Before Alexandre Aja latest film “Mirrors” hits cinemas, Movies.ie recommends you check out the following similar titles.
Kiefer Sutherland takes a well-deserved break from “24” to star in French filmmaker Alexandre Aja latest horror fest ‘Mirrors’. A re-imagining of the Japanese classic – the film follows Ben Carson, a disgraced New York City police officer battling the consolation of Jack Daniels and straining the last nerve of his estranged wife (Paula Patton). Ben takes a new job as night watchman at a burned-out department store , where an abundance of spooky mirrors that sprout phantom hand prints and manipulate his reflection – rather horribly, as it turns out. A trail of evil and psychiatric disturbance follows Ben home, where he must decipher the meaning of a series of cryptic carvings in the hopes of saving his family and cutting ties with the malignant lurking presence…
Before checking out Alexandre Aja latest film “Mirrors”, Movies.ie recommends you check out the following similar titles:
HIGH TENSION
Alexandre Aja hauls the slasher film back to its roots with his gore-addled romp High Tension. Like the most effective additions to the slasher genre, the film’s plot is elemental, and simply serves as a springboard for Aja to deliver lashes of blood and guts. Alex (Maiwenn Le Besco) and Marie (Cecile De France) are two teenage girls who head out to Alex’s family home in the French countryside. Once there, their idyllic and peaceful time is abruptly disturbed when a maniac breaks into the house and butchers Alex’s parents. The shadowy figure captures Alex and throws her into his van, while Marie escapes and sneaks into the vehicle in order to save her friend. By affording very little screen time to the unhinged protagonist who attacks the family, Aja creates a genuinely scary villain, recalling Wes Craven’s treatment of Freddy Krueger. While the violence is explicit and the girls fit perfectly into their roles, Aja prevents the film from lapsing into parody by packing a mind-bending twist into the plot. A valuable and fun addition to the canon of slasher films, High Tension lives up to its name.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES
There’s strange goin’s on in them there hills! In this case, a bad case of inbreeding and general nastiness. The Wes Craven classic is given a remake by Aja (in possibly his finest film to date). In the 2004 remake, the all American family are pitted against a clan of hill dwelling cannibals in an unforgiving desert landscape. For gore fans there is plenty to amuse here, including a particularly tasteless scene involving the family’s pet bird. What was truly ground breaking though was how the upstanding family quickly revert to savagery themselves, as their battle to survive becomes an all out war.
MIRROR MIRROR
In this straightforward horror film, a new widow (Karen Black) and her daughter (Rainbow Harvest) have just moved into a new home. Later the pair discover later that the previous owner was mad, mad, mad. By then, the mirror that the woman left behind in the house has served its purpose as a gateway to demonic worlds, and the evil ones have wreaked havoc in this one… The film, like Jennifer in 1978, is considered one of the most well-crafted rip-offs of Brian De Palma’s Carrie, with MANY resemblances withdrawn in it including references to the the music score and the “It’s not like we’re gonna dump pig’s blood on her” quote. The film went on to have three sequels including Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance in 1994, Mirror, Mirror III: The Voyeur in 1995 and Mirror, Mirror IV: Reflection in 2000.
RINGU
Perhaps the most terrifying film to feature a reflective surface at its core, Ringu is the ultimate in Japanese horror. Exactly one week after staying at a remote cabin, a group of Japanese teenagers all meet sudden inexplicable deaths. A cousin of one of the victims, reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of a videotape containing hauntingly bizarre footage. Upon viewing the tape, Reiko receives a phone call stating that she, too, will die in one week. As the clock ticks away, Reiko enlists the help of her estranged husband, Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), who possesses limited psychic abilities. Together they attempt to discover the meaning behind the cryptic film and break the supernatural curse.
Mirrors is in Irish cinemas from Friday, October 10th.