Mirrors (2008)
Sub-Genre- Supernatural
In Attendance- Me
Cast Members of Note- Keifer Sutherland, and the uber-yummy Amy Smart.
What's it about?- Jack Bauer has been suspended from duty and is forced to take a night job at an old burned out department store that used to be an insane asylum decades before... deep breath... and his wife doesn't want him around because he drinks a lot, so luckily his hot-ass sister takes him in, and we get to see her nearly in the bath later on in the movie... Whew, long sentence.
Jack begins to see and hear odd things as he patrols the creepy old abandoned department store that used to be an insane asylum back in the day; things like mirrors trying to kill him. They also send him messages, which he doesn't understand and cant quite decode before people around him start dying, all because he's slow. The mirrors kill them out of spite basically.
As the mystery deepens, so does the level of creepiness that agent 24 must deal with. I don't want to say too much more here, since the movie is still relatively new and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but suffice it to say that demons are creepy.
The Good- I was waiting for Mirrors to be the movie that came out of left field and blew me away, but it never quite reached that point. Don't get me wrong, it was good, and some of it was great, but it was another case of a foreign director who made an amazing film in his home country (Haute Tension, France), coming to America and making just another Hollywood horror flick.
I did love how this movie lulled me during it's first half, then became exactly the kind of movie I like in it's second. It's almost as if Aja combined elements of The Ring and Rec, and shook them all together, making a climax that I thought was pretty satisfying. Demonic possession is always fun.
It was by no means epic, but it certainly had its moments. It starts slow, but makes up a lot of ground the longer it runs.
The Bad- I think I'm scared of mirrors now.
The Downright Horrendous- Do any horror movies these days have happy endings?
The Gory- A nice opening throat slash; A wicked bathtub scene; Plenty of other disturbing images of violence, decomposition and possession. Not Aja's bloodiest, but he still brings the red stuff.
The Naked- Amy Smart Naked Alert!!! You only see a side view, but it was still dreamy.
Best Line- "Don't be scared, mommy. He just wants to come play with us."
What did we learn?- Mirrors are evil. Also, Dodge Avengers are bad ass cars.
Rating- B While I wish Mirrors would have pushed the envelope a bit more in some areas, the overall experience was satisfying and fun. Rent it for sure, but it if you can, either way it's a pretty cool flick.
Final Thoughts- Yummy...
