Metacritic Film

Mirrors

Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck, Amy Smart, Mary Beth Peil, John Shrapnel, and Jason Flemyng

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity

20th Century Fox
Horror
110 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters August 15, 2008

Ex-cop Ben Carson takes a job as a night watchman at the burned-out ruins of the Mayflower department store. As he patrols the eerie, charred remains of the store, he begins to notice something sinister about the ornate mirrors that adorn the Mayflower walls. Reflected in the gigantic shimmering glass are horrific images that stun Carson. He soon discovers that a deadly threat looms, trapped within the mirrors and reflective surfaces that pervade his everyday life. And if he has any hope of saving his wife and children from a horrifying death, Carson must somehow uncover the truth behind the mirrors - and battle the greatest evil he has ever faced. (20th Century Fox)

WRITTEN BY
Sung-ho Kim (Korean motion picture "Into the Mirror")
Grégory Levasseur
Alexandre Aja

DIRECTED BY
Alexandre Aja

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

35 / 100

Critic Reviews

63	TV Guide Actually a marked improvement over the plodding and confusing original.
58	Entertainment Weekly The movie could have been a lot scarier.
50	The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson An occasionally inventive but ultimately plodding horror film.
50	The New York Times A minor chiller and major downer from the talented Alexandre Aja.
50	Chicago Reader Director Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) keeps the suspense tight for most of the movie, only to fritter it away in an overblown ending.
40	Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen An empty enterprise that provides a few moments of goofy fun, Mirrors reflects back nothing.
40	The Hollywood Reporter This remake of a South Korean movie ultimately provides fewer scares than the average aging baby boomer feels every time they look into a reflective surface.
33	The Onion (A.V. Club) The film looks to do for reflective surfaces what "Amityville 4" did for killer lamps.
30	Variety Rob Nelson Softcore horror at best, failed allegory at worst, Mirrors reflects little beyond Splat Pack auteur Alexandre Aja's desire to push his genre into less punishing and more profitable territory.
30	LA Weekly Jim Ridley It's a mystery why Sutherland attached himself to this dour, muddled thriller.
25	ReelViews The gore is so badly done that it's borderline comical and poor lighting passes for "atmosphere."
25	Boston Globe At nearly two hours, Mirrors is overlong for a summer horror toss-off, and the movie's three or four false endings make it seem even more of a haul.
20	Austin Chronicle An effective sound design enhances several of the film's sudden frights, and Sutherland, who appears in almost every scene, is a predictably solid presence.

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