SHATTERED GLASS

REVIEWED - INTO THE MIRROR (GEOUL SOKEURO): This latest missive from the South Korean scream machine begins with a stunning scene…

REVIEWED - INTO THE MIRROR (GEOUL SOKEURO): This latest missive from the South Korean scream machine begins with a stunning scene in which a department store employee watches as her throat is sliced open by her own reflection in a wash-room mirror.

Nothing that follows quite lives up to that sequence's promise, but there is still plenty to enjoy in this supernatural puzzler. No horror film since Candyman has done such interesting things with the human reflection.

The department store, which is on the point of reopening following a deadly fire, seems to be infested by evil spirits. Employee after employee perishes near one sort of mirror or another, leaving the authorities baffled. At first the police think that the young girl's death was suicide. They change their minds when they discover that (nice touch this) the incision in the throat of the right-handed victim was made by a left-handed assailant.

It slowly becomes apparent that the store's owners are up to all kinds of corporate malfeasance and that one of the fire's casualties may be taking revenge from beyond the grave.

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In truth, the conspiracy plot is a bit of a bore and ends up getting in the way of the horror. Similarly, we could have done without all the metaphysical clap-trap about duality, complementary universes and so forth. But worth a glance, for all that.

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke, a contributor to The Irish Times, is Chief Film Correspondent and a regular columnist