The Mirror That Fought Back — The World of Look Away
Some films frighten audiences because of what they see. Look Away (2018), directed by Assaf Bernstein, frightens because of what an audience refuses to see — a reflection that demands attention. At a superficial glance, Look Away is a psychological horror-thriller involving a lonely adolescent whose mirror image takes over her life. Beyond that glass, however, is a web of unspoken truths about identity, isolation, and the powerful unspeaking pressure to appear flawless. The duality the film demands of its lead actress, India Eisley, is what perhaps makes the film so compelling. Ironically, her off-screen world mirrors the emotional turmoil of her on-screen character.
The Girl in the Reflection
The film’s protagonist Maria Brennan is a high school girl and a “quiet, withdrawn’ adolescent part of ‘Look Away’s’ narrative. Living in the shadow of people’s expectations makes it no easier. Her father played by Jason Isaacs is a prominent cosmetic surgeon, a successful figure obsessed with superficiality. Maria’s mother (Mira Sorvino) is emotionally negligent and depression adds to the child’s emotional havoc. At Maria’s school, she is an invisible shadow drifting through the hallways, taunted by bullies and ignored by the boy she loves in secret.
The film reaches its climax when Maria talks to a reflection of herself. Airam, a more dangerous, confident, and seductive version Maria spelled backward, emerges. Airam offers Maria what she really wants but is too afraid to articulate – freedom, power, and revenge. This is closely followed by a haunting transformation where a reflection steps out of a glass and assumes Maria’s life, one illusion at a time.
The unnerving realism of Look Away is primarily a result of India Eisley’s portrayal of both Maria and Airam. With little dialogue, she crafts two compelling personae, one bursting with rage, the other, self-doubt. Eisley’s effortless transition between the two ends of a psychological spectrum is the most striking feature of the film – from averted glances filled with vulnerability to haunting eyes of a predator, and rage-filled stares, all seamlessly put together. It is impossible to tell where Maria ends and Airam begins.
When the Character Feels a Little Too Real
Eisley’s performance gains emotional resonance due to the way her own history intersects with her character’s emotional desolation. India, the daughter of Olivia Hussey — the iconic Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1968) — and musician David Glen Eisley, has experienced a childhood of fame, albeit without always having its warmth. India has described herself in interviews as shy and introspective and has talked about her discomfort with the pressures that fame brings. Like Maria, she has had to battle with self-definition; in an industry that too often allows actors to be defined by others, she has worked to positively assert her own sense of self.
To prepare for Look Away, Eisley concentrated on solitude for days to grasp the depth of Maria’s loneliness. She refrained from socializing, listened to haunting instrumental music, and rehearsed dialogues as if there were another person with her, all of which was part of her method acting. There’s no doubt it helped with the on-screen authenticity, but it also produced emotional burnout. She once admitted that the intimate scenes with contrasting characters were ‘like being trapped in a conversation you can’t end,’ implying there was no escape.
The contrast between Eisley’s personal stillness and the social invisibility of Maria enhances her performance. This is not acting; it is projection. This is a layer of the performer’s psyche, raw and unfiltered, and brought to the screen.
Jason Isaacs and Mira Sorvino — Broken Perfection
While Eisley’s duality anchors the film, the parents she faces add a tragic weight to the story. Isaacs, known for playing Lucius Malfoy for the Harry Potter franchise, brought his trademark intensity for this role but also a surprising restraint. Off-screen, Isaacs has spoken about his self-image and the pressure of being under constant scrutiny. His understanding of the “masks” people wear psychologically gave authenticity to Dan’s character. In interviews, he has described the role as “terrifyingly close to real human vanity.”
Mira Sorvino, meanwhile, gives the film its aching heart. In the role of Amy, a fragile mother subsiding into depression, Sorvino injects warmth into a cold world. In real life, she has suffered from emotional trauma within the Hollywood system, and this, like the character she plays, strongly resonates with the film’s themes. In the film Look Away, her eyes seem to carry the weight of unspoken suffering, illustrating how unhealed personal wounds can bleed into a performance.
Horror of Beauty, Beauty of Horror
Film critically thrives on differences; Look Away, on the other hand, has a harmonious and strikingly monochromatic contrasts. Blue hues and cool silvers of the household evoke the imagery of Dan’s obsessive home environment. Each of the frames and their compositions is richly detailed, almost sickeningly symmetrical, until a delightfully disruptive force, Airam, begin to break the pattern. The warm glow of the reflection is not a soothing embrace; it is a chilling, predatory embrace.
Always known for his attention to precision in The Debt, Assaf Bernstein draws chilling images and narratives in his works. Most of the mirror images of Airam and Maria, played by the Eisley, were crafted without the use of any CGI. They were all practical camera tricks, frozen in a pose by the mirror and the physical synchronization of the Eisley. One of the crew members pointed the extraordinary attention and artistry in the mirror scene was the unsung portion of the work.
Psychological discomfort of self confrontation is the same as mirror reflection. One of the assistant directors told me, and other crew members, of twin builds for sets on either side of the mirror. Eisley was able to actively engage in real set, while the other version of herself was made to engage in a mirror reflection opposite set. The psychological tension was made real for the audience.
The Buzz and the Aftershock
Prior to its release, Look Away intrigued horror fans with the idea of a “mirror twin” revenge story. The trailer’s haunted whisper, “Do you trust me?” sparked online debates about identity, femininity, and the darker sides of beauty standards. Though audiences anticipated a psychological thriller with jump scares, they received psychological horror with theatrical elegance instead.
Critics praised the film’s slow-burn, and others, its restraint. Look Away, with its focus on Maria, ultimately found a cult audience, and younger fans on social media, with the feeling of invisibility, shifted the reflection in the #BeYourAiram meme to a symbol of reclamation and empowerment. In many ways, the film became a mirror to the audience, revealing the hidden selves they feared and concealed.
What the Mirror Leaves Behind
Bernstein’s direction, behind the lens, was more personal. He has described adolescence as a period of “separation from the self” and that stark self-loathing resonates in school corridors, and relationships, and social media feeds where everyone presents a sanitized reflection.
When the film draws to a close, and Maria’s identity collapses into the glass, the audience is left wondering who they’re cheering for — the introverted girl or her double. This ambiguity is both the film’s gift and a curse. It begs the question: was Airam ever evil, or simply what Maria needed to endure?
This is where Look Away rises above its genre. It isn’t simply about the horror, it is about the healing, for every individual who has looked into a mirror and longed to be someone more powerful, more unshackled, more defiant.
For India Eisley and her co-stars, Look Away was more than a job. It was a mirror for their own conflicts — with façade and authenticity, silence and voice, with the prevailing beauty and the unadorned truth. It is a film with a broken mirror in the end, but something remains quietly powerful: the courage to finally look back.
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