MIRRORS 2

Mirrors 2 (2010)
Directed by: Víctor García
Written by: Matt Venne, Sung-ho Kim
Starring: Emmanuelle Vaugier, Evan Jones, Nick Stahl

Reviewed By Ross Hughes

Plays more like Stir Of Echoes part 2, in that the typical J horror angle has been replaced by mystery and a whodunit!

This film is a tricky one!

I was not a huge fan of the original, or should I say the remake of the original!  Despite the talents of director Alexandre Aja who will forever be in the hearts of horror fans for the wonderful Switchblade Romance, even with the star quality of Mr Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland, Mirrors was a muddled affair that failed to offer nothing new and was not a patch on the South Korean Into the Mirror that it was based on!

It done well though to somehow spawn a franchise and while Sutherland is long but gone, the film has its own John Conner to take over the proceedings.  Nick Stahl takes over the lead role which follows the same blueprint of what happened before, but with a bigger body count and added gore.  So a typical sequel then.

Not quite though.  While the haunted mirror aspect is still there, this somehow plays more like Stir Of Echoes part 2, in that the typical J horror has gone, replaced by a mystery and a whodunit!

Max (Stahl) takes on a job in the Mayflower building, not the same building that tormented Kiefer, but a different one in another city!  His father, a returning to the horror genre William Katt, owns the Mayflower brand but is worried for his son, who is still recovering from a horrific car crash that killed his girlfriend while he was driving.  Max reluctantly takes on the job, but in the very first hour he sees an image of a young girl in one of the mirrors.  Now I  must apologise I am skipping ahead here, but before we see Max take the job, we see a scene where the building Manager gets extremely excited by a mirror that has been transferred from one of their old buildings.  Of course the building they mention is that from the first, which means this mirror is now very special, and is the reason why these haunting start to happen.

Of course to do into detail will spoil those who want to watch, because as I have said, this is more of a mystery than a full blown horror, in which centres all around a missing girl that Max sees in the mirror, and whom targets the workers of the building.  Its up to Max to solve the mystery of the ghost and unravel the cover up of sorts between who is involved and why this girl appears to him, in which looks for a desperate cry for help.

Yes it does sound all Kevin Bacon, but to fair what makes Mirrors 2 such an enjoyable trip is the set pieces, which for a straight to DVD horror, are of the upmost quality.  Right from the beginning the quality is there!  The security guard who Max replaces, finds himself looking at his reflection which does not move when he does.  What follows is a piece of glass and a mouthful that will delight the horror gores and it does not stop there!  A shower scene which if you can withstand the long shots of a naked woman for what seems an eternity, finally gets the pay off with a marvellous death scene and there is two more of two follow.

Which brings me to the negative.  For a film that is supposed to be horror, there is very little.  There are maybe four deaths throughout simply because the film puts its full attention into the mystery angle, which was not a bad thing for me, but may put off the more demanding horror crowd.

So here comes the tricky bit, if you are a fan of the Kiefer film then you may be more judgemental at what is on offer.  The film has a totally different outset to what Mirrors offered, maybe wisely and probably unintentionally, moving away from the now tired J Horror.  If like me, you found the original passable fare, then you may well find this a lot more enjoyable.  It does not insult the audience and while the mystery is not exactly a mind blowing affair, it keeps you guessing, right up until the final quarter, when everything kicks in and the horror rug gets pulled out.

One thing is for certain though, if you loved Stir Of Echoes then there is no question that you will find a lot of enjoyment in this quite similar sequel to Mirrors…….

OVERALL: A quite solid follow up that serves up some wonderful death scenes, but the toned down horror may offend those looking for some weekend thrills….

Rating: