Mirrors (2008)

There are two things that even a bad horror film can goose you with: an instant-dread clang on the soundtrack, and that eternal bit in which a medicine-cabinet door swings open to reveal...the demon suddenly there! Mirrors has a handful of the latter moments, but given that it's a tale of evil spirits who reside in mirrors — they're menacing Kiefer Sutherland, as a cop-turned-night watchman — the movie could have been a lot scarier. The director, Alexandre Aja, knows how to reflect the fear in people's heads, but he gets too ensnared in a backstory (a historical inferno, a little girl dragged to an asylum) that's just gothic business as usual. C+