REVIEW: Mirrors2

Here’s my take on the new horror film “Mirrors” from Alexander Aja (director of, among others, the “The Hills Have Eyes” remake), which was recently released in cinemas around the world.

I wasn’t sure if I had any hopes at all when I went to see the film with a couple of friends. I had only seen the trailer one or two times – from what I saw it looked kind of cool and scary, meaning it should be perfect as a no-brain-required scream-filled movie-ride.

Firstly the story. We are early on introduced to the overall concept of the mirrors through a pretty cool sequence, in which a person is being chased by someone (or something!). It all ends quite gruesomely, and sets up the mood for the rest of the film pretty well. After this relatively quick introduction we meet ex-cop Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland, star of “24″), who, after an accident, decides to quit his job as a police officer. He needs to get a job, so he signs on for the role as a security guard, taking the nightshift at an old, burnt-out deparment store complex. The fire that destroyed many lives is said to have made the old shopping mall haunted, but Ben Carson quickly dismisses the rumours and decides to take the job anyway – but when strange things start appear in the mirrors, Ben struggles to keep both himself and those around him safe. I thought the overall concept of the story was pretty interesting. The first scene of the film is quite brilliant, as is the (extremely) hypnotic title sequence that follows. The story and the scenery is pretty cool throughout the film, and while there aren’t many real big shocks, or jumps – there is a pretty cool scary mood over the entire film, almost similar to, but not as good as “Silent Hill”. I overall enjoyed the film quite a lot, up until the very last 10 minutes. That’s when the film just gets silly in terms of mixing in monsters, and the ending is quite anti-climactic. As my friend Johannes put it, “it seems as they realised they had a much bigger budget than they thought, which is why they had to destroy an entire set (again) for the ending sequence”. It’s a cool sequence, but after the suspense that’s been built up throughout the film, it just feels as kind of a throwaway. Also the film has some pretty bad writing from time to time – just wait for the understatement of the year dropped by a police officer: “It’s not looking very good.”.

All eyes are on Kiefer Sutherland in this film, as it’s pretty much his first real starring role in a film. It has to be difficult to try and change your character after playing Jack Bauer in “24″ for six straight seasons. And from the looks of it, Kiefer really has potential to do something besides play a (somewhat dirty) cop. Even though Jack Bauer shines through a couple of times in the film, especially when pulling out his gun and shooting at mirrors, Kiefer really manages to hold the film together himself, as he’s in pretty much every single scene.

There are some pretty cool visual effects in the film, at least compared to some other horror films released in the last couple of years. Everything looks as realistic as it could, and as mentioned before – the scenery, especially in the old deparment store, is really cool. The sound design is impressive too – the sound really helps enhance and create the mood for the film, and it puts you right in the center of what’s going on in the film. The cinematography doesn’t attract too much attention, it pretty much does what it’s supposed to do. It does have a tendency of using diagonally framed scenes (as scene in the image above), something I’ve always been a fan of both in filmmaking and photography. The first scene of the film is really the coolest one in terms of the way it’s shot. It’s very, very symmetric, which creates a really good claustrophobic feeling. Come to think of it, I think I enjoyed the first scene of the film the most by far.

Overall, “Mirrors” isn’t really a bad film – but it isn’t particularly good either. It’s worth seeing for the cool but silly story and the sweet scenery introduced to the audience, but it all really comes crashing down in the last 10 minutes. There is a real logical ending shot right before this sequence, that would have worked wonderfully and probably added another star to the final rating. But as it is right now, it’s an average horror film that does have a few scares, and worth seeing if you’re a horror fan – but if you’re not a fan of supernatural horror, then you won’t be missing much.