The strength of the best Asian horror movies is that they manage to take some mundane and everyday object and turn it into something sinister. Those crazy Asians. They've made me fear cellphones, video tapes, and now, after seeing this movie, I'm never going to want to look in a mirror again. " Mirrors" is the latest Asian horror rehash, based on a south Korean flick called "Into the Mirror." I have yet to see the original, but seeing this movie makes me want to, mostly to see how the endings measure up. But let's not talk about the ending yet...I'm here to tell you what's actually GOOD about this movie.

The acting in this movie is solid. I mean, the acting from everyone but the lead, that is. Kiefer Sutherland acts by yelling in this movie, and it pisses me off because I've seen him in many movies and I know he's a better actor than this. All he does is scream, even when it's grossly inappropriate to do so, and I know he's supposed to be suffering and recovering from alcoholism and a bunch of other crap, but it just looks like he's pissed off when his character Ben tears through every scene screaming at his family and friends and everyone else that crosses his path, and it takes away any sympathy we'd have had for him if he hadn't been such a prick. Maybe Sutherland didn't want to do this movie and he's taking out his aggression on the rest of the cast, who knows. But really, everyone else's acting is great. Paula Patton is excellent as Amy Carson. At first, I thought she was being a royal bitch and treating her husband unfairly, but after getting to know him for the rest of the movie, I understand why she was so cautious around him. She handles the role of a mother whose world is breaking down around her with admirable skill. At first she doubts her husband's story (because he's a fucking lunatic with crazy ideas and he screams and runs away instead of trying to explain anything to her) but then she sees really creepy things happening around her and realizes that he's telling the truth.

What is the truth? That the mirrors surrounding this family are not reflecting reality, they're showing a skewed alternate universe where the reflections of the people do terrible things, and when the people's reflections do something in the mirror, it happens in real life as well. It gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. After all, how many of us spend most of our lives surrounded by mirrors and reflections we don't even think about? What if some evil was trying to get at us through those reflections? What if it could make us do horrible things to ourselves and to each other? It's a great premise, and when Kieffer Sutherland and his terrible acting aren't mucking up every scene, it plays out well in the movie. Amy Smart is good here as Ben's longsuffering
sister, and Cameron Boyce steals the show as one of the creepiest kids I've seen in years. He straddles the line between demented brat and innocent little kid perfectly (and his later scenes once the evil is out in full force had me cringing).

Most horror movies that are planning to have sucky endings turn sour at about two thirds of the way through, but two thirds of the way through this movie was still going strong, and I held out hopes for the ending because of that. The plot twists are intriguing and the acting from Mary Beth Peil, a latecomer in the story, help add to the believability of some pretty crazy things. Though in the end, this ship sinks, it does some creepy stuff along the way, and it's worth seeing for that reason alone.

I really wanted to like this movie, I've been entranced by the ad campaign for months now, and I'm usually pretty forgiving even of bad horror remakes, but when people who should know better start chewing the scenery like rejects from a low-rent acting school and directors who know better throw stupid and ridiculous plot threads at me like I'm not going to notice, I get cranky. This movie was good for most of its running time, but don't expect a big payoff (or even a small one). You'll just be let down.