1.5/5
Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
A pair of siblings, played by Karen Gillian and Brenton Thwaites, reunite after years apart to finally kill the evil mirror that destroyed their family when they were children.
I thoroughly enjoyed Hill House however, everything else that Mike Flanagan has failed to impress me. He has consistent pacing issues across his works that make them hard to watch, if I was asked to describe this film in a word it would be slow. There are so many needless flashbacks and asides throughout the film that it becomes distracting and more so irritating.
The horror here is okay there are one or two good scares but there is also an over reliance on jump scares that takes away from the film as a whole. Likewise, the mirror itself is left fairly open ended, it might not even be evil and it might just be the children’s way of coping with their dad killing their mum, this isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. However, it becomes a bad thing when the supposed power range of this mirror becomes all over the place, at one point in the film it can only slightly interfere with electrics and other it can fully manifest itself and attack those around it.
I thought the sole positive about this film was Karen Gillian, Gillian is clearly trying hard to make this work and whilst she does leave an impact it is not enough to save the film.
Overall, a slow and often boring horror that makes you want to switch off.
Pros.
Karen Gillian
One or two good scares
Cons.
It is slow
There are far too many flashbacks and asides
Crippling pacing issues
Not specifying how powerful the mirror is.
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Another Millennial Reviewer 