Mirrors: Tormented Cut

Introduction

Reviewing horror films, you're guaranteed to come across your fair share of remakes and a percentage of those will be reimaginings/remakes/inspired by films from Asia.  Whether it's The Ring, Dark Water or, most latterly, Shutter, they're almost guaranteed to be inferior to the original ones and it's a case of looking for something different rather than judging them on their individual merits.  When Alexandre Aja, who came to most genre fans' attention with Haute Tension (renamed Switchblade Romance for the UK and US release), was attached, my expectations were slightly higher than usual so in the disc went.
 

Ben Carson is a detective, suspended from the force after shooting another detective whilst undercover and is living with his younger sister whilst he overcomes his alcoholism and sorts out a divorce from his wife.  Desperate for money, he takes the job as a night watchman at the Mayflower, a department store that burnt down several years ago. If you hadn't seen the trailer or read anything about this, the opening scene shows you that all is not well within the store as the previous guard picks up a broken bit of mirror and slits his throat at the behest of his reflection.
 
Ben gradually works his way around the store and discovers that there's something not right about the mirrors.  Metaphorically donning his detective's hat, he discovers that the Mayflower was built on an old mental hospital and that all the trouble has something to do with Esseker.  With the mirrors out to get his family, he must find out who or what Esseker is and appease the mirrors before his loved ones are taken.
 

Video

You can say what you like about the relative merits of Aja's direction, but it's almost beyond dispute that he and collaborator Grégory Levasseur have a great visual style and used the real buildings in Bucharest to great effect.  I thought it was mostly shot on a set until going through the extra features which revealed they shot in Romania using the run-down buildings that were started by Nicolae Ceauşescu but lie unfinished as he was dispatched before they could be completed.
 
The picture quality is superb, with the black levels especially impressive - you can always tell how good the blacks are when you can't see the letterboxing in dark scenes and this is the case here.  The brighter scenes are also top-drawer and the special effects make up by KNB is particularly gruesome and gory - Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger have been at this game for years and have perfected their art.
 

Audio

For English speakers, the DTS-HD MA soundtrack is very clear and does a superb job of transmitting the jumps and atmospheric score. There are also a couple of DTS options for Italian and Spanish speakers, with a decent array of subtitles.
 
In a film like this, the soundtrack is extremely important and, whilst it isn't the most impressive or evocative I've ever heard, it does a reasonably good job of doing what Aja wanted.
 

Extra Features

The commentary with Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur is moderately interesting but I found Aja's unfortunate pronunciation of mirrors (mee-ors) to be distracting and ultimately annoying.  There is an optional picture-in-picture mode where you see behind the scenes footage and can toggle between this and storyboards - this isn't the best advertisement for PIP but does show you something of the shooting process.
 
There are several featurettes, the first of which is more illuminating than the commentary, clocking in at a healthy 48 minutes and follows the shoot with some interviews with the cast and crew, who all had (as is always the case) a great time and found each other to be consummate professionals and a joy to work with.  There are a couple of others which don't have much to say - the "Animated Storyboard" featurette is less than two minutes long and is just of one brief scene.
 

There are several deleted and extended scenes and some extra footage of Esseker.

This disc features both the theatrical and uncut versions of the film and the differences are minimal with the extended version having just slightly more gore that was cut out to secure a 15 certificate for the theatrical run.  There is no reason to watch the cut version, stick with the unrated cut. 
 

Conclusion

Over the years, J-horrors have turned various pieces of technology into something more sinister, starting with VHS, moving on to cellphones and cameras to the Internet so Kim Sung-ho's South Korean shocker Into the Mirror was unique with the malevolent object as something inanimate and non-technological. 
 
If the filmmakers are to be believed, they didn't know that the script was a remake until they were advised to watch Kim's film as they didn't like the initial treatment and wanted to do something themselves.  Whether or not it's true, it's further evidence of Aja and Levasseur failing to live up to the promise of Haute Tension by making remakes (The Hills Have Eyes) or disappointing and preposterous films (P2).  Mirrors continues this downward trend with a thoroughly boring and silly offering that again fails to improve on the original. 
 

Casting Kiefer Sutherland as Ben evokes a world-weary Jack Bauer rather than Nelson from Flatliners, the character the two Frenchmen wanted to mimic the most.  Sutherland plods through the mystery of the mirrors, Esseker and his family seem most at threat from him when he pulls a Jack Torrence, barging into their house with paint and brushes, removing all mirrors and blocking all reflective surfaces.
 
If you want something fairly unimaginative, gory and with some reasonable shocks, then this will do the job but there are much better films out there and I just hope that Aja and Levasseur can prove they're not one-hit-wonders by making something more like their debut feature.