Movie Review - Mirrors

Just got back from the midnite advanced screening of Mirrors.

Now, THIS was a horror movie! It's about time! I have not been this freaked out over a movie since The Ring...

You may want to check my earlier post regarding movies that scare me to get a better feel for what really makes my heart race, but the movie ended well over an hour ago and my heart rate is just now returning to normal. And, in fact, there were only two small groups of people that were in the theater besides me and they were gathered around their cars discussing the movie and quite a few of them seemed pretty shaken up as well, so this time, it wasn't just me being the wimp.

So the basic story: Ben has been temporarily suspended from his police position due to an unfortunate accident that is still pending investigation so he takes on a part-time job of security guard for an empty department store building that was pretty much destroyed in a fire several years before. Ben starts seeing things (that may or may not really be there) in the mirrors at the store and when he digs a bit into how the previous security guard died, he starts fearing for the safety of his family.

The movie opens up with a man running like the devil, himself, is after him and I was having a minor panic attack as he started running straight toward the screen (when you read my post about what movies scare me, you will find this type of thing terrifies me). Thankfully he wasn't a creature. Just a normal looking guy. But as he starts looking for a place to hide from the whatever is chasing him, he runs into an empty room which ends up being a locker room and after seeing that the window only opens to a brick wall (stupid architect :]), he notices that all of the locker doors start opening, displaying mirrors inside each one. Then he sees one very large mirror and as he approaches it, what his reflection does is very bone-chilling.

After seeing the movie I was disappointed that "trailer 2" gave away pretty much every good scare scene - albeit some were just quick flashes, but if you know what you are looking for, you will see them all - but as long as you just stick with "trailer 1" which has been the one advertising the most on tv, then you will most assuredly enjoy the movie more without being hit in the face with a bunch of spoilers.

I do not want to give away anything because one of the fun things about this movie was trying to piece all of the clues together to figure out what was going to happen next and how the problem was going to be resolved. And in the meantime, the story, itself was entertaining, and the scares were plentiful. At the start of the film I decided to count how many times I had that "oh my god, I'm gonna pee my pants I'm so freaked out" moments and there were 36. And it should be mentioned that the count was about 28 until the last 3 or 4 scenes of the movie and then I was having trouble keeping track because a few of them were coming at me every few seconds as flashes (so maybe I should only count those as a couple all together?).

Great makeup job for the scaries. Great score to let you know what creepy stuff might or might not be coming up. Not the best acting, but certainly not the worst and with the types of things that were required for them to do, I think they all did a pretty good job. For the guys, there was some nice eye candy throughout. And the actors all had good chemistry together so you really felt like they were a family.

But the absolute best part? The ending. It was WICKED COOL! VERY satisfying. I won't say if it was a happy ending or a sad ending because that would ruin the fun, but I think you will agree, too, that it was an excellent ending.

If you like horror movies even in the slightest, you will enjoy this movie. And...when it comes to demon possession, you really never know what could happen. I mean, The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror were supposedly based on true occurrences. Either way, if you're looking for something scary, this is your movie.

Might I suggest seeing it on opening night and enjoy that full theater experience with a packed house. I am anxious to see it again to find out how others around me react when they are seeing it for the first time.

One word of warning, though. This movie is NOT for the faint of heart. Seriously. The scares don't always give you breathing space between each freaky thing, so if your heart is already racing and you get to the next scary scene without a break in between, that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think I'll have daymares from this one, but I will tell you that I am wide awake now and going back to sleep is not an option.

So go see it and let me know what you thought of it.

Vixy :]