There are inevitable predictabilities in all films. However this one let me down because as soon as I saw the "kill switch", which is a very complicated device to assemble on your ceiling, and the girl must have had professional help installing it, as soon as I saw it while they tested it, I knew instantly that someone would die from it. Then I thought there was no reason for the device to be assembled so that it can kill a person simply passing in front of the mirror at the wrong time. The device could simply be adjusted to swing higher, simple safety precautions. This is so basic that the script fails badly, considering the kill-switch is the largest "twist" of the film.
The sister had many years to prepare the experiment, in full knowledge that all sorts of crazy things and hallucinations take place when you are around the mirror. Still, she appears to fail (absurdly) in another two areas.
Firstly she has invited her shaken brother to the experiment area which she has meticulously thought of and has setup, however she has not prepared him at all, he really has no idea what this is all about. So he is startled and spends most of the time on camera being completely useless or even contradictory. Might as well have stayed at home.
In addition she makes no effort, except in just one scene, to "stay together". They both roam around the house as if on a picnic making no effort to protect themselves against the hallucinations which they had experienced before as children and should know by now or be prepared at least with an exit strategy. Which was kind of hinted in one scene, "the influence stops at 30 yards", well then dumb-ass stay farther than 30 yards. Doh! The girl has lost her mother and her father and has seen her brother institutionalised because of the mirror. She has researched dozens of victims through the years all dieing gruesome deaths and clearly suffering hallucinations. Yet she displays a cocky attitude walking around the house carelessly like a botanist observing his plants!
The few scenes that we see of their parents are also absurd. Both behave illogically with ridiculous dialogues such as the "woman in the office", the "voices", their reactions to the dog's behaviour, the husband who appears to be from Mars... If you see a woman suddenly materialising in front of you I doubt you will simply brush it aside and go eat your corn flakes.
The general idea of the malevolent mirror is sound and its exploitation could have been done so much better. The author has a free hand, like in Harry Potter, to create any situation he wishes. The mirror is magical and can create any situation imaginable. Those situations should have been engineered to lead the actors inexorably to their destruction but without having them acting absurdly.
The whole story can be summarised "magic mirror kills people around it". That's about it.
The sister had many years to prepare the experiment, in full knowledge that all sorts of crazy things and hallucinations take place when you are around the mirror. Still, she appears to fail (absurdly) in another two areas.
Firstly she has invited her shaken brother to the experiment area which she has meticulously thought of and has setup, however she has not prepared him at all, he really has no idea what this is all about. So he is startled and spends most of the time on camera being completely useless or even contradictory. Might as well have stayed at home.
In addition she makes no effort, except in just one scene, to "stay together". They both roam around the house as if on a picnic making no effort to protect themselves against the hallucinations which they had experienced before as children and should know by now or be prepared at least with an exit strategy. Which was kind of hinted in one scene, "the influence stops at 30 yards", well then dumb-ass stay farther than 30 yards. Doh! The girl has lost her mother and her father and has seen her brother institutionalised because of the mirror. She has researched dozens of victims through the years all dieing gruesome deaths and clearly suffering hallucinations. Yet she displays a cocky attitude walking around the house carelessly like a botanist observing his plants!
The few scenes that we see of their parents are also absurd. Both behave illogically with ridiculous dialogues such as the "woman in the office", the "voices", their reactions to the dog's behaviour, the husband who appears to be from Mars... If you see a woman suddenly materialising in front of you I doubt you will simply brush it aside and go eat your corn flakes.
The general idea of the malevolent mirror is sound and its exploitation could have been done so much better. The author has a free hand, like in Harry Potter, to create any situation he wishes. The mirror is magical and can create any situation imaginable. Those situations should have been engineered to lead the actors inexorably to their destruction but without having them acting absurdly.
The whole story can be summarised "magic mirror kills people around it". That's about it.