Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Mirrors (2008)

Mirrors, starring Keifer Sutherland, is brought to us by the director/screenwriter who created such gems as the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and High Tension. The Hills Have Eyes never should have been remade in my opinion as the original had a campy charm that can't be recreated. But High Tension was pretty badass, so I'll start this guy off with a clean slate.
Mirrors is a remake of Geoul Sokeuro, a Korean film with the same story. Apparently Alexandre Aja thought it had been long enough since we ripped off pretty much every every Asian horror movie in existence and felt he had the go-ahead for this one. Kiefer Sutherland plays Ben Carson, an ex-NY cop and recovering alcoholic trying to get past a tragic incident while on the job. He's living with his sister Angela (Amy Smart) while looking for work and attempting to reconcile with his wife.
Ben gets a job as a graveyard shift security guard at a burnt-out department store that is currently in the midst of a legal battle. The store is seriously creepy, and dirty, but strangely enough, the mirrors are sparkling clean. After working a few shifts at the store, Ben begins to experience some strange things involving mirrors. These occurences extend to his family -- including his sister in New York, and his wife and children in what I assume is New Jersey.
Ben becomes determined to find out what the cause of these crazy mirror problems are, and his investigation leads him to an old mental hospital that housed a severely schizophrenic young girl who was "rehabilitated" in strange ways.
The story is good up until this point, but then it kind of veers off track. Kiefer lapses into some "24"-esque dialogue and then the action sort of follows along with that. There's this totally ridiculous fight scene, and the ending is generally meh.
This movie was pretty good altogether. There were some decent scares, good cinematography, and a solid plotline. There's a general creepiness about it, and freaky kids thrown in for good measure. The last 20 minutes or so kinda killed it, but it's worth a watch. Oh, and the end left it open for a sequel, which I pray to the horror gods they do not make.
Grade: B- (The Ring -- solid and creepy, but definitely not a classic)

1 comments:

Jeremy Sambuca said...

This deserves a must better grade. The only bad part of the movie is the matrix like fight scene.