable back-story which is pretty creepy in its own right before getting to the gradual investigation with the notebook and the water-style filtering on the scene for a truly enjoyable set-piece for the scenes which is enough to help this one out against its damaging flaws. The film's biggest factor against it is the rather toned-down feeling that flows throughout here. The bore and brutality from the kills are so down-played from what their initially could've been considering the actions within which is all based on the toned-down feeling exhibited by the rest of the film. The main part of the storyline here furthers that toned down feeling as it feels more in line with typical Lifetime Channel fare by introducing such topics as her actively questioning whether or not she's insane by imaging everything around her or actually happening which is a common staple in such films. Likewise, this includes the themes of the middle section where she begins investigating the source of the flashing victims throughout, which goes along with the other flaws on display to hold this one down.

Rated R: Violence and Language.

This movie feels like a made for tv movie and perhaps it was originally I am not sure.

The camera has that soft feel for a lot of the time and the script felt like a toned down made for tv type of movie too. That said the acting wasnt bad, the general story wasnt bad and overall while not what I would call scary at all it does a good job telling the story it wants to tell.

The ending was supposed to be a twist but I doubt you will be all that surprised. That said though it wasnt a bad ending to the movie even if you do see it coming in broad terms. Worth a watch but I wouldnt seek it out.

Great cast and OK storyline. As it got more toward the end I found it to be disappointing. I didn't dislike it, it was just OK.

Worth a watch at least, just keep your expectations low.

Another reviewer praises this movie as being 'Polanski scary' but I'm not seeing the connection between a convicted paedophile and this leaden paced dud.

The plot seems interesting enough to start with, a sour faced woman and her family move into a house which has some funny business going on with the mirrors. This goes absolutely nowhere though and the twists are only surprising in the sense that there's no lead up to them so when they're dropped into the story it has minimal impact. The film has a go at a few different ideas but doesn't really get stuck into a good ghost story, nor is it really a satisfying thriller.

The best I can say is that it at least shows you the ending at the start saving you from having to watch the whole thing. I stuck on until the end hoping for something to make it all worthwhile but there really is nothing. I like slow spooky movies but this is just slow and badly put together with mediocre acting from all involved especially "grandma exposition" who pops up a few times to try to get the plot moving.