Horror Aficionados discussion

My wife and I were having dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants yesterday and we were attracted to the mirrors. There are many in the restaurant and there was one on the wall directly behind my wife and one on the wall directly opposite the other mirror. These two mirrors reflected each other almost infinitely creating a very nice effect.

We got to talking about how mirrors used to fascinate us as children. My wife would stare at the mirror for long periods trying to catch some movement. I would try to touch the mirror in different places as fast as I could to see if I could beat my reflection and, if I could, maybe I could reach inside the mirror.

Mirrors are fascinating things because no one perceives the same thing inside of them, and they are used frequently in horror and fantasy.

Did any of you also have similar misgivings about mirrors when you were little?
What are your favorite horror/fantasy scenes that involved mirrors?

My favorite is .

Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing.

"Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing."
I've had that feeling since I was little...

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out!

Jon Recluse wrote: "My favorite is .

Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing."

I loved that one, Jon--it really focused on the "fear" of that "doorway"--an image that stays with you....

Jon Recluse wrote: "My favorite is .

Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing."

Excellent book. It really captures the feeling of unease mirrors can give.

Mirrors that reflect persons/objects/creatures that you know are not actually in the room.

Mirrors also work well as cursed objects. I read a story about a haunted mirror that warped a character's reflection and deformed her face as a result.

I forgot about Candyman!

I've got to read Barker's Books of Blood, I think that movie is based on one of his short stories.

American Horror Story also had an episode with a man who was afraid to say "Hey piggy, piggy, piggy" in front of a mirror.

As said before, I think the fear comes from the thought of there being another world/version of oneself on the other side, possibly waiting to intrude or absorb. I actually know someone online who hates mirrors and won't go by them at night.

Holly wrote: "Mirrors that reflect persons/objects/creatures that you know are not actually in the room."

Things like that, yeah. Also, those scenes in movies where a person turns around but their reflection doesn't.

I'm not afraid of mirrors at all in real life but I swear if I caught some kind of 'anomaly' like those two examples I'd run screaming from the room.

Adrian wrote: "I'm not afraid of mirrors at all in real life but I swear if I caught some kind of 'anomaly' like those two examples I'd run screaming from the room. "

I would too!

I also love the scene in The Matrix when Neo touches the mirror before going down the rabbit hole.

Adrian wrote: "Holly wrote: "Mirrors that reflect persons/objects/creatures that you know are not actually in the room."

Things like that, yeah. Also, those scenes in movies where a person turns around but their..."

Or your reflection moving just a little differently from you ;)

What about the movie Mirrors with Keifer Sutherland? Very creepy and yeah sometimes I get that creeped out feeling that my reflection moved in a direction that I didn't... Silent Hill deals with mirrors in a few games too.

Yes, mirror are great. I always loved looking in the bathroom mirror which had to side mirrors on the left and on the righ side and I could move them...I used to push my whole face close to the middle mirror and close it on both sides with the side mirrors, the effect was great, indefinite amount of mirrors and my reflections!

I've read somehwere if you stare at your reflection (don't know how long, I guess till something shows up lol) it will open the doors to the spiritual. I think a burning candle in front won't hurt ;)

Can't remember any mirror book/movie themes but it is often and I love it! It has a great potential!

When I was a teenager we used mirrors to do past life seances (I later used this in a movie I wrote called Night of the Demons). It actually worked for us. You sit in front of a mirror in a dark room with a single candle between you and the mirror and your friends on either side of you. Stare quietly. If it works, the mirror will cloud over black then reveal a past incarnation of the person sitting in front of it. A good party game. There was also a really creepy episode of Boris Karloff's THRILLER about a mirror in a New England house and another about Count Cagliostro trapped in a mirror, both of which were probably based on short stories as so many of the Thrillers were.

Joe, that is truly scary...especially when you're a teenager lol how can you look yourself in the mirror after that experience?! I know that we called the ghosts as teenagers and that creeped me out for sure!

Natasa, Every time we did it I always appeared as an old woman (rather than the baby-faced boy I was). In everything I've ever written women are my strongest characters.

If anyone wants to try it and test it, simply have all the participants write a description of whatever they see during the experiment (if anything) rather than discuss it out loud and then compare the results.

Steven wrote: "What about the movie Mirrors with Keifer Sutherland?

Steven, I think Aja's "Mirrors" is a fantastic horror film.

There is considerable hype in the horror film community regarding the film "Oculus" (written and directed by Mike Flanagan, responsible for "Absentia", a wonderful Lovecraftian film from 2011). Check out the "Oculus" trailer: http://youtu.be/dYJrxezWLUk

Joe are you talking about Night of the Demons staring
Linnea Quigley? That is one I really liked and wanted to get on DVD eventually. Did Steve Johnson do the effects in that one?
Anyway, yeah mirrors are kinda creepy and work really well in both the horror and fantasy genre. I wonder if there could be a way to incorporate them into some scifi too.

Steven wrote: "What about the movie Mirrors with Keifer Sutherland? Very creepy and yeah sometimes I get that creeped out feeling that my reflection moved in a direction that I didn't... Silent Hill deals with mi..."

They also made a sequel, Mirrors 2. Kiefer isn't in that one but it does star Nick Stahl who starred in the HBO show Carnivale.

Steven wrote: "Joe are you talking about Night of the Demons staring
Linnea Quigley? That is one I really liked and wanted to get on DVD eventually. Did Steve Johnson do the effects in that one?
Anyway, ye..."

Yes, and yes. Both are great people.

Joe wrote: "Steven wrote: "Joe are you talking about Night of the Demons staring
Linnea Quigley? That is one I really liked and wanted to get on DVD eventually. Did Steve Johnson do the effects in that one..."

So cool :o) I met Linnea Quigley at a convention in Monroville, PA called the Zombie Jamborie. She was such a nice gal. I really wanted to meet Steve Johnson at the time too. I was going to school at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and taking classes in make-up effects so it would have been cool talking shop with the guy :o) But hey, so cool that you are the guy that wrote that film, and since I really liked it, you know I'm a fan :o)

Erin wrote: "Steven wrote: "What about the movie Mirrors with Keifer Sutherland? Very creepy and yeah sometimes I get that creeped out feeling that my reflection moved in a direction that I didn't... Silent Hil..."

Yeah ya know I got the set of both movies for the holidays and think I may have to pull them out and watch them later :O)

Thanks, Steven.

Thanks, Erin. Hope you like it. NOTD starts a little slow but hang in there. One critic described it as a roller coaster ride with a long uphill climb then a nonstop thrill.

If you like it you might want to check out my book DEAD RAIN. It's out on kindle and soon will be in print.

If you had my face you'd find them very scary.

Teehee. The gentleman above me has a good sense of humor; he knows he is joking!

I can go on about mirrors ad infinitum (indeed I am going to write a small 'book' here)...They fascinate me (I also tend to collect beautiful, ornate ones). I know a great deal about them on a more mystical, spiritual level. To me, they are not at all 'scary'. Of course, they have been used for a frightening effect in some horror films--one cannot refute that.

"Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing."

Well, it should not be. ;)

'A doorway to somewhere else' is a wonderful, magical thing and mankind needs to eradicate their fears and trepidation regarding these new explorations. Of course, at this point I am speaking as to a spiritual level. We must not fear the unknown--nor our own potential which can often lie dormant beneath what are actually ego-based, superficial uncertainties.

And here I am going to sound like a hippie (but then again I come from hippie stock)...As someone who meditates, man oh man, there are countless possibilities, realities/dimensions, portals, abilities, truths, et cetera, that the masses are unaware of.

Two of my favorite all-time quotes (indeed, they are even listed on my profile here) are these by William Blake:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”

I am Pagan/Wiccan/a 'witchy' ;) and to us, mirrors hold great power. They are an integral part of many a self-blessing ritual and can be an essential tool for scrying. I happen to own a beautiful scrying mirror which I have put to use for nearly ten years now with success.

The Victorians, of course, had a penchant for the paranormal--and death...Both were held with great respect. Post-mortem superstitions were common to them--including one involving mirrors...

For as long as the body of the deceased was not buried (but was, perhaps, lying in state in the parlour of their bedroom) every mirror in the house had to be draped in black fabric (usually crepe). This is because there was the 'possibility' that the soul of the deceased would end up trapped within the mirror; if this were to happen, it would remain there forever preventing it from passing forth into 'heaven'.

Briefly, I make use of this superstition in my novella-in-progress (which is set in the Victorian era).

I hope this did not come off as at all 'preachy'; I am sorry if it did for that was not my intention. I tend to be quite passionate over certain subjects is what it comes down to.

Mirrors are portals...Of course, there can be some unsavoury influences 'out there' but wise folk know how to protect themselves against these.

One more quote and it is by Marie Curie this time:

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Lastly, even as a child, I never had a fear of mirrors. And as for any fantasy/horror film which used a mirror to cool effect...I have always been a fan of Ridley Scott's fantasy film, "Legend". I love the scene where "Lily" has turned 'dark'...As she gazes in the mirror startled by what is her new appearance, this massive satyr, "Darkness" (played by actor Tim Curry in a tour de force performance) steps his way through it. Just the sight of him overwhelms her, causing her to faint. This is a very awesome scene (in my opinion).

I imagine there are probably other scenes involving mirrors which I favor--but this 'film buff' is, for the moment, forgetting them (must be this bloomin' head-cold!) .

;)

As well as the mirror being a portal or reflecting someone/where else as already mentioned, they're also a great symbol of the theme of 'the double' - someone who looks like you but isn't.

Depends on the face looking into it I guess.

Ah yes, excellent! Of course, the doppelganger effect...

And if one were to get 'Jungian' about it: mirrors can, at times, represent our 'shadow self' (which is the darker, unexplored side of ourselves. Again, we are often fearful to explore this side, but it can hold great potential. In a sense, it is also a dual part of who we are.).

Hey I'll tell ya why Mirrors are scary!! Cause you people keep standing behind me when I look in them LOL :O) Just kidding...I know what it really is...and this is totally creepy. I was standing in front of the mirror holding a box of Krispy Kreme Donuts open, it was full and when I looked in the mirror it was friggin empty...talk about some scary stuff. Then I look back in the box I am holding and they are really gone!! Holy Crud-Oh-lly right !!

I once watched a haunted hotels show that says in The Knickerbocker Hotel on one of the floors there is a mirror in the hallway. If you look in the mirror, you can see Marilyn Munroe behind you also looking into the mirror.

Is she holding my donuts?

Jon Recluse wrote: "My favorite is .

Just the concept of a mirror as a doorway to somewhere else is a little disturbing."

Thanks for the reminder, Jon. I've been wanting to read this one for some time now.

It has to do with your brain, I think, not understanding the idea of an exact replica that isn't real. Perfect reflections are rare in nature, so you're brain tells you something is very, very wrong with what you're looking at. Mirrors are big on superstition in most cultures,

I never really thought of mirrors as being scary, but I did the exact same thing when I was little, trying to see if I could beat my reflection. It wasn't until I started watching and reading horror movie that I started to think differently about mirrors. The only time they really creep me out though is when it's dark or the lights are off. I actually read somewere though that in Chinese superstition, mirrors actually repel spirits.

I am a little afraid of seeing someone/something standing behind me in the reflection.

But when you think about it, it's useful. Because now you know there is someone/something behind you.

Windows scare me more. Mirrors are just fascinating.

Lol, Jayla I like how you tell us your creeped out by a big mirror you have and then ask for recommendations for books with them in it.

I don't know why but being in the same room as a mirror when it's dark in the room just creeps me out. I'm perfectly fine if the lights are on, but if I can't see it's a whole different story. I don't particularly know exactly what it is about it that bothers me. My boyfriend likes to turn the lights out on me when I'm in the bathroom and say Bloody Mary a bunch of times. We have a giant mirror in the bathroom and it just unnerves me.

I think the reflection in a television can be a bit creepy at times. It seems to be a new way to play with this fear in movies lately. But still, someone stealing your donuts is way scarier...that was probably a hanging offense way back in the wild west :o)

I never thought mirrors were scary until I passed forty. When things were in lower places...mirrors got scary.

Very funny :o)

I love this, I've always been fascinated with this creepiness. I think it's something to do with the combination of everything being reversed and the uncanny valley effect? With an added dose of fear of being watched or something creeping up behind you? Love it, so creepy.

Just recently watched Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland for the second time. Pretty good movie, definitely got horror elements and moments.

Oculus is a great scary mirror movie.

And this is pretty cool too...

http://alturl.com/8fzr7

What isn't scary about a mirror?

But seriously, a mirror is especially creepy at night when you don't know it's there. haha!

Because we fear seeing someone behind us!For I Have Sinned

My late Uncle Joe saw a woman in a mirror; he recognized her as a dead friend. The room was dark, he had just gotten out of bed and when he glanced in the mirror she was standing behind him.

Joe wrote: "Oculus is a great scary mirror movie.

And this is pretty cool too...

http://alturl.com/8fzr7"

Yeah, we just picked up Oculus and it was very creepy. And as for your Uncle Joe, maybe mirrors really are a way for spirits to communicate to the living. Especially ones that they were friends with. Still not something you want to wake up to.

I agree with the concept of mirrors adding a great dimension. Currently I have a horror manuscript in progress where mirrors figure prominently. I like the concept of mirrors as a portal to another dimension.

Mirrors both 1 & 2 were great movies. I think it's the idea that what if what you see isn't what it appears to be. A different dimension or a portal. I know after watching some of those movies, I have that irrational moment where I think, what if I touch the mirror & reach into an alternate universe, or is something horrific going to come out of it, or, pull me in? creepy thoughts.

Because I see myself in it every morning.