Mirrors (2008) by Alexandre Aja

Director: Alexandre Aja

Year: 2008

Country: USA/Romania/Germany/France

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Ghosts

Plot:

Working in a fire-demolished department store, a security guard finds that the constant ghostly visions and hallucinations he sees in the mirrors around the store are directing him to solve a decades-old mystery, and races to unravel it before the spirits target his family.

Review:

This here was quite the fun if somewhat slightly flawed effort. What really stands out for this one is the fact that there are quite a lot of strong and utterly chilling haunting scenes throughout here which manage to really get this one worked up quite nicely. The film's central concept of having the mirrors reflect a different reality than the present and using that to trick a person into thinking they're actually there is a fantastic ploy and manages to give this one strong and entirely distinct haunting scenes. Starting with the fantastic opening scene in the subway bathroom of the mirror-version forcing the victim to commit suicide in the real world and looking on approvingly after the fact, there are some creepy scenes here including his first security walk-through that makes him discover the trail of hand-prints on the inside of the glass and eventually leading him into the darkened hallway on the other side of the room, the second one where he goes to inspect the mirror only to have it break off and slash his hand that soon turns into the film's best series of gags featuring the mirrors showing him to be on fire only for the reality of the situation to be quite different and the final store gag where it uses a strong sense of atmosphere to send him into the investigation at full intensity while being a solid gag itself.

Once this one leaves the department store and features the ghosts interacting with the outside world it's far creepier and generates all kinds of great shocks with the spectacular scene in the apartment bathroom that results in this one's greatest sequence, the big chase around the house where they realize their son's disobeyed their orders and must contend with the ghosts attempts at causing them harm by stalking their son and the grand finale in the underground chamber where he straps in the victim to the chamber and lets her get repossessed only to lead into the grand brawl at the end which is a ton of fun leading through the water-logged tunnels and leading up to the fiery escape to get out of the crumbling building which makes for a thrilling and spectacular series of encounters here which is what makes this one so much fun. As well, the gradual unveiling of the mystery here makes for some rather fun times here as there's some nice work done at setting up the ongoing mystery and letting the backstory hold this one together rather nicely. Alongside the graphic gore and bloodletting, these here are the film's positives and hold it up over the few negative aspects.

The main issue with this is the fact that there's the rather bland middle half which doesn't really offer up all that much interesting stuff in the middle portions as it focuses on the investigations without going for the series of ghostly hauntings which really makes it feel a little bland and padded out rather than actually interesting. While there's still a rather enjoyable presence found throughout here, the pace is noticeably dragged out and slowed which does feel rather off as the focus turns away from ghosts to whether or not he's insane and the distracting nature of figuring everything out which is what makes the film just a bit too long. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot else really wrong here.

Overview: ****/5

A chilling if slightly flawed effort, there's a lot to like here that manages to hold it up over a few minor drawbacks that are present in this one. Those who are fans of this particular style of genre fare or appreciate the creative crew will have the most to like here while most others out there should heed caution here.