At Anorak: Through a Glass Darkly - 5 Horror Films and TV Episodes about Mirrors

My new article at Anorak was written in honor of Mike Flanagan’s Oculus (2014), the (excellent) horror film that opened this weekend, and which adds a new chapter to the genre’s history with a specific boogeyman: the looking glass or mirror.

Here’s a snippet of “Through the Glass Darkly: 5 Horror Movies and TV Episodes about Mirrors:”

THE painter Pablo Picasso once asked who can see the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter.

Popular horror films and television programs have long highlighted all three possibilities, but focused most intently, perhaps, on the mirror.

In fact, director Mike Flanagan’s new theatrical release Oculus (2014) is the latest film to explore the looking glass…darkly.

The film concerns grown siblings Kaylee (Karen Gillan) and Tim (Brenton Thwaites) who confront a mirror from their old house. Kaylee believes the mirror is supernatural, and the cause of her family’s destruction. Tim, however, believes differently, at least until he is forced to confront the sinister old mirror again.

Why do mirrors appear with such regularity in horror-themed TV and film productions?  Perhaps it is because mirror is a decoration that can represent different things at different times.  A mirror can symbolize vanity, guilt, a sinister “other” self, or even different realms of existence.

In other words, we gaze into a mirror, and we see not just a reflection of what is there, but also, perhaps, those things that are hidden, or invisible to the naked eye. When we gaze in that reflective glass, we see who we really are, not just the pretty surface.

Below are five of the most memorable TV and film tales that focus on the mirror, and reflections of terror.