You see what it wants you to see.
The film takes place in two different times: the present and 11 years earlier. The two plotlines are told in parallel through flashbacks. In 2002, software engineer Alan Russell moves into a new house with his wife Marie, 10-year-old son Tim, and 12-year-old daughter Kaylie. Alan purchases an antique mirror to decorate his office. Unknown to them, the mirror is malevolent and supernaturally induces hallucinations in both adults; Marie is haunted by visions of her own body decaying, while Alan is seduced by a ghostly woman named Marisol, who has mirrors in place of eyes.
Over time, the parents become psychotic; Alan increasingly isolates himself in his office, and Marie becomes withdrawn and paranoid. During the same period, all of the plants in the house die, and the family dog disappears after being locked in the office with the mirror. After Kaylie witnesses Alan interact with Marisol and tells her mother, Marie goes insane and attempts to kill her children. Alan overpowers her and chains her to their bedroom wall. When the family runs out of food, the children attempt to seek help from their neighbors, who disbelieve their stories. Attempting to contact doctors or the authorities, Kaylie discovers that all of her phone calls are answered by the same man, who admonishes her to speak with her father.
One night, Alan unchains Marie, and both parents attack the children. Marie briefly comes to her senses, only to be shot dead by Alan. Alan corners the children in his office but also experiences a moment of lucidity, during which he forces Tim to shoot him to death. The police arrive and take Tim into custody. Before the siblings are separated, they promise to reunite as adults and destroy the mirror. As Tim is taken away in the back of a squad car he sees the ghosts of his parents watching him from the house.
Eleven years later, Tim is discharged from a psychiatric hospital, having come to believe that there were no supernatural events involved in his parents' deaths. Kaylie, meanwhile, has spent most of her young adulthood researching the history of the mirror. Using her position as an employee of an auction house, Kaylie obtains access to the mirror and has it transported to the family home, where she places it in a room filled with surveillance cameras and a "kill switch"—an anchor weighted to the ceiling and set to a timer. Kaylie intends to destroy the mirror but first wants to document its powers, prove its supernatural nature, and thus vindicate her family.
Tim joins Kaylie at the house and attempts to convince her that she's rationalized their parents' deaths as being caused by an external force. The siblings argue until the houseplants begin to wilt and cameras document behavior they can not recall. Tim finally accepts that the mirror has some diabolical power and attempts to escape the house with Kaylie, only for the pair to be repeatedly drawn back by the mirror's influence. Trying to call the police for help, they are only able to reach the same voice who spoke to them on the phone as children. Kaylie accidentally kills her fiancé, who she mistakes for a hallucination of her deceased mother, and later sees his ghostly figure. The pair begin to hallucinate and experience visions of everyone killed by the mirror.
As the two timelines merge, Kaylie and Tim begin to interact with their younger selves. Younger Kaylie is drawn to the mirror by an image of her mother beckoning to her; at the same time, Tim as an adult hallucinates that he is alone in the room with the mirror. Tim activates the kill switch, causes the anchor to descend, and fatally impales a mirror-obscured Kaylie. The police arrive and arrest a hysterical Tim, just as they had arrested him when he was younger. As both a boy and adult, Tim claims the mirror is responsible. As he is taken away, the older Tim sees Kaylie's ghost in the house with his parents.
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| Directed by | |
|---|---|
| Produced by |
Marc D. Evans Trevor Macy |
| Written by |
Mike Flanagan Jeff Howard |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
The Newton Brothers |
| Distributed by | |
| Release date(s) |
April 11, 2014 (2014-04-11) |
| Running time | 103 Minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget |
$5 million |