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There are particular tropes and symbols that recur all through horror fiction — undead creatures, stressed spirits, uncontrollable transformations. They faucet into the a part of the human mind that wants explanations and hates ambiguity. So it’s not stunning that mirrors, these image-flipping sheets of silvered glass, land on that listing. Even on a great day, there’s one thing unsettling about your reflection, and fright flicks all through the years have pulled out mirrors for all method of scares.
Within the spirit of accuracy, I lately watched each film I may discover with an evil or supernatural mirror and ranked them by how nicely these mirrors labored. This contains possessed mirrors, mirrors as portals to dangerous locations, mirrors that create monsters, and even just a few uncategorizable entries. These rankings don’t mirror the flicks themselves, solely the mirror scenes, so let’s get reflecting.
38. Paranormal Exercise 3
The Paranormal Exercise collection faucets into practically each overused horror trope, so it’s not stunning that malevolent mirrors have taken a flip within the discovered footage barrel. Within the third installment, two individuals videotape themselves taking part in “Bloody Mary” within the rest room, however (after a fake-out) a malevolent spirit is launched that scratches the older one and causes a ruckus outdoors. We don’t see something within the mirror itself, as a result of we by no means see something in any of those motion pictures, so this one barely counts.
37. City Legends: Bloody Mary
Probably the greatest-known tall tales round mirrors is Bloody Mary, the place for those who chant her identify thrice in entrance of a mirror she’s going to materialize and homicide you. This direct-to-DVD flick posits Mary as a murdered highschool lady in 1969, who pops up in 2004 after being summoned by a gaggle of outcasts and goes on a homicide spree. There’s not an entire lot of mirror motion right here.
36. They
The portals on this 2002 effort seem in quite a few places, however one in all them is a rest room mirror so right here we go. 4 individuals by night time terrors uncover that they’re really being plagued by mysterious creatures from one other dimension who breach into our world once they sleep. Not so much to advocate with this one however a good mirror scene nonetheless.
35. Amityville: A New Era
When a mirror from the cursed home within the first Amityville Horror winds up in a boarding home (by way of an absurdly convoluted collection of occasions), it brings with it a demon that leaves its reflective jail to tackle different types and homicide the residents.
34. The Skeleton Key
On this mediocre 2005 hoodoo film set in a decrepit Louisiana plantation, a younger hospice aide takes a job taking care of the aged inhabitants of the home. She quickly discovers that two former slaves have been utilizing their magic to hop into new our bodies, entrapping individuals by way of a full-length mirror that transplants their personas. It’s not something particular, however it’s an evil mirror so it counts.
33. Mothman
The Mothman legend everyone knows and love is that of a mysterious cryptid who hangs out within the West Virginia boonies. However on this straight-to-DVD stinker, our boy is repurposed as a spirit summoned by a Native American chief named “Cornstalk” that may solely enter our actuality by way of reflective surfaces. What precisely this has to do with the Mothman is up for interpretation.
32. It Chapter Two
The malevolent spirit that manifests as Pennywise loves himself a carnival, so there’s naturally a corridor of mirrors scene. When Invoice expenses into the funhouse to maintain the clown from feasting on one other little one, he will get trapped in a hallucinatory maze of reflections that baffles and delays him lengthy sufficient for It to get one other meal. Are these mirrors supernatural and evil or bodily and simply annoying? Laborious to inform, however we’ll give them the advantage of the doubt.
31. The Changeling
There’s solely a short mirror bit on this 1980 Canadian psychological horror entry, however it’s performed nicely. When a composer mourning the dying of his spouse and daughter strikes to a Seattle mansion, he’s assailed by supernatural forces till he unravels a thriller that stretches again nearly 100 years. One of many incidents includes a mirror shattering into his face, and it’s a brief, sharp scare that works nice.
30. Night time Of The Demons
Normally, partying in an deserted mortuary isn’t really useful. When a gaggle of teenagers breaks into Hull Home and holds a seance, a demon seems in a mirror after which breaks out of the crematorium that’s been holding it. It’s a really transient scene, all issues thought-about, however getting the primary peek on the creature is one thing particular.
29. The Boogeyman
Sometimes the childhood scourge of bedtime comes out from the closet or below the mattress, however on this 1980 horror cheapie the Boogeyman is definitely the ghost of a lady’s useless boyfriend trapped within the mirror he was stabbed to dying in entrance of … by her son. Oedipus a lot? Anyhow, 20 years later the spirit comes again for vengeance in more and more weird methods wherever even a small piece of the damaged mirror is discovered.
28. From Past The Grave
British studio Amicus Productions knocked out horror anthologies at a gradual clip all through the ’60s and ’70s, with this one being its ultimate effort. In From Past The Grave, a quartet of consumers of an vintage store discover themselves cursed by their purchases. The primary phase stars David Warner as a person who purchases an vintage mirror and is captivated by the spirit inside to homicide individuals till it builds the energy to depart its reflective jail.
27. Peeping Tom
There are not any paranormal components to the mirror on this 1960 thriller, however it’s actually evil sufficient to snag a spot right here. Carl Boehm performs a photographer who murders ladies, utilizing a spherical mirror mounted on the highest of his digicam to allow them to see their very own faces as they die. On the finish of the movie, he drives his knife into himself, capturing his demise because the grand finale of his venture.
26. Grim Prairie Tales
Two vacationers swap ghost tales round a campfire on this Western horror oddity made on a shoestring price range within the Mojave Desert, shot by Janusz Kamiński, who would go on to shoot Schindler’s Record. The fourth story is a few gunman, performed by Scott Paulin, who kills a rival in a shootout however is then haunted by his ghost. In a single notable scene, he’s shaving with a straight razor when he spots the apparition within the mirror because it grips his arm and tries to power him to slash his personal throat.
25. The Watcher In The Woods
When an American household strikes right into a rural English manor, one of many daughters begins seeing the apparition of a blindfolded lady in the home’s mirrors. It seems she was the sufferer of a ritual gone improper that swapped her with a mysterious creature from one other dimension, and now can solely talk by way of reflective surfaces.
24. Conan The Destroyer
This doesn’t have the bombast of the John Milius unique, however it’s extra colourful and peculiar. Probably the greatest bits comes when Conan is pressured to battle a gross monster in a corridor of mirrors, defeating it by shattering the glass round him. It’s then revealed that the beast was the wizard Thoth-Amon in disguise, performed by professional wrestler Pat Roach.
23. Hellraiser: Bloodline
The fourth installment within the long-running franchise noticed director Kevin Yagher pull his identify off the completed movie to have “Alan Smithee” take the credit score, so you already know it must be good. Wait, no, it’s not. That stated, the film is filled with mirrors, and it contains one memorable scene the place the cenobite Angelique pulls a person by way of a mirror and decapitates him, leaving his headless corpse to plop to the ground with a sticky thump.
22. A Nightmare On Elm Avenue
The 2010 reboot of Wes Craven’s franchise is completely high quality, however not all that obligatory. It does have one nice mirror scare on the finish, although, as Jackie Earl Haley’s Freddy stabs by way of the reflective floor to kill Nancy’s mom and pull her into the dream world. It’s a greater model of an identical impact from the unique, which used an unconvincing blow-up doll pulled by way of a window.
21. The Conjuring
James Wan’s 2013 franchise-starter throws a variety of stuff on the partitions, a lot within the mode of its inspiration Poltergeist. One of many main strategies that the paranormal forces (mustered by the spirit of the witch Bathsheba Sherman) use is a music field with a mirror inlaid within the lid, which additionally shows the evil doll Annabelle.
20. Darkish Mirror
This 2007 low-budget chiller incorporates a household of three that strikes to a Los Angeles home with huge home windows and mirrors. The mom, a photographer, quickly discovers that anyone she takes an image of dies horribly. The wrongdoer is the spirit of one of many house’s prior house owners, a painter who was betrayed by her husband and possessed by a supernatural power that made her photos actual.
19. Nightmare On Elm Avenue 3: Dream Warriors
Razor-gloved homicide aficionado Freddy Krueger is a creature of desires, so he loves optical illusions. Within the climactic scene of Dream Warriors, Freddy creates a corridor of mirrors in Joey’s dream to suck within the workforce of teenagers who’ve hypnotized themselves to confront him. Clearly issues don’t work out for them, however Joey finds his voice and screams so loud the mirrors shatter and launch our heroes.
18. Prince Of Darkness
When a gaggle of quantum physicists develop into trapped in a Los Angeles monastery whereas investigating a tube of mysterious inexperienced fluid that is likely to be Devil, a frenzy of possession, homicide, and different supernatural shenanigans kicks off. The satan’s plan is to summon an excellent worse dude, the “Anti-God,” into our airplane by way of a mirror, and some reflective surfaces are shattered within the try.
17. Snow White: A Story Of Terror
The magic mirror in Disney’s Snow White was the progenitor, however this odd 1997 horror flick goes one higher. Within the reimagining of the well-known fairy story, the mirror itself is the reason for the stepmother’s homicidal impulses. Sigourney Weaver performs Claudia Hoffman, pushed by jealousy of her stepdaughter Lilli to make use of the mirror’s darkish items to torment and homicide. Within the film’s climactic scene, Lilli stabs the mirror itself with a shard of glass, making it explode.
16. Oculus
Mike Flanagan’s Oculus revolves round a cursed mirror named the Lasser Glass, which has the flexibility to induce hallucinations when it’s gazed into. When the Russell household encounters it for the primary time, it results in the deaths of fogeys Alan and Marie. 11 years later, the surviving youngsters should take care of the mirror’s eldritch results as they attempt to show that it killed their dad and mom.
15. Mirror Mirror
When teenage goth Megan Gordon strikes to Iowa from Los Angeles on this 1990 flick, there’s not a lot she likes about her new home apart from an enormous, ornate mirror. Dangerous information! There’s a demon in it, which begins messing together with her bullies and, ultimately, killing individuals. Megan rolls with it, however when her mom will get mangled within the rubbish disposal she turns in opposition to her reflective good friend and ultimately sacrifices herself to cease it.
14. Mirrors
This 2008 horror film will get proper to it within the title. An evening safety guard at a burned-out division retailer is plagued by visions within the many mirrors nonetheless standing, however inside them is a demon that manifested when the constructing was a psychiatric hospital, or one thing. It’s a fairly enormous mess however there are a variety of intelligent scares and reflective results to take pleasure in, so it ranks decently.
13. Home
This 1986 cult traditional has a rep for its revolutionary and efficient results. When horror writer Roger Cobb strikes into his useless aunt’s home, he finds himself plagued by Vietnam flashbacks in addition to religious shenanigans. One of many hubs for these occasions is the mirrored rest room medication cupboard, which Roger breaks with a footstool to disclose an infinite void filled with nasties.
12. Mirrors 2
The direct-to-DVD sequel is definitely higher than the primary movie. It takes us again to the haunted division retailer, however this time the malevolent spirit is a younger feminine worker who was drugged and murdered on the retailer’s grand opening social gathering, and buried within the basement. Now her ghost is seeking to get revenge on the boys accountable in various fairly stable mirror kill scenes.
11. An American Werewolf In London
There are such a lot of nice scenes on this film, however the bit the place protagonist David Kessler is within the rest room and will get the hell scared out of him when his useless good friend Jack seems to him within the mirror is an all-timer. Like the remainder of the movie, it’s concurrently hilarious and horrifying, as Jack’s state of decay is conveyed with large Rick Baker make-up.
10. The Damaged
Cracking a mirror is an omen of dangerous luck, particularly in 2008’s The Damaged. In that film, doppelgangers an identical to common individuals however with the positions of their inside organs reversed enter our world by way of shattering reflections. They proceed to homicide the originals for unknown causes. Nice paranoia vibe on this one, together with a variety of breaking glass.
9. Useless Of Night time
One of many earliest movies on this listing, this surprisingly good 1945 horror anthology has a phase constructed round a cursed mirror that belonged to a cuckolded husband. The person suspected his spouse of dishonest on him and killed her earlier than slitting his personal throat in entrance of the mirror. Its new proprietor then grew to become possessed by the spirit of the glass and practically duplicated the crime earlier than the mirror was shattered.
8. Poltergeist
Tobe Hooper’s 1982 horror traditional is relentlessly revolutionary within the methods it torments the Freeling household and the individuals of their orbit. One of the memorable scenes includes Dr. Marty Casey, an investigator referred to as in to assist determine what’s improper with the home. Alone at night time, he stops within the kitchen for a snack and sees maggots spawning from meat. He then runs to the utility room to clean his face solely to see his personal flesh peeling from his face in a grisly show. It’s a pointy, efficient bit.
7. Illusion
This cult traditional is best-known for the reflective metallic homicide balls utilized by the movie’s antagonist the Tall Man, however it has a terrific evil mirror scene as nicely. Within the film’s coda, as our surviving hero Mike is on the brink of pack up and go away city, the presumably deceased Tall Man seems in Mike’s bed room mirror, thrusting his fingers by way of the glass and pulling Mike inside. It’s a terrific bit that completely suits in with the dreamlike logic of the film.
6. Candyman
Based mostly on a Clive Barker brief story, the Candyman is a malevolent spirit that haunts Chicago’s Cabrini-Inexperienced housing tasks, summoned by having his identify chanted 5 occasions right into a mirror. The film’s prime mirror scare comes proper on the finish, as Virginia Madsen’s character has her personal identify used to summon her for revenge.
5. The Legacy
Richard Marquand’s 1978 directorial debut is an interesting little Gothic horror story a few Los Angeles couple summoned to a British mansion the place the decaying lord of the manor has assembled his heirs. Issues aren’t fairly what they appear, in fact, and a spectral power begins murdering them in entertaining methods. The film’s mirror scene is a extremely good one, with the reflecting glass exploding right into a lethal spray of shards that impales a lady, then reassembles itself.
4. Poltergeist III
The unique Poltergeist has one superb mirror scare, however the second sequel is constructed round reflections nearly right through. It’s actually not nearly as good a film, however the myriad makes use of of mirrors and surfaces to indicate the spirit world and the machinations of the evil Henry Kane are glorious, letting it rank larger on this listing. Nice sensible results by Cal Acord nonetheless look convincing right this moment.
3. Into The Mirror
This 2003 Korean horror movie was the inspiration for Mirrors, however a bunch of stuff modified alongside the way in which. A police officer traumatized from his companion’s dying takes a job working safety for an deserted, fire-damaged shopping center. Whereas the American model of the movie trades on soar scares and gore, this one is slower, extra contemplative, and considerably extra bold. A few of the coolest trick mirror photographs you’ll ever see are discovered on this one, so hunt it down.
2. The Shining
Mirror imagery seems all through Stanley Kubrick’s all-time horror traditional. The Overlook Lodge is filled with reflections, from the useless twins tormenting Danny to the mirrors in each scene the place Jack interacts with the ghosts. However essentially the most iconic scene comes when Wendy seems to be into her bed room mirror to see Danny’s lipstick-scrawled “REDRUM” reversed to “MURDER” on the door.
1. Evil Useless II
The various supernatural shenanigans that plague Ash Williams throughout the Evil Useless franchise are too considerable to listing, however one of the iconic comes when he gazes right into a mirror contained in the cursed cabin and releases an evil doppelgänger of himself. Sam Raimi is a grasp of digicam cuts and sensible results, so this low-tech scene nonetheless feels actual and stunning many years later.
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