Alex Aja comes through once again, putting together a very scary and enjoyable remake of “Into The Mirror”, creating a very easy to watch film of paranoia, ghosts, religion, and death. Mirrors, is not a cult classic by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not a bad movie, and despite what critics are going to say about this film, this was actually quite good.
The initial thing that I caught in this film was definitely great. I’m talking about typography. The typography in the beginning of the film came out backwards, as if they were in a mirror, then they flipped right side up. It was a really nice touch, and alongside the typographic effects, they used a cool (albeit beginner technique) mirror technique to display a vast city. It really was cool to see my schooling used on a real professional level.
The gore level was huge at the beginning. There is definitely a great introduction to the overall film, and it was great. However, the gore levels really just stop there for the most part. You might remember Amy Smart ripping her jaw off, but that was also in the first third of the film. It was incredible, but I think it might have been CG instead of make up techniques that I was expecting.
Here is a trailer for the movie Mirrors:
The rest of the film played out like an episode of 24. This movie really had some pacing problems, and like a lot of horror movies, I was ready to throw the towel in. However, right when I was ready to give up on this film, I really was in for a shock. The movie started to unravel, and I started to get a tense cold spike, and this film was insane. There were a lot of mirror effects that was top notch.
I didn’t like the wife’s acting. I thought she was horrible. However, the movie isn’t terrible at all. This movie was really tense at times, and besides the jump scenes, they had some great juxtaposition of religion, skepticism and reality.
For those of you that are now lost by this, I’ll take a moment to explain the film. The plot surrounds an old hotel with these indestructible mirrors. These mirrors are high, and massive. Inside the mirrors the dead seem to come alive, but in the real world there is nothing happening. The idea of dimensions is expressed in this film. Take a mirror and put it in front of another mirror slightly askew and you’ll see an infinite array of reflections. There is a theory of infinite universe and proof of God that hinges on the idea that in two mirrors you see infinite reflections. Therefore, infinite planes of existence, beyond 3-D. Math sometimes can talk of a fourth dimension, and if you are familiar with that, this film hinges on those ideas. The movie takes themes from “The Grudge”, and even “The Exorcist” and mashes them together into a relatively creepy film.
I’m not sure if I enjoyed the ending to this film, but for what it was, it was definitely better than I thought. I would recommend watching the Korean original “Into The Mirrors” but American audiences will enjoy this one for sure. It wasn’t half bad and I liked the intensity that Aja brought to this film. He’s definitely a worthwhile director. For those of you scratching your head about who Aja is, I reviewed his film P2 and High Tension!
Too bad that the studio's didn't push this one. Maybe it's because it was panned by most critics. But you know what? I liked it. I thought it was good for what it is. I paid five bucks and saw the first showing on a Saturday. My wife, who doesn't really have my taste in movies thought this was creepy, and so did my sister. Meanwhile I liked Tropic Thunder and they didn't think it was all that great. So there's definitely an audience for this, and to consider the deeper meanings of infinite universes, and transitional mirror dimensions, really makes for a creepy thing.
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