Mirrors

An ex-cop takes a job in a burned-out department store where the mirrors seem to have an odd, pervasive power. Spine-chiller starring Kiefer Sutherland and directed by Alexandre Aja
Screenwriter-director Alexandre Aja and his regular collaborators Gr??gory Levasseur (co-screenwriter) and Maxime Alexandre (cinematographer) have had a slightly uneven career since their international breakthrough, the intense Switchblade Romance in 2003. In 2006 came their surprisingly okay The Hills Have Eyes remake, then Aja took a backseat for the disappointing horror-thriller P2 (2007) directed by Franck Khalfoun. Mirrors takes the core team back to remake territory, this time for a film from the cycle of Japanese, Korean and Thai horror films that blazed briefly and brightly in the wake of the success of Ring (1998). Mirrors is a very loose remake of Into The Mirror, a Korean film from 2003. The cycle of US remakes of Asian horror films has shown diminishing returns, starting out comparatively strongly with Hollywood Rings and Grudges, before dwindling with the likes of Pulse, Shutter and One Missed Call. Mirrors is, thankfully, better than most of these. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, a former New York cop who a year previously accidentally shot and killed another undercover officer. Removed from the force and kicked out by his wife Amy (Patton), he's sleeping on the sofa in the flat of his sister Angela (Smart). But he tells Amy, "I'm doing everything I can to get back on my feet again." This includes taking a job as a night guard at the Mayflower, which had once been "the most beautiful, most luxurious" department store in the city but was gutted by fire five years earlier. The fire took dozens of lives and, after the film's freaky prologue, you know you can't believe the day-guard (Shrapnel) when he says, "Not too much going on. It's pretty calm around here." Fans of the 'Silent Hill' video games (let's ignore the film) will appreciate the early scenes of Ben exploring the Mayflower. It's a great setting, all smoke-stained walls, creepy charred mannequins, tattered drapery, creaks, groans and mirrors, all atmospherically shot by Aja. Prior to the store's 1952 inception, it was a hospital. In no time, Ben is starting to have freaky experiences - a door will open in a mirror's reflection but not in reality; he sees burning figures and even bursts into flame himself - but only in a reflection. He doesn't like the place, but he's tenacious, has a detective's instincts and is determined to figure out what's happening. The only clue his reflective tormentors give him is "ESSEKER" - but who or what is it? And will Ben not only be able to keep his mind and body together? And will he be able to protect his family (yep, that old chestnut) as the evil power starts to spread out from the Mayflower? Most affected is Ben and Amy's son Michael (the eminently cute Boyce), who starts communing with things in the mirrors, Poltergeist-style. Mirrors runs to nearly two hours, which is too long for this sort of throwaway frightener. The first hour is pretty good as Ben walks the burned halls of the Mayflower (high marks to the film's art department), and Aja and Co keep up a satisfying series of chills and jumps. And gore. Although the BBFC suggested trims from the filmmakers to get a 15 certificate in the UK, there are still a few pretty grim moments - specifically the fate of Angela. But in the second half of the film, when Ben's investigations start revealing a truth involving the old hospital's psychiatry department, things start getting silly. The film's own rules break down - Ben tries to remove or hide every reflective surface in Amy's house but leaves the shiny toaster; he destroys his car's mirrors but leaves the windows, as he has to run about for the sake of the plot. That running about takes him into the sticks and into contact with comical hillbillies, then on to a convent (yep, there's an Exorcist-style possession angle here), where he starts waving his gun about - something that in reality would have got him arrested pretty sharpish. Although the film does have a modicum of emotional engagement, in part thanks to it starring a half-decent actor like the gravel-voiced Sutherland, and though it flirts crudely with an Innocents-style question of the supernatural versus mental health, it squanders these elements in the rising tide of silliness. In terms of Ben's state of mind, he's on pills to help control his alcoholism, pills that doctor Paula says are "a strong drug... has a lot of serious side-effects." Indeed, despite the script telling us Ben and Paula have a strong bond, she starts out utterly unsympathetic - "I don't have time for this!" - and only has a cliched sudden change of attitude when she witnesses the mirror madness first hand - "It's not your fault. I should have believed you." Duh. The film's English is pretty iffy in places too ("If I return back..."), possibly a consequence of Aja and Levasseur working in a second language. A bit more script editing might have been useful.
Verdict It's not the worst entry in Hollywood's catalogue of Asian horror remakes, but is Aja's most disappointing film to date.