CAST: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton;

DIRECTOR: Alexandre Aja

Always thought there was an evil design behind all those giant mirrors at clothes stores. After all, how many have escaped their magic, whether one thought the view was extremely flattering or deceptively bad?

But how evil are they? Put Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) behind the camera, and what do you think?

In Mirrors, they exist as monstrous things which subsume practically everything bad going around them, are indestructible and insurmountable. They start off from a luxury department store that catches fire, and get at you practically everywhere, from your bathroom mirror to water flowing off a bathtub, to your reflection in your doorknob. And they get at you practically any which way — from getting you to slash your throat with a piece of a mirror, to having you pull your face apart. All captured in graphic detail.

It takes a Kiefer Sutherland — who else? — to find a way around them,

almost. The message being that the Mirrors can return, and going by Sutherland’s record, they probably will.

The question is nice: every time you look into the mirror, is it you looking at yourself, or the mirror looking back at you? The answer ain’t: it’ll probably be Aja wielding the camera again.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com