#288 -- Mirrors (2008)

Director: Alexandre Aja
Rating: 3.5 / 5

First of all, I want to say that I liked this movie. But I'm pissed. After watching it, I did a little digging - as I often do - and realized that it has happened to me again. I have watched (and enjoyed) a movie that I had not realized was a remake. Ugh. But I don't know why I'm acting so shocked, since the reason I even did a little digging in the first place was because I had a feeling it might be. Pretty much everything is these days, but still! Mirrors is a remake of a 2003 Korean movie called Into the Mirror.  I've looked on Netflix and Blockbuster and wasn't able to find it, so it looks like I'm going to have to do some serious digging if I'm to watch the original. One day I will, and we'll see how this one stands up when that day comes. But until then, let's take a look at how it stands on its own.

Kiefer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, an ex police officer trying to get back on his feet and hold his family together. He takes a job as a night watchmen at a burned down, abandoned old department store in order to make ends meet for the time being. Why an abandoned building that's no longer in use even needs a security guard, I'm not sure. Regardless, Ben shows up to take the place of the old watchmen who is now dead. When he arrives, the man who works the shift before him says something about not looking at the mirrors, and that the other guy was obsessed with cleaning them constantly. So we know immediately (as if the title wasn't enough to clue us in) that these mirrors are not normal. Pretty soon, Ben starts to see some strange things in the mirrors; like, when he moves, his reflection doesn't, or vice versa. He also sees charred bodies in the mirror that are not actually there. He gets good and scared, and he finally realizes that it's not just the mirrors in the building; that whatever this is, whatever is trapped inside, can travel between any mirror that it wants to. It can follow him home. It can torture and kill his family if he doesn't do what it wants him to. And what it wants him to do is find a person who the whole world believes is dead. Many before him have tried, but none have succeeded. Will Ben be able to find this person and save his family from what's trapped inside the mirrors?

The story behind the mirrors was pretty interesting, though it's a little bit weird. None of that really mattered, though, because what I was interested in was the alternate dimension aspect of the movie. The fact that Ben could see things in the mirrors that he couldn't see normally was very intriguing. That and the fact that these spirits, or demons, or whatever they were, could travel to his home was also interesting. Oh, and not only could they travel through mirrors, but they could make themselves visible in windows, and water - anything that could make a reflection. Nowhere was safe. Ben and his wife painted all the mirrors and put newspaper over all the windows and photos, but they forgot about the doorknobs and the bathtub. So even though they went to all these measures to make sure they'd be safe, they still weren't. Ben still had to go find this mysterious person who wasn't extremely willing to help him. It was a race against the clock when it came right down to it, and it almost cost his family their lives.

Amy Smart gets a face lift.

I thought pretty much everything about the movie was good. The effects were great, and there were some pretty grisly murders going on here. Amy Smart played Ben's sister, Angie, and her death was the most gruesome and fantastic. It was absolutely phenomenal. The spirits inside the mirrors looked pretty wicked as well. The ending was sad, and not at all what I'd hoped for. But it was good, and I can understand it, so I can't really fault it for going in a direction that I didn't quite agree with. It's only because I'd hoped for a happy ending, and I didn't really get it. But oh well, shit happens. I wasn't disappointed with the ending; just sad.

Even though it is a remake, and probably mainly because I didn't know that at first, Mirrors is definitely not a bad movie. I have to fault it a little bit for not being original, but other than that...I dug it.