Mirrors Analysis- Research and Planning

The trailer starts with a stereotypical American lifestyle, a house in a lonely neighbourhood with a family. The way most horror films begin which already reveals a lot to the viewers. The scene then switches to a deserted what appears to be a warehouse, which is very big and someone says 'well, this is where you'll be spending most of your time, insinuating that he'll be there at night too.' Which sets the stereotype of how most horror films and bad events are staged at night. Then the man who is giving the father a tour of where he'll be staying says 'The man that was working here before you, he was completely obsessed with these mirrors'. This not only relates to the title and the importance of the mirrors, but also adds question as to what happened to the man that worked there before? This conspiracy adds suspension and excitation to the trailer and will make the audience want to watch the film more. The trailer then reveals what the issue is after the protagonist turns his back on the mirror and his reflection turns around, and he doesn't. The non diagetic sound displays the change of drama in the trailer as things seem to go downhill ever since the sound changes from happy stereotypical family music, to scary, jumpy distorted music. The diagetic sound of screams, smashes of glass and loud bangs relate to not only the fear of the character in the film, but also the audience as they can both hear it and makes them share mutual emotions of fear.

Mirrors is a 2008 supernatural horror film directed by Alexandre Aja, and stars Kiefer Sutherland. The film was first titled Into the Mirror, but the name was later changed to Mirrors. Filming began on May 1, 2007, and it was released in American theaters on August 15, 2008. This film is distributed by 20th century fox, which is a very big multi-national co-operation and could signify why the film had such success due to it's viral marketing. Kiefer Sutherland is a very big and well known actor, which is even more distribution for this film making it a success because viewers are guaranteed that it will be good due to his reputation in the horror and action filming industry.

Plot: In New York, a former detective Ben Carson is hired to work as night watch of the remains of a Department Store that was partially destroyed by fire many years ago. Ben became alcoholic and was retired from the police force after killing a man in a shooting. His marriage was also destroyed and now he is living in the apartment of his younger sister Angie. However he has not been drinking for three months and sees the employment as a chance to rebuild his life. When he goes to the rounds in his first night, he finds that the mirrors are impeccably clean and his colleague explains that the former night watch was obsessed by the mirrors. After a couple of nights, Ben sees weird images in the mirrors, but due to the lack of credibility of his past, his ex-wife Amy believes he has hallucinations as a side effect of his medication. When Angie is found brutally murdered in her bathtub, Ben discovers that there is an evil force in the mirror that is chasing him and jeopardizing his family.