Parents' Guide to

Mirrors

By James Rocchi, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Brutal horror movie offers little to reflect on.

Movie R 2008 110 minutes
Mirrors Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 15+

Based on 9 parent reviews

fleecy34
fleecy34 Parent of 13-year-old
November 30, 2014
age 18+

Innapropriate

I hope no children under 18 has watched it I'd disturbing rude and Brutel with much more so don't watch it or your children watch it

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
@@@
@@@ Adult
December 16, 2011
age 16+

Shockingly terrible.

Awful movie. There is no plot, and the last 20 minutes or so, which are meant to be the most intense, are the least scary 20 minutes in any film that I have ever seen. It's such a painful, awful movie that you probably won't make it to the last 20 minutes. As for the violence, it isn't really violence. The demon takes the image of the person looking into the mirror and "commits suicide." Still, quite brutal.

This title has:

Too much violence
See all 9 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Haunted by doubt and guilt after accidentally killing an undercover officer, suspended NYPD detective Ben Carson's (Kiefer Sutherland) marriage is shattered, and he's forced to take a nighttime security guard position at the burnt-out wreckage of a department store in hopes that he might be able to move on from crashing with his sister, Angela (Amy Smart). As Ben tours the ruins each night, he starts seeing grim, grisly visions in the store's mirrors -- visions that somehow leap from the glass into the real world. As the malevolent force behind the mirrors poses an increasing threat to Ben's friends and family, he has to unravel the mystery of the force hidden behind the mirrors ... and ask himself whether satisfying the force's demands will really end the threat to his family.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (9):
Kids say (18):

Helmed by French horror director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, High Tension), MIRRORS is long on gore and short on plot. Ben flails, freaks out, and fumbles around trying to decipher the visions and messages he's receiving from the mystical dimension behind the mirrors. (The department store, it seems, used to be a hospital, and the past treatment of a schizophrenic girl lies at the heart of the mystery.)

Even as Ben frantically tries to keep his estranged wife (Paula Patton) and children safe, Mirrors doesn't do much to make viewers care; the mirror visions are so powerful that they can't be ignored or denied, which means that the film simply limps from one bloody sequence to another. Aja's other horror films, while also grisly, had a certain style to them; in Mirrors, the slack plot is just an excuse for a series of gory, violent moments that the film lingers on lovingly. Mirrors has plenty of spooks and scares and special effects; what it doesn't have is much of a plot -- or characters worth caring about.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the nature and character of bloody horror films. Why does Hollywood make them, and what purpose do they serve? This movie -- like The Ring, The Grudge, and Pulse -- is a remake of an Asian horror film; why has Hollywood found Asian horror films so worthy of re-visitation over the past few years? Do violent horror films release negative emotional energy or create it? Can violent, graphic images in films like this desensitize viewers? Does it matter whether the goriness seems "over the top"?

Movie Details

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