Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on August 15, 2008, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
For a film whose creators claim they strayed far from its Asian cinematic source material—Into the Mirror, a 2003 Korean production by writer/director Kim Sung-ho—Mirrors still ultimately feels like one more trip through very familiar Far East-inspired horror territory. There’s an evil presence that operates through a common household item, the backstory of a past tragedy to be uncovered (in part via a trip to the rural countryside), the young girl at the center of said tragedy, etc. Director/co-writer Alexandre Aja, who quite effectively updated The Hills Have Eyes two years ago, has put plenty of evident effort into building a dramatic spine into this redux, but the final product remains overly familiar and lacks sustained chills, despite the attempts to goose it up with a few bloody jolts.
Mirrors’ most impressive achievement is its sets, care of production designer Joseph C. Nemec III (Terminator 2), particularly the burned-out interiors of the former Mayflower department store in which a good deal of the action is set. It is here that ex-cop Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) takes a job as a night security guard, part of his plan to rebuild his life after hitting bottom following his accidental shooting of an undercover detective. (Aja and his regular co-scripter Grégory Levasseur use this incident to set up Ben’s character but rarely refer to it again; similarly, his wife Amy, played by Paula Patton, makes an early reference to working in his precinct, but is later seen to be a doctor.) Ben is getting over a drinking problem and is on medication, so when he starts seeing strange things in the store’s huge mirrors, those around him believe they’re probably in his mind.
We, of course, know they’re not because a) we’re watching a horror movie and b) we’ve already seen one unfortunate soul dispatched when his mirror image cut its own throat, with identical bloody results in the real world. Ben soon comes to realize that the looking glasses are allowing something else to look back, and that whatever it is, it’s not confining itself to the Mayflower, but is following him around. Eventually, he comes up with enough clues to delve into his own investigation, and the movie settles into the well-worn formula, in which the dialogue consists largely of exposition and variations on “Jesus Christ!”
Sutherland goes for haunted intensity most of the time but occasionally breaks into such Jack Bauer-style outbursts; similarly, Aja largely aims for a sense of creeping dread while punctuating the proceedings with a couple more spectacularly gory setpieces. The result is that those seeking a classical ghost story will get grossed out, but there’s not enough mayhem on screen to fully satiate gorehounds. (Though certain fans may be amused by what appears to be a direct reference to Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond late in the game.) And it must be mentioned that a bit of the nastiest demise’s shock value has been drained away by the ubiquitous on-line and TV promos revealing how it begins.
Indeed, and perhaps appropriately given its visual emphasis on duality, there seem to be two movies battling within Mirrors. One is a horror/mystery that takes its leisurely time revealing information to Ben and the audience (the running time is a rather overlong 110 minutes). The other is the kind that fills the screen with flash cuts of jittery, staccato spooky-girl images, CGI specters and fiery explosions. The two never quite mesh, and any narrative through-line gets jumbled as the evil spirit’s purpose becomes increasingly arbitrary and contrived the more the filmmakers attempt to clarify it. If there’s a reason the malefic presence never killed anyone via the Mayflower’s mirrors until after the place was gutted by the fire, the movie never reveals it.
Mirrors winds up being another of those genre exercises that builds a decent amount of tension in the early going when all is mysterious, then loses its way as it tries to explain things. Even as it makes stabs at rising above the norm through more serious-minded and realistic characterizations, it still resorts to having people stick around dangerous locations when they should be getting out while the getting’s good. The movie does get points for a neat, chilly final scene; it’s a shame that the journey to it isn’t nearly as satisfying.
