Mirrors 2
Director: Victor Garcia
Stars: Nick Stahl, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Christy Romano
Review by: Brian M. Sammons

The first movie wasn’t a very good film. It was a remake of a somewhat popular South Korean fright flick and had the usually dependable Kiefer Sutherland as the lead. It was helmed by a very talented director, Alexandre Aja, who seemed to have lost his way for a bit before redeeming himself somewhat with the campytastic Piranha 3D. Best of all it had an honest to goodness great scene in it with Amy Smart ripping her own jaw off.

Unfortunately Mirrors 2 had none of that going for it. The story has nothing to do with the original movie. The talented but misguided director is replaced by Victor Garcia, the guy Hollywood calls when they want a quick and dirty direct to video sequel such as Return To The House On Haunted Hill and 30 Days Of Night: Blood Trails. Macho Kiefer was gone and replaced by so-wooden-he-could-be-called-Pinocchio Nick Stahl, and there’s not one memorable scene in all of the 90 minutes of this movie. So does that mean this movie was horrible? Well it’s sure sounding like it was, but let’s find out for sure.

Nick Stahl plays a young man haunted by a traffic accident that killed his girlfriend. His father owns an expensive department store and he convinces his son to come out of his shell a bit by taking a job as the store’s night watchman. Almost immediately the big shots at the store start dying in horrible ways at the hands of their own reflections.

You know how most horror films today will have a character looking into the mirror of a medicine cabinet before opening it, then the spooky music will start up and you know that as soon as they close the door to the cabinet there’s going to be something spooky in the mirror? But when they do close the cabinet door there’s nothing there, because most moviemakers know what a cliché that is and they’re only messing with your head. Well this movie doesn’t know that and so it relies on the “spooky thing in the mirror” thing again and again and then some more for good measure. Reflections appear in the mirror when they shouldn’t, they disappear and they move independently of what the person in front of the glass is doing.

It is that last strange ability that proves deadly as whatever the reflection does in the mirror happens to person in the real world. If it slashes its own throat then the person it’s a reflection of has his or her throat gashed open. Pretty much that’s all this movie does over and over.

Security guard Nick must solve a bit of a mystery about a missing girl and why only certain people are dying, but the answer to that question is painfully obvious and the surprise twist is anything but surprising. As for the acting and direction, both are serviceable, if somewhat boring and by the numbers. The special effects are a mixed bag to be sure. Some of the practical gore gags, that is those made with honest to goodness fake blood and guts, look pretty darn good. As for the CGI, well I’m not a computerized effects fan so maybe I’m just biased, but they didn’t look all that great. No, they’re not Lake Placid 3 bad, but they are pretty far removed from good.

While the film may have been mediocre at the best of times, the Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox is surprisingly good. Not only does this package offer both the BD and the DVD but there’s making of featurette and another one on the visual and special effects. There are a few deleted scenes and a kind of neat way to watch the movie “with the woman in the mirror” but it gets old kind of quick. Best of all, on the DVD the Korean movie Into The Mirror that the first film was based on can be found. That was a nice surprise and brings the term “bonus feature” to a whole new level when one of the extras is a complete movie.

Mirrors 2 is a middle of the road fright flick. It neither excels at entertaining the viewer nor does it disappoint too greatly. Sadly, those are the movies I dislike the most as a truly horrible movie can sometimes at least be fun in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. This movie is ho-hum from start to finish. So if that sounds like a good time for you then by all means, give this direct to video sequel a shot. If not, then give it a pass.

About Brian M. Sammons

Brian M. Sammons has penned stories that have appeared in the anthologies: Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, Dead but Dreaming 2, Horror for the Holidays, Deepest, Darkest Eden and others. He has edited the books; Cthulhu Unbound 3, Undead & Unbound, Eldritch Chrome, Edge of Sundown, Steampunk Cthulhu, Dark Rites of Cthulhu, Atomic Age Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu and Flesh Like Smoke. He is also the managing editor of Dark Regions Press’ Weird Fiction line. For more about this guy that neighbors describe as “such a nice, quiet man” you can check out his infrequently updated webpage here: http://brian_sammons.webs.com/ and follow him on Twitter @BrianMSammons.

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