When the Mirror Fought Back: The Hidden Battles Behind Look Away
On the surface, Look Away (2018) is a sleek psychological horror about reflection — both literal and emotional. It tells the story of Maria, a lonely high-school girl whose mirror image, Airam, becomes her darker, more confident alter ego. But beneath that haunting concept lay another layer of struggle — one that unfolded behind the camera. What began as a genre experiment for Israeli director Assaf Bernstein and actress India Eisley became an emotionally draining project that mirrored its own story of identity, suppression, and survival.
A Story That Was Always About Pain
Maria is the kind of teenager who blends into the wallpaper. She’s bullied at school, ignored by friends, and misunderstood by her parents — particularly her perfectionist father (Jason Isaacs), a cosmetic surgeon obsessed with appearances. One night, when Maria looks into the mirror, she finds her reflection talking back. That reflection — Airam — is everything Maria isn’t: confident, seductive, fearless. But the empowerment comes at a price. When Maria lets Airam take control, chaos ensues — lives are destroyed, and innocence turns to vengeance.
On the screen, the story feels like a supernatural coming-of-age fable — a dark metaphor for self-acceptance and repression. But the emotional toll on those who made it was far from fiction. India Eisley, who had to play both Maria and Airam, confessed that the duality almost broke her. “I had to keep jumping between fear and control, submission and power,” she said in an interview. “By the end of the shoot, I didn’t really know which side of me was mine anymore.”
For an actress known for quieter roles (Underworld: Awakening, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), Look Away was her psychological gauntlet. She was on-screen in almost every frame, often playing opposite a green-screen version of herself. The loneliness of acting without a physical partner echoed Maria’s isolation. Eisley later admitted that some of the most intense scenes — including moments of confrontation between Maria and Airam — were shot at the end of exhausting 14-hour days. “You have to fight yourself emotionally, and it’s terrifying,” she recalled.
A Director’s Vision That Almost Went Too Far
Assaf Bernstein, who both wrote and directed Look Away, had conceived the idea years earlier while watching his teenage daughter struggle with the pressures of beauty and social validation. “The mirror became a symbol for that endless comparison,” he said. “It reflects not just what you see, but what you hate about yourself.”
But turning that concept into a full-length feature proved far from smooth. The film was shot on a modest budget, and much of the visual work — the mirror sequences, in particular — required extensive post-production and multiple takes to align eye-lines, gestures, and timing perfectly. The mirror scenes that looked seamless on screen took weeks of planning and digital stitching.
The emotional weight of the material also took a toll on Bernstein. Crew members later described how he would often stay overnight at the editing bay, trying to “find the balance” between horror and heartbreak. “It wasn’t about jump scares,” he said. “It was about looking inward — and that’s much scarier.”
The budget constraints forced the crew to be inventive. There were days when India Eisley had to redo mirror scenes because lighting inconsistencies made reflections impossible to composite correctly. One assistant cameraman reportedly quit after a 17-hour shoot, saying, “The mirror became a monster. It was eating us alive.”
Jason Isaacs and the Uncomfortable Role of Perfection
Jason Isaacs, who played Maria’s father, was drawn to the role for its psychological discomfort. Known for his commanding presence in films like Harry Potter and The Patriot, Isaacs said he felt repelled by his character — a father who hides cruelty beneath sophistication. “He’s someone who wants control over everything — including his daughter’s appearance,” Isaacs said. “It’s every insecurity about parenting and vanity rolled into one.”
Off-screen, Isaacs was going through his own reckoning with fame and pressure. In interviews following Look Away’s release, he opened up about past struggles with addiction and self-image. The irony of playing a character obsessed with surface beauty while battling his own internal demons wasn’t lost on him. “The film was about masks,” he said. “And I’d worn a few in my life.”
Bernstein later mentioned that Isaacs’ vulnerability off-camera deepened his performance. During one pivotal confrontation scene, Isaacs reportedly asked for a few extra takes because he “didn’t want to fake the pain.” What audiences saw — the restrained cruelty, the flicker of regret — came from somewhere deeply real.
The Mirror That Broke Its Own Team
Behind the elegant cinematography and haunting score, Look Away was a grueling production. Crew members described long, cold nights on set, shooting in empty houses and sterile bathrooms to evoke Maria’s alienation. The mirror rig — a custom setup involving two synchronized cameras — malfunctioned frequently, causing delays and reshoots.
India Eisley later revealed that she injured her neck during one of the more physical sequences where Airam takes over Maria’s body. “There’s a scene where I’m supposed to move unnaturally, almost like my bones are cracking,” she explained. “It looks creepy, but it left me sore for weeks.”
There were also moments of emotional fatigue. The film’s constant tension — the blurred identities, the violence — made it hard for cast members to detach. Crew members would occasionally find Eisley sitting silently between takes, staring into the actual mirror used in the film. “I think she was trying to talk to Airam,” joked a crewmate, “but none of us laughed too hard — because maybe she really was.”
When Reel Met Real
When Look Away finally premiered, the response was divided. Some critics called it “an elegant psychological thriller,” while others found it too slow, too introspective. But among those who connected with it — especially young women — the film resonated deeply. Social media filled with messages from viewers who saw themselves in Maria’s alienation, her quiet rage, her fractured identity.
In India, interestingly, Look Away found a curious cult following among fans of introspective horror like Black Swan and Gone Girl. Indian audiences discussed it in relation to societal expectations of beauty and family control — themes that feel especially familiar in our context. Maria’s suffocation under parental standards and Airam’s rebellion echoed the emotional tug many Indian daughters experience: the need to be “good” versus the need to be free.
The Aftermath That Stayed with Everyone
For the cast and crew, Look Away wasn’t the kind of film one could just walk away from. Eisley took a long break after the shoot, turning down roles that felt “emotionally draining.” Bernstein, meanwhile, went quiet for years before directing again, saying he “needed distance from the mirror.” Even Jason Isaacs admitted that it was one of the hardest characters he had ever played — “not physically, but morally.”
In the end, the film’s theme — facing your reflection — became prophetic for everyone involved. The struggles on set, the exhaustion, the identity clashes — they mirrored the movie’s central message: that facing your darker self might be the only way to understand who you really are.
And that’s perhaps Look Away’s haunting legacy — a film where both the characters and their creators discovered that the scariest battles aren’t waged with monsters outside but with the reflection staring back at you.