Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A security guard is exposed to unspeakable acts of evil from the past, present and future only visible to him in the reflection of mirrors. Suddenly, his life is exposed to the evil and he must stop it before everyone he knows is dead.

Alexandre Aja made quite the entry into the horror genre with the French hit High Tension. It was an interesting return to the 70’s gore horror and did a great job with mood and atmosphere. His later remake of The Hills Have Eyes wasn’t quite as well regarded but wasn’t a total flop either. Mirrors is more of a cut and dry horror film and honestly I’m a bit surprised it has the same auteur. The film is good at mood but the style, pacing and execution just seem like they’ve been done too many times before. Ultimately the film just doesn’t bring anything really fresh, despite having plenty of scary moments, and feels like it will disappear into the catalog.

The HD presentation is gorgeous on this one with plenty of fine detail and depth. Film grain is a bit exaggerated and adds to the visual style and colors can be a tad oversaturated at times. Contrast levels are quite strong with good black levels and plenty of shadow detail. The darker sequences exhibit plenty of depth and I never found myself getting frustrated trying to figure out what I was supposed to be seeing. Fine object detail is excellent and the image has a great sense of dimension. Some of the CG work looks a bit soft in comparison but it was hardly distracting.

The DTS-HD Master Audio mix is a great balance of atmosphere and sound design and delivers a solid thrill ride for the most part. Plenty of low bass in this one with some nice infrasonic touches here and there. The score wasn’t quite as moody as I hoped for, but it gets the job done. Surround use is aggressive with great panning effects and discrete use and the track has plenty of quick dynamics to make you jump. Dialogue is balanced perfectly within the mix and tonal balance is strong. While not the most creepy sound design out there the track still does a good job with mood and atmosphere.

This 2-disc set has some pretty good extras that are mostly geared toward the film’s production. Fox includes a Bonus View enabled picture-in-picture commentary with the director and co-writer along with a storyboard comparison. Some deleted scenes and production features are also included and give some insight into the special effects and making the film. The second disc also features a digital copy of the film for portable devices.

While this one delivers plenty of startling sequences and gore it wasn’t anything real new for the genre. I was hoping that Aja would break new ground with this one but ultimately it is just another by the numbers addition. Worth a rental.