Mirrors

In 2008, a movie called Mirrors was released, directed by Alexandre Aja, written by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Lavasseur, and starring Kiefer Sutherland and Amy Smart. This is the first horror movie that I've posted on here, and I'm posting it for good reason. For a horror movie, I thought it was quite well done.

Mirrors is a remake of a Korean horror movie called Geoul Sokeuro (Into the Mirror). I have not seen the original, but I have read that it scarier than this one (imagine that, the original being better). This movie follows an out of work New York cop named Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) who is staying with his sister and separated from his wife and two children. He gets an overnight job as security officer at a department store that had burned some years earlier. Beginning on his first night, he begins seeing strange things in the mirrors of the store. He then goes on a quest to unlock the mysteries of the mirrors and uncover the horrors that lie behind them. He finds out that the store used to be a psychiatric hospital years earlier that used mirrors to treat schizophrenia. Carson finds a woman who was "cured" of her schizophrenia, but then explains that what was in her was a demon that collects the souls of whomever it kills. The demon wants the woman back, and the price is his family's lives.

What makes this movie interesting is the fact that any mirrored surface works. It takes some times before you find that out. At first it's just the mirrors in the store. Then it's the mirrors at home. Then it's the mirrors in the car. Then it's reflective surfaces such as in a morgue or windows or water. Water is perhaps the most terrifying since it travels. The only plot hole I can think of at this time is when Carson removes the rearview mirror in the car, one would think he would remove the side mirrors too, but he doesn't. Not sure why not, and it isn't explained either.

This movie is based on the psychological idea that mirrors do not reflect, but instead they show an opposite reality. For people that lose touch with reality, they look at the person in the mirror (their reflection) is someone else, and therefore is able to do things without their knowledge. This idea leads to the notion of multiple personalities, which not many psychologists agree with anymore. Either way, this movie does a good job of terrifying the viewer into looking at mirrors in a different way. No longer is it safe to look at your reflection, even in water. And the ending, I thought was brilliant. There are certain aspects that most will look at as typical horror, but I thought the concept was strong, and the ideas were strong. For a horror movie, I thought it was quite well done.

Here is a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92QxxgeCO8