Years after a family tragedy, a woman takes her recently-released brother with her to a remote house in order to confront the demonic entities inside a cursed mirror that started the earlier incident, only to find the mirror at the cause of events going far beyond her expectations.
Overall, this turned out to be quite the enjoyable remake. One of the finer aspects here is the fact that this one does manage to follow up on the same general setups as the original film is a pretty straightforward remake. The ability to really dig into the backstory that's offered here, from the loving-family beginning to the time he spent in the asylum and how that's affecting their ability to stop the forces at work within the mirror itself makes this quite detailed with their relationship at the heart of the first half. Featuring the same setup of the two going away in order to prove their point, this one generates some rather fun ideas with the same setup exploring the history of the mirror in the different ages which work nicely into the family's troubled backstory. This is played out in the flashbacks to them as kids detailing the final days before the tragedy that has some fine work here. Focusing on her single-minded determination to get the truth revealed manages to turn out some rather chilling scenes here, from the trick with the varying individuals inside the house to the intense sequence that far more accurately shows the reason for the mirror's tortured history which in turn sparks the film's finest moment in the revelation about the past tragedy which is shown being inflicted upon the kids as well as the encounter with the figure in the mirror at the same time which not only is a chilling scene but also has some stellar action involved as well as the final half where they finally come face-to-face with the different ghosts in the house. Being unable to tell the truth about the different realities makes for a fun time here, and with the enhanced action and some chilling moments generated by the creepy-looking ghosts, these here prove to hold it up over it's few minor flaws. Much like the original, the main problem with this one is the rather bland pacing. Far too often in this one, the insistence of the psychological torments the mirror inflicts on others takes centerstage which results in plenty of time without much happening. Since their setup and eventual revelation of the history about the mirror takes up most of the first half here, there's not much actual supernatural action really featured here which causes this one to really feel quite dull for long stretches of time. While it remains quite enjoyable based on the eventual descent into madness featured here, the pace is still quite troublesome with the way it focuses more so on the psychologically damaging effects on the family than the shock-jumps. The other big issue here is the problem trying to keep the story lines straight as the repeated flashbacks make it difficult at times to determine what actually is going on with the actions taking place in different realities. The familiarity might also be an issue since it does play so close to the original, but overall, these here really lower this one.
Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence, Language, implied violence-against- animals and children-in-jeopardy.
