Mirrors [Blu-ray]

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 01/13/2009 Run time: 112 minutes Rating: R

Kiefer Sutherland anchors this supernatural thriller from Hills Have Eyes (2006) director Alexandra Aja about an abandoned building that harbors vengeful spirits. Sutherland brings a degree of his 24 intensity to his role as a disgraced police detective working a security detail at a derelict building. A package from a former security guard--who commits suicide in the film’s eerie opening moments--alerts Sutherland to the building’s tragic past, as well as to the presence of dark forces with the ability to harm the living; once aware of their presence, Sutherland and his family become their next target. Mirrors works best in its first third, where Joseph Nemec’s production design delivers maximum chills. Where the film stumbles is its rush to provide a slam-bang conclusion filled with CGI and other effects, resulting in an unsatisfying, open-ended conclusion that does much to dispel the film’s impressively Gothic atmosphere. The unrated DVD presentation differs from the theatrical cut by mere seconds, and the alternate ending included among the battery of deleted scenes is a more satisfying conclusion than the one used in the film. --Paul Gaita