Mirrors

I hadn't seen this in several years and I do remember some of the graphic violence was pretty crazy, but my that bathtub scene. It was pretty well done, I just thought it was a little too drawn out. I feel like Keifer as usual does great with his role, but overacting especially towards the end was a bit eh. Oh and I actually thought they did pretty good tying up the ending. A lot of people complain the last part ruined the film or wasn't good, but it surprised me as I thought it would be much worse. I say it's worth checking out if you haven't. It wasn't groundbreaking or anything but managed to keep me focused for a few hours. I give it a 6. I liked it better than Aja's High Tension. Now to me that was a bad ending.

French director Alexandre Aja exploded onto the horror scene in 2003 with excellent horror flick Switchblade Romance, but since then he's disappointingly veered off into remake territory. He can be forgiven somewhat for his first remake - an updating of the Wes Craven semi-classic The Hills Have Eyes - because it was quite good, but this next attempt - an Americanisation of South Korean film 'Mirrors', is not so successful. The basis for the plot is actually quite good and with some minor tweaks, Mirrors could have been a successful horror film. The plot focuses on Ben Carson; and ex-cop and ex-alcoholic who has been forced to take a night watchman's job in order to get his life back on track for the good of his children. His new job is at a shopping centre, which was forced to close down after a fire devastated the building. He soon notices that the mirrors in the building are extremely clean - as a result of the previous watchman's obsession with them - and he later finds out why, as there's an evil that lives in the mirrors; and Ben Carson is their next target.

The lead role is taken by Kiefer Sutherland. I've been a fan of Kiefer ever since I saw The Lost Boys; but he feels out of place in this film. It's probably just because I'm so used to seeing him as Jack Bauer that it's impossible to believe him doing any other role. The first half of the film is rather poor; the atmosphere of the former shopping centre is good, but most of the runtime is taken up by various CGI special effects going on in the mirrors, and it soon becomes tedious. Luckily, things pick up in the second half. There's a rather nasty murder scene; and then the film starts to develop a plot, which is fairly intriguing. It has to be said that the plot is rather lacking in logic at times, and all sorts of plot holes can be picked out; but then again, it is a film about evil inside mirrors at the end of the day. The revelation regarding how the mirrors became evil is a bit disappointing; I was hoping for something better, but at least the final twist is amusing. Overall, I can't recommend this film really but if it's a rainy day and you've got nothing else to watch, you could do worse than see this.

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....

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.

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