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Directed By
Alexandre Aja
Written By:
Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, Sung-ho Kim
Cast:
Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Amy Smart, Mary Beth Peil, John Shrapnel, Jason Flemyng, Julian Glover, Josh Cole, Ezra Buzzington, Ioana Abur, William Meredith, George Dumitrescu, Jaymes Butler, Cameron Boyce, Frank Mayers, Matt Neufeld, Erica Gluck, Aida Doina, Roz McCutcheon, Tudor Stroescu, Bart Sidles, Valeriu Pavel, Liliana Donici, Irina Saulescu, Aurelia Radulescu, Daniel Bandila, Violeta Ene, Christopher Troxler, Tim Ahern, Adina Rapiteanu, Cai Man, Jingdong Qin, Anca Damacus
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Mirrors (2008)
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Movie Review by Chris
January 28th, 2009
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'Mirrors' is Alexandre Aja's second major release in America, his first being the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, which became strangely popular after it's release. 'Mirrors' is a remake of a Japanese horror film called Geoul Sokeuro, directed by Sung-ho Kim. I have not seen the original film so I cant review this particularly as a remake, but as a stand alone horror movie, Aja seems to find his downfall here. 'Mirrors' just isnt that great of a movie, it's gory at times and creepy at certain moments, but everything besides that just feels wasted. It didnt satisfy me as much as I wouldve liked to. For a traditional horror release it's also very predictable, there is nothing to surprising here. Though I will admit that the creator of the original film did a great job with the main story, about how mirrors kill people, but Aja seemed wasted by this idea and eventually the story evolved more into a mission to save his family.
Horror films are becoming very complicated, as a major horror fan I want to see real horror, not just this psychological stuff. To describe 'Mirrors' as horror is maybe taking it to far, it's a psychological thriller, though heavy on the violence, there is no real horror. In fact, the scariest thing about this movie is the hardware store all the mirrors are located in. Of course the story dissolves more into a mystery, as Ben soon finds out that his wife and two kids are in danger, he must do whatever it takes to save them from the mirrors. Basically what the mirrors do is show something thats really not there and the action in the mirror happens in reality, such as a reflection of a man slitting his throat, and in reality his throat is being cut. This offers up some really nice and inventive death scenes, but Aja is famous for this. Through High Tension and Hills Have Eyes, one of the more stand out elements was his taste for violence, they were bloody movies but they didnt revolve around the gore.
Most of the time the sight of blood in the films was for a visual treat. In 'Mirrors', there was two major sequences of major gore. In the beginning theres a slit throat scene and later on we get the famous jaw tear sequence, the scene every commercial and trailer focused on the most. I will say that during a few of these scenes Aja might have taken it to far and a little bloodier then usual, but they were well crafted. The jaw scene is so hard to watch just because it's done very graphically, it's mind blowing to watch. All this also deals around how Aja works behind the camera, he has a gift for visual treatment. It's not to dark of a movie and the light adds to some of the scare effects he goes for, but as a director he knows what he wants. It's simple directing, but where he places the camera and how he sets up the scenes helps a lot.
With all three of Aja's movies, both Alexandre and Gregory Lavassuer wrote the scripts. 'Mirrors' is a very complicated project, though they borrowed a lot of ideas from the original, I give them credit for attempting to make some character with Ben. Played well by Kiefer Sutherland, you know, that guy from 24, Ben has a complicated and rough past. He was a detective for the NYPD until he was shot. After being shot though, he had mood swings and got heavily into drinking, it got so bad his wife kicked him out of the house. He went to live with his little sister Angela and now he's beginning to clean up. He takes medicated drugs to stop him from drinking and his wife now believes the drugs is what's causing him to see the things in the mirrors. Kiefer does a well job as Ben, hes believable and he never pushes himself to far. Since 24 got started, he hasnt been seen in to many major big screen releases, but it's good to see him get back in the trend. He's a great actor and after this final season of 24, I would like to see him get back into more film.
Angela is played by Amy Smart, Angela is Bens little sister. After the death of their father, Ben took care of Angela with everything he could, and eventually she moved on to get an apartment and live her life. She cares a lot about Ben, knowing his past, she's afraid hes going to lose control of his life and just die out. I wish her character couldve stayed in the movie longer then she was in here but Amy is a great actress who I found to really like after Crank, in which she played one of her most insane roles in film. Paula Patton plays as Amy Carson, Ben's wife. With Amy he had two kids, a boy and a girl, both are growing up and Ben is doing everything he can to move back in and live his life with his family. Paula is good here, one of the better performances in the film just because she seems like a mother, her performance is completely based around that mother aspect and I liked her a lot.
'Mirrors' is a tough film to completely hate, I give Aja respect for what he tries here but the movie just doesnt stand up as tall as it couldve. It feels rushed and tiring, at times boring and though it has a few key scenes, does nothing for modern day horror stories. Aja is currently working on a remake of Pirhana, hopefully he can do something more with that then he does with this.
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