Kiefer Sutherland does a fine job of holding strong in his performance as Ben Carson. Of course, it comes off as a twist on his Jack Bauer character, but no one can deliver a commanding line like Kiefer. It works here, with some very nice line deliveries and a surprisingly strong emotional component. However, the rest of the cast could not quite keep up. Paula Patton seemed over matched, and Amy Smart just isn't given enough to do.
The direction is quite good from Alexandre Aja, who once again proves he has the skills to deliver a scary movie. Yes, there is an abundance of jump scares, but I found them to work quite well within this frame. The guy simply knows how to make a scary movie. To that end, there are some very nice gore sequences, including the opening and highlighted by the jaw scene that is hinted in the trailer. The problem is that his writing has slipped back somewhat, allowing the focus to slip from the story to the scene.
As far as the writing goes, by Aja and Gregory Levasseur, Mirrors lacks a consistent internal logic. Simply put, the rules keep changing. This gets into a little of what could be called SPOILER territory, so you may want to skip the rest of the review.
The opening scene implies that the force in the mirrors can affect inanimate objects (the lockers), something that goes away for the middle part of the movie. It is implied that the mirrors can show things of the past but cannot verbally tell any information (hence the scratching of "ESSEKER" in the mirror), however later we have Amy speaking from the mirror, leaving me scratching my head. Then after all of the fuss about the mirrors, it turns out that anything that casts a reflection can be a gateway, doorknobs, windows, and, in particular, pools of water. Another problem is how, all of a sudden, the force on the other side of the reflection can pull beings across the plane to the other side, when Ben's son is pulled into the water; why not do this to anyone else? Let us not forget the finale that reveals a demon leading to a knock down, drag out with Ben, reminding me of the Ash versus Deadite battle at the bottom of the well in Army of Darkness.
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