BluRay Review: Mirrors

Mirrors
Written by: Alexandre Aja & Gregory Levasseur
Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Smart, Paula Patton, and Mary Beth Peil

Alexandre Aja exploded onto the horror scene a few years back with the near perfect “Haute Tension” (High Tension in America). It was an intense, nerve wracking horror film that completely fell apart at the end, almost to the point of ruining the experience as a whole, but not quite. Despite its extremely flawed ending, Haute Tension was, at the time, one of the better horror films to come along in quite a while. Since then, Aja has embarked on a string of remakes. First, the admittedly entertaining ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, followed by ‘Mirrors’, and the upcoming ‘Pirhana 3-D’. Four films, 3 of which are remakes, one after the other. I’m not sure why he decided to work exclusively on remakes for the past 5 years or so but after watching ‘Mirrors’ he might want to rethink his choice.


‘Mirrors’ is about a cop, played adequately by Kiefer Sutherland, on a leave of absence after a shooting who is also estranged from his family. He takes a job as a night watchman at a burned out department store and discovers the unbreakable mirrors inside are home to an evil force that poses a mortal threat to his family.


Being a fan of Kiefer, a fan of Alexandre Aja, and a fan of horror, this movie should have been a trifecta of perfection for me. Instead, it’s a dud on a monumental level. I don’t know if it was the sub par special effects, the amateurish acting, or the reflection of a camera lens (y’know like the camera filming everything.) that ruined it for me. I do know that I had to struggle to finish it.

The death scenes are decent enough. There is a rather gruesome death scene involving ripping the jaw off someone that was pretty brutal. I’m not sure if this appears in the theatrical version or only the unrated version (both appear on the bluray) but it was probably the best effect of the movie.

The movie may be terrible but it looks fantastic on BluRay. The picture is crystal clear 1080P. The picture and sound are flawless. The disc offers picture in picture commentary, storyboard to scene comparison, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and a making of feature in case you want to know how to make a bad movie.

In the end, despite how great it looks on BluRay, 'Mirrors' is just a bad movie. There isn’t really anything positive about it.


I can’t help but be disappointed especially considering some of the talent involved. Here’s hoping the next movie from Aja (Pirhana 3-D)can redeem him for this stinker.

Mirrors is available on DVD and BluRay now.