Mirrors (2008)

Movie Info

Smile and the whole world smiles with you

Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) is trying to get life back on track after being suspended from his job of being a police officer and battling alcoholism.  His wife Amy (Paula Patton) and his children Mikey and Daisy (Cameron Boyce and Erica Gluck) cannot be with him as he tries to reclaim his life.  When he gets a job as an overnight security guard at the remains of the Mayflower department store which was burned down years before, he begins to see strange things in the remaining mirrors.  Something is hidden in the mirrors, and unless Ben finds out what, Ben and everyone he knows could be in danger.

Directed by Alexandre Aja (who helped write the screenplay), Mirrors is a supernatural horror movie.  The movie was based on the 2003 South Korean horror movie Into the Mirror and released to mostly negative reviews.

It seems like there was a bit of a horror resurgence in the 2000s as horror movie makers looked to other countries for inspiration…and Mirrors is one of those film.  While the script was largely reworked, the movie still has a feel of other crossover horror films from the period.

Don’t forget to bill Medicaid

Mirrors is kind of sloppy.  The movie is too long and despite having some solid moments of horror, the film seems to putter along with its story which involves an insane asylum, a previously believed dead patient, and Ben’s family which becomes victims of the mirror monsters.  It is also a movie where the frustrating nature of the situation means that the main character is not going to be able to prove anything…so you know it will not end well.  The movie’s actual ending is even messier with Ben’s battle with the mirror monster nun, but I do like the final “surprise twist” ending which wasn’t much of a surprise (but it was done effectively).

Kieffer Sutherland plays the typical Kieffer Sutherland character.  He is brooding and a bit of a lone wolf.  He feels like he is always simmering like his Jack Bauer character on 24 (which was running at the time).  Paula Patton plays his wife while Amy Smart has a smaller role as his sister who get the raw end of the deal.  Cameron Boyce who went on to Disney fame had his first major role in this film and shows some depth as a child actor.

Come on, Kieffer…she just wants a kiss

The movie does a good job shooting mirrors (which is always difficult), but it doesn’t feel very distinctive.  The effects of the mirrors and the monsters have all been done in similar ways in other movies, and when combined with the film’s length is overdone…along with non-horror action sequences that just feel like made-for-TV movie moments.  The bathtub scene however is pretty horrifying.

If Mirrors were an hour and a half, it might be a decent horror movie, but as it stands, Mirrors is bloated and dull.  It does feel that there is potentially a good film in Mirrors and that the original Korean movie might have some teeth.  The movie was successful enough to greenlight a straight-to-video sequel, Mirrors was followed by Mirrors 2 in 2008 which is a stand-alone film.