Mirrors Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 08.17.2008

An Alexandre Aja Asian horror remake that proves two wrongs can make a not-quite-wrong

Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Written by: Alexandre Aja & Grégory Levasseur

Starring:
Kiefer Sutherland - Ben Carson
Paula Patton - Amy Carson
Cameron Boyce - Michael Carson
Erica Gluck - Daisy Carson
Amy Smart - Angela Carson
Mary Beth Peil - Anna Esseker
John Shrapnel - Lorenzo Sapelli
Jason Flemyng - Larry Byrne
Tim Ahern - Dr. Morris



Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity

Many of the movie makers at the forefront of the horror genre within the last several years are not ones who are doing the genre any favors. Chief among these are two men: Eli Roth and Alexandre Aja. Whereas most directors who make missteps in the genre move on or improve, these two have a growingly painful tendency to prove again and again how much damage they can do to a field that already tops the list of genres hated by critics. While Roth is more well-known thanks to his abysmal Hostel films, Aja is no slouch in the field either. He first came to audience’s attention with 2003’s High Tension, a somewhat promising film that was utterly destroyed by horrendous dubbing and one of the stupidest twists known to cinema. He moved on from there to write and direct the flashy and stylish but insipid remake of Wes Craven’s cult classic The Hills Have Eyes, and then to write and produce the horrendously bad parking lot stalker film P2. Following that failure, he’s attempting to make his comeback with Mirrors, pulling a writer/director/producer triple-duty while Keifer Sutherland takes his turn in front of the camera.

The film, a remake of the 2003 South Korean horror film Into the Mirrors, stars Sutherland as Benjamin Carson. Ben is an NYPD detective who’s been down on his luck ever since he killed an undercover officer in the line of duty. He’s on leave from duty following the aftermath where his entire precinct blames him, he’s battling alcoholism, and his wife Amy (Patton), a coroner, has kicked him out of the house. He’s living with his sister Angela (Smart), and misses his two children desperately. In order to get his life back on track, he takes a security guard job at the remnants of the Mayflower department store, a place that was gutted by arson five years earlier and is now caught in insurance red tape. After being given an introduction by the day watchman (Shrapnel), he takes over and, on his very first night, starts to get immediately creeped out by the very spooky place, a feeling that shoots into the stratosphere as strange things begin to happen. Upon receiving a mysterious package from his predecessor—who inexplicably sent it to him without knowing who he was before supposedly slitting his own throat—he starts to realize more and more that the mirrors in the old department store hold something evil inside them. That evil begins to torment Ben and his family, targeting them while Ben starts to realize what it wants and what lengths it’s willing to go to in order to get them. He quickly becomes plunged into a race to satisfy the evil’s demands and find a way to stop it before everything he loves is destroyed.

Aja has never been a particularly capable director, consistently choosing style and shock over substance. This was the case in all of his films, particularly High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes. His style and shock are certainly on display in this movie, as he makes the Mayflower in particular a legitimately terrifying element of the movie. The dark building is home to old charred mannequins and ominously spooky dressing rooms, a place that would give anyone the willies by just imagining being inside. One of Aja’s strengths is his visual flair, and he throws some of his best work into the Mayflower, which is one of the most terrifying buildings seen in horror in quite some time. He also fills the movie with other strong visuals, such as an effective title sequence that shows images of New York reflected upon itself. The melding of the buildings with their reverse images is remarkably unsettling and sets the tone for the movie. Unfortunately, not all the visuals work as, for all his flair, Aja has not gotten the hang of using CGI effectively. There’s a particularly glaring example when Sutherland is covered with flames that are laughably bad in their realism, though other sequences, such as the jaw-ripping scene from the trailers, comes off nicer. Overall however, in the arena of mood and terrifying eye candy, Aja scores.

Where he doesn’t succeed nearly as well, however, is in his writing. Aja has never been a great writer, though the script here fares far better in its complexity then his previous efforts. He creates a story that is intensely interesting for the first two acts, deftly focusing on Benjamin and his growing paranoia—is he insane, or is he not? It’s not a new story arc for a horror character of course, but it’s navigated fairly capably. Meanwhile, the rules of the mirror world, where the nefarious doubles of the real world do unspeakable things, are an interesting aspect that’s nicely explored. One could make the argument that the mirrors are just a slight variation on the cell phones of Pulse and One Missed Call, but it never feels the same as those and, really, never feels like an Asian horror remake. Aja avoids the pitfalls of previous J-Horror and K-Horror remakes—no onryō here, thank the gods—and instead focuses on making the movie more universal. Unfortunately, while those are all pluses, there are several negatives, particularly as the third act unfolds and it moves from an interesting movie into a far more conventional horror film that gives a “seen it all before” feel. The plot twists get remarkably stupid and completely do away with reality—how does Jack get from a monastery in Eastern Pennsylvania (yes, according to this film there’s a Catholic Monastery—which is really a convent—in Pennsylvania) to New York in a matter of hours? Character development is casually thrown by the wayside in order to get the movie pushed forward, such as Ben’s supposed cop shooting incident, a plot device with lots of potential that’s pretty much ignored. It’s certainly not an absolute wash of a story and has its strengths, but by the time things start to fall apart, the audience starts to roll their eyes.

Much like the film itself does, Keifer Sutherland starts off pretty well as Ben. He seems a very interesting character at the beginning, someone who’s legitimately tortured by what’s happened to him and is trying to get on the right track. As the movie continues on, we see shades of Jack Bauer starting to come out. Sutherland never quite goes into full Jack mode, though he certainly conjures up some images of him as he becomes more take-charge and starts growling things like “Don’t make me threaten you!” Overall, it’s a performance that is as capable as the role requires, though it would have been nice to see Sutherland taking the character in a new direction. As his wife Amy, Paula Patton plays things a lot better. She plays the much harder straight man role to Sutherland’s erratic Ben, going from concerned and wary skeptic to terrified true believer with complete believability. Patton is far better represented here then she was in Swing Vote or Déjà Vu, and looks to be able to move on to increasingly better projects. Sutherland’s other leading lady, Amy Smart, does a fine job in a role that is criminally short. Cameron Boyce and Erica Gluck are shockingly un-annoying as the children. Mary Beth Pell is solid if unspectacular as Anna, a character who will mean a hell of a lot by the end of the film; the rest of the cast are little more than window dressing.

Contrived plot devices and bizarre situations abound—for example, it’s never explained how the previous security guard got the package to Ben when he didn’t know who he was. There’s a lot of potential with the mirror world that seems wasted and underused, and Aja seems more interested with cool gore effects (of which there are many) then good plot threads. The film focuses far too much on jump-scares instead of legitimate terror, and this is unfortunate considering the wealth of potential the Mayflower has. But somehow, Aja manages to make the film float by on the strengths it does have. It’s certainly no great turn, but it’s not a bad one, either. A final plot twist is rare in that it’s one of the few twists recently to be effective, and it would have been amazing to see how that twist could be explored throughout the movie. Sadly, it’s likely that a host of Direct-to-DVD sequels will follow to explore that concept which will take what good there was and toss it out the window, making this movie seem better then it is by comparison. And the worst thing about that is, if this is proof of how Aja’s improving, it Direct-to-DVD may not be a career path deserving for him. And that, really, is the most shocking thing of all.

The 411: Fans of Alexandre Aja's previous efforts will find a lot to like in Mirrors, particularly the stylish look and amped-up gore. Surprisingly, non-Aja fans like myself will find a lot in that to like too, as well as a story that shows Aja's growth as a writer. It's not enough growth to really call this a great film, and Sutherland's Jack Bauer-esque performance doesn't elevate it into that category, though it's not a bad performance. Amy Smart and Paula Patton lead a decent supporting cast to prop Sutherland up through the weaker portions, and while some cheap CGI and a more lackluster and conventional third act drags the movie down, it's not down far enough to destroy it. It may not be a film that qualifies as great, but it's not bad either, and in the current downward trend of horror quality, that qualifies as an unexpected success.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]