Why I Saw It: I'm curious to see Karen Gillan in a leading role (and without the accent).
Cast: A pretty limited cast in terms of head count. Karen Gillan plays Kaylie, who drives most of the story forward . I went into the movie expecting to be distracted by her attempts to suppress her accent but she did that quite well. Her and Brenton Thwaites, who plays her brother Tim and who I've seen in nothing before this, play off each other well. The meatiest parts of the movie are with the flashback characters though. Annalise Basso plays the younger Kaylie and Garrett Ryan plays the younger Tim. As far as child actors go, they are quite good here. Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane play their parents and they get most of the scares in the movie.
Plot: Gillan and Thwaites play a sister and brother who investigate a mirror that she believes ruined their childhoods. That's the short description. You can guess some of what comes next, but without giving much away (although I don't think the story relies on keeping everything a secret), the mirror fights back. Additionally, the film parallels everything in the present with flashbacks to what happened when they were children.
Elephant in the Room: What kind of scary is it? I'd call it a psychological horror. While violent, it does pick it's moments conservatively to do it. The whole movie is designed to make you not sure about anything you are seeing. The way it worked for me, for example, was that I was fine while watching the movie, but was in a funk for the rest of the night and sort of unconsciously avoided mirrors. Then again, I'm a malleable coward.
To Sum Things Up:
I didn't feel like I was watching a rehash of something I've seen before and that's my biggest concern with a horror movie. It doesn't go on any longer than it must. The ending actually ends the story rather than explicitly petitioning for a sequel. When it works, it is very scary and when it doesn't, it's a little dull, especially at the beginning. Also, it doesn't try to over-explain things. To many movies stumble trying to do that when it wouldn't even help the story.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
Horror-fan folks have been praising this all over the Internet, having read your review, I might actually watch it now.
ReplyDelete"doesn't try to over-explain things". Indeed. That' the downfall of most modern horror films: they try to establish some mythos or (at least semi-)consistent context for the story. Isn't horror supposed to be unimaginable and irreconcilable with human logic? I think it is. I think that's what's scary.