History Film / Mirrors2008

** In Michael's room, there is a poster of Manga/MahouSenseiNegima and in Daisy's room, there is a poster of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. It raises some strange questions as to why a six-year old would be watching or reading heavy {{Ecchi}}...

* LeakingCanOfEvil: Although the MirrorMonster is confined to the MirrorDimension, it can influence the real world in malevolent and deadly ways from there. Also, though it seems to mainly reside in the abandoned Mayflower building, when it's stalking someone, it can appear in mirrors wherever they are.

* EldritchLocation: The Mayflower department store has become this thanks to DemonicPossession and being [[AndIMustScream an otherworldly prison]] for the ghosts of those who have died there. While the store itself doesn't have any strange geometry (though being burned out it ''is'' quite creepy), TheMaze of tunnels beneath it is rather unsettling and the DemonicPossession allows for many strange visions, images, and effects throughout it, including some very disturbing AllJustADream[=/=]ThatWasNotADream sequences.

* AllJustADream: Ben experiences this several times in the burned-down department store. [[spoiler:Most notably, he was set on fire for several seconds, then it all just went away and he was totally unharmed.]] On the other hand, after one of the mirrors cracks and cuts his hand, it is suddenly whole again...but his hand is still injured. YourMindMakesItReal?

* BodyHorror: All deaths the mirrors caused. Oh, and [[spoiler:the nun/Esseker thing.]]

* SlashedThroat: This is how the mirrors kill [[spoiler:Gary Lewis]] in the opening scene.
** Averted when Amy [[spoiler:rescues Michael from his reflection attempting to do this to him.]]
*** Switched in the Unrated cut where Amy prevents her mirror duplicate from doing this to Daisy.
* SlasherSmile: Michael gives a rather terrifying one in his reflection in the water, just before he slices Amy's cheek.

* UpToEleven: All the ways the mirrors kill or attempt to kill anyone.

* NothingIsScarier: Despite all of the gory deaths, the [[MirrorMonster Mirror Monsters]] with their [[MirrorScare Mirror Scares]], the disturbing imagery and the DemonicPossession, it's Ben's long, slow, quiet explorations of the burned-out Mayflower store (and the hidden tunnels from its AbandonedHospital days) that provide some of the scariest and most suspenseful moments in the movie. The iconic image from the page photo is itself an example of this, as the true meaning of a handprint on the ''inside'' of a mirror sinks in. And at the very end of the movie, in the middle of what seems a normal street scene of cops, firemen, and emergency workers cleaning up after the battle with the demon is over, the scariest moments come when [[spoiler:Ben, unable to get anyone to pay attention to him or even hear him, suddenly realizes all the signs and text he can see are backwards]], and [[spoiler:the very last shot of the movie...just another normal, bustling street scene with people going about their business, completely unaware of Ben's handprint on the window]]...

* [[CreativeClosingCredits Creative Opening Credits]]: All the scenes of New York shown during the opening credits are depicted as mirror images constantly shifting, changing shape, joining, and splitting apart, with the text also appearing both backwards and forwards. [[spoiler:This could be considered {{Foreshadowing}} of what happens to Ben at the end.]]

* MurderousMannequin: While [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot none of the Mayflower dummies come to life, even in their reflections]], that doesn't stop them from being extraordinarily creepy.

* {{Exposition}}: The shooting that took Ben off the force (another cop he killed while undercover, as it turns out) is first revealed through a headline on a newspaper stuffed among his belongings, then hinted at with Lorenzo. This is to replace a DeletedScene where instead his former partner explained about the shooting (and directed Ben to the job offer at Mayflower).

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Anna]]'s original issue, which she [[MustMakeAmends must face again in order to free the souls of the trapped spirits]]. [[ShownTheirWork Is likely a nod to]] [[SocietyMarchesOn the once widespread belief]] that people with mental disorders were possessed by demons. Only here, [[ParanoiaFuel it's]] [[FridgeHorror true]].

* MurderousMannequin: While [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot none of the Mayflower dummies come to life, even in their reflections]], that doesn't stop them from being [[invoked]] [[UncannyValley extraordinarily creepy]].

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: In a DeletedScene, Amy learns from Daisy that Michael has an imaginary friend "inside the mirrors." The implication remains in the scene where he's talking to his reflection, but the DeletedScene is creepy on its own, and makes the former scene even more so in retrospect.

* ParanoiaFuel: In-story, Ben's reaction to mirrors being everywhere around him, particularly during the breakdown scene where he tries to cover them all, is considered this by everyone else, especially his wife. Of course as the audience knows and his wife discovers, he's ProperlyParanoid.[[invoked]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: Literally (in the case of the mirror aspect, [[NightmareRetardant not being a tomato]]) for [[spoiler:Ben discovering at the end that he is trapped in the mirror world]].

** [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Originally]] there was also going to be ''another'' twist where [[spoiler:Ben's body sits up in the ambulance, now possessed by the demon since his soul is in the mirrors. This would have made the ending a complete DownerEnding, considering what would have happened when 'he' went home to his family...]]

* GenreShift: Most of the movie is a horror film, plain and simple. However, [[spoiler:the 15 minutes where Ben holds a nun at gunpoint, saying, "My family will not die today," then engaging in a gun/fistfight with the demon yanked from the mirror, seemed far more like a cross between Series/TwentyFour and MortalKombat]]. Also, much of the story which is not action or horror plays off as a cross between a mystery and a psychological thriller. (The latter is especially apparent when, apart from the scenes the viewer sees of Angela's death and Michael seeing the burning woman in the mirror, it isn't clear whether the supernatural events are real or all in Ben's head, and those of each of the night watchmen before him.)

* Fanservice: We get a good glance at Angela's — played by the ever-sexy Amy Smart — backside when she gets in the bath. [[spoiler:This quickly escalates into FanDisservice when her mirror twin rips her jaw off.]]

* Fanservice: We get a good glance at Angela's — played by the ever-sexy Amy Smart — butt when she gets in the bath. [[spoiler:Of course, this quickly escalates into FanDisservice when her mirror twin rips her jaw off.]]

** In Michael's room, there is a poster of Manga/MahouSenseiNegima and in Daisy's room, there is a poster of TsubasaReservoirChronicle. It raises some strange questions as to why a six-year old would be watching or reading heavy {{Ecchi}}...

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Anna]]'s original issue, which she [[MustMakeAmends must face again in order to free the souls of the trapped spirits]]. [[ShownTheirWork Is likely a nod to]] the religious notion that people with mental disorders were possessed by demons. Only here, [[ParanoiaFuel it's]] [[FridgeHorror true]].

* OminousLatinChanting: During the opening credits. This and the effectively ominous, disturbing arrangement of the main theme itself, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRJN6RzlJbY Isaac Albeniz's "Asturias"]], could be considered a CrowningMusicOfAwesome.

* JawBreaker: One of the deaths.

** In Michael's room, there is a poster of MahouSenseiNegima and in Daisy's room, there is a poster of TsubasaReservoirChronicle. It raises some strange questions as to why a six-year old would be watching or reading heavy {{Ecchi}}...

* ShownTheirWork: The TortureCellar used in St. Matthew's Hospital to [[spoiler:cure Anna of possession]] is based on a spiritualist invention called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychomanteum Psychomanteum]], meant to be used for meditation to help one communicate with the spirits of the dead. At the same time it's an InUniverse example of DidNotDoTheResearch since Dr. Kane not only didn't consider what might happen if such a room were used on someone who was possessed, he didn't build it properly. [[note]]The mirrors are supposed to be angled in such a way as to reflect nothing but darkness, and the lighting is supposed to be very dim to facilitate this; the bright lighting and array of vertical mirrors were intended to force the person in the chamber to "confront themselves", but that is completely against both the original use of such a room and [[spoiler:Anna]]'s problem. Even aside from him not understanding or believing in the real explanation for her condition, however, the simple fact a man of science was attempting to use a spiritualist concept would probably explain why he either didn't do the research or deliberately altered what he learned.[[/note]] This may explain why matters did not turn out well, to put it mildly, although even if it had been done right, trying to communicate with the spirit realm while suffering DemonicPossession probably would not have had happy results anyway.

* ShownTheirWork: The TortureCellar used in St. Matthew's Hospital to [[spoiler:cure Anna of possession]] is based on a spiritualist invention called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychomanteum Psychomanteum]], meant to be used for meditation to help one communicate with the spirits of the dead. At the same time it's an InUniverse example of DidNoTDoTheResearch since Dr. Kane not only didn't consider what might happen if such a room were used on someone who was possessed, he didn't build it properly. [[note]]The mirrors are supposed to be angled in such a way as to reflect nothing but darkness, and the lighting is supposed to be very dim to facilitate this; the bright lighting and array of vertical mirrors were intended to force the person in the chamber to "confront themselves", but that is completely against both the original use of such a room and [[spoiler:Anna]]'s problem. Even aside from him not understanding or believing in the real explanation for her condition, however, the simple fact a man of science was attempting to use a spiritualist concept would probably explain why he either didn't do the research or deliberately altered what he learned.[[/note]] This may explain why matters did not turn out well, to put it mildly, although even if it had been done right, trying to communicate with the spirit realm while suffering DemonicPossession probably would not have had happy results anyway.

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Anna]]'s original issue, which she [[MustMakeAmends must face again in order to free the souls of the trapped spirits]]. [[ShownTheirWork Is likely a nod to]] the original [[Literature/TheBible religious notion]] that people with mental disorders were possessed by demons. Only here, [[ParanoiaFuel it's]] [[FridgeHorror true]].

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Anna]]'s original issue, which she [[MustMakeAmends must face again in order to free the souls of the trapped spirits]]. [[ShownTheirWork Is likely a nod to]] the original, [[ScienceMarchesOn now-outdated]] [[Literature/TheBible religious notion]] that people with mental disorders were possessed by demons. Only here, [[ParanoiaFuel it's]] [[FridgeHorror true]].