The Evil Dead series is one of my all-time favorites, and while there are significant tonal changes throughout the three movies, one thing that's consistent is the inclusion of a crazy scene with hero Ash's reflection. In the first film, what should be a solid sheet of glass turns to liquid at his touch. In the second, his reflection literally comes out of the wall and scares the hell out of him. In Army of Darkness, Ash's evil doppelganger, Evil Ash, is spawned from his mirror image.
Most of these concepts found their way into Alexandre Aja's new horror flick, Mirrors. However, whereas Raimi tends to stop the reflection bit after one or two gags per film, Aja takes it a dozen steps further in his Kiefer Sutherland vehicle. Does it pay off? Sure.
The things Mirrors does well are many, and the things it does exceptionally well are also apparent. From the lovely Amy Smart ripping her own jaw off its hinges to some truly, truly brilliant cinematography and set design, Aja's new film is largely a visual, visceral success. The problem is that it's not something many people will be entertained by twice.
The effects in the film exhibit so many kinds of movie trickery, you could probably write a great book on the production, even for some of the simplest and non-essential shots. Many of these scenes are played without any cuts, which tends to make everything really believable, even if the story kind of isn't. Some sequences are aided by CGI enhancements and there are very few digital strings to be found. In fact, the one or two sour digital effects are all but totally overshadowed by an spectacular, very physically-based finale. There's a beauty to be found here, and a few genuine scares, too. The over-reliance on jump scares will turn many off, I'm sure, but Aja's timing is so uniformly precise that it becomes a question of how many audience members he can get a reaction out of over and over again, as opposed to sucker-punching a few easy targets and calling it a day.
You know, the film's getting a bad rap, and to be honest, I don't have any real interest in buying it. It's a wonderfully staged piece for what it is, but it's rather overlong, and it's not necessarily a "Fun" film to watch. Its strengths rely on its ability to awe and astonish. But after subsequent viewings, I don't think the effects will still be as seamless, and I don't think the film's other qualities are strong enough to inspire many, many viewings. Whereas The Evil Dead's effects just seem to be more impressive when you find out how they're done, I feel that Mirrors just isn't strong enough in other areas to make people want to watch it over and over and over again, and learn to love it despite its faults. That seems kind of unfair, but keep in mind... this is a pretty depressing, dark story, and it takes a very long two hours to wrap up. That said, I've been convinced of Aja's immeasurable talent since High Tension, and I really feel he's gonna knock his next project out of the park. All he needs is something else I can watch religiously, like High Tension, and learn to love more and more as time goes on. He's done it once, and he can do it again. And he probably will.
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