Mirror Scare

A scene where a reflection is used to suddenly reveal a villain or monster, usually, when the angle of the mirror is adjusted by the victim/protagonist.

The most common form of mirror scare is the use of a bathroom mirror on a medicine cabinet. As a character goes to get something from the cabinet: we see the character's reflection in front of the mirror, then opening the cabinet, then as they close the mirror again, Bam: they're right behind you!

The exact shot usually holds the camera in place, with our only view of the scene being what is shown in the mirror itself. Variants can use other reflective surfaces, but are usually done in a "safe" environment. TV screens can be used, with the revelation appearing when the screen goes off. (This may well be symbolic of something.) Either way, the character will somehow not have heard their enemy sneak up. Often, the villain isn't there when the victim looks again or looks behind: it's just them going slowly crazy. Sometimes, it turns out they are there after all.

See a video of these examples here.

Close sibling to Offscreen Teleportation. Scarier cousin to Stealth Hi/Bye. See also Danger Takes A Back Seat. If the scary thing in the mirror is the one looking into it, it's a Tomato in the Mirror. Subtrope of Toilet Horror, as this almost always takes place in a bathroom. Often related to a Symbolic Glass House and part of the reason for its deployment.

Not the same as Mirror Monster, which is where the scary thing is part of or only visible in the mirror.

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Examples:

Advertising

• This Burger King commercial.
• Used in the infamous Nike chainsaw commercial.
• Occurs at the end of the 2017 commercial for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, where a woman suddenly sees the Piggy Man in a mirror.

Anime & Manga

• This happened once in Death Note; it's how Misa meets Rem for the second time after losing her memories of the Death Note.
• This also happened in the manga Moon Child (1989) when the beautiful Holly is putting make-up on in her dressing room while getting ready for a dance (previously she was just awfully cruel to her friend and former lover, Art.) She looks into the mirror and sees a hideous Eldritch Abomination looking back at her and she screams only for the thing to vanish.
• In the second episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji is given a glimpse of what the Evangelion truly looks like when a section of the armor slides off its body. The horrifying eye staring back at him is enough to scare him silly.
• Used in Sonic: Night of the Werehog, a cartoon based on the video game Sonic Unleashed. In a Haunted House, Chip looks at his reflection in the mirror... which promptly grins at him, then lunges at him. Not all that scary, though, since all the ghosts wanted to do was take his picture.

Comic Books

• The Incredible Hulk:
  • Often Bruce Banner will stare into a mirror and be terrified at the sight of Hulk his alter ego looking back at him. It's so iconic it made it into the Ang Lee movie during a Nightmare Sequence.
  • In Immortal Hulk, Hulk is stricken to see his father Brian appearing to him in a reflection of a window while fighting Sasquatch.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): Link and the fairy duo head out to the Swamp Palace but discover that it's completely dried up. Link calls to Sahasrahla for help and asks him to go to the Light World location of the Palace, where Sahasrahla and the boy find a fountain. The boy, excited to see Link in the pool of water, suddenly shouts at Link to look out for the Taurus right behind him.

Fan Works

• You Are (Not) At Fault: After scavenging for new clothes, Asuka checks herself in a full-length mirror. Then the image in the mirror suddenly changes into a one-eyed, maimed, bloodied, plugsuit-wearing Asuka. Asuka recoils in horror, but just so suddenly, the macabre reflection is gone.

Films — Animation

• Batwoman has the TV variant in Batman: Bad Blood when she switches off the news and sees her father behind her just as he's about to shoot her.
• Cinderella has the scene where Cinderella is in her room preparing to go down and try on the glass slipper, but sees Lady Tremaine's reflection behind her as she's locking the door to trap her inside.
• Occurs in Mr. Bug Goes to Town, where after Mr. Beetle is speaking with his lackeys about his plan, he sees Hoppity's angry reflection on the top of his hat, making him realize that he overheard the conversation.
• In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the introductory scene for one of the film's main villains, a mysterious wolf bounty hunter, involves him appearing suddenly in a mirror when the titular Puss in Boots stops drinking a glass of milk and looks over at him.

Films — Live-Action

• The scene in 1408 where Mike sees a man in a room across the street, mimicing his movements (which he wasn't doing a minute ago!), and realizes it's him. He sees a man strike the reflection down, only to realize the killer is behind him. Arguably one of the most horrifying moments in the whole movie.
• An early use of this is in An American Werewolf in London (1981), when the eponymous David Kessler sees his highly decayed Undead best friend Jack Goodman in the mirror after he closes the medicine cabinet.
• Basic Instinct. After Nick has had sex with Catherine, he walks over to the bathroom and splashes some water on his face. When he looks up, the mirror reveals that Catherine's jealous girlfriend Roxy is standing behind him.
• A less Jump Scary version in Below. A submariner goes into a very dark bathroom and looks in the mirror. As he turns his face to the left and right, it seems like his reflection's movements are just a half-second behind his. Then when he turns to face the camera, his reflection half-turns, then looks out of the mirror again.
• Black Swan is full of Mirror Scares.
• Technically, this happens in Cabin Fever, when you considder that the "villain" was a disease. Marcy discovers it's telltale rashes on her back when she turns around infront of the bathroom mirror. Of course, she doesn't realize yet that they are the first symptom of her disease because she thinks they are a sex injury.
• In one of the flashbacks in The Body (2012), Mayka suddenly appears behind one of the lab doors, giving Álex a good scare.
• Dressed to Kill has a surprise mirror shot of the killer in the closing nightmare scene.
• Done well without even moving the mirror in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Ivy, having just (so she thinks) escaped Hyde's grasp, sits in front of her mirror and toasts herself. Just as she finishes raising the glass, the door opens...
• In Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn Ash stands in front of a mirror in one scene, trying to get a hold of himself. His reflection (perhaps "Bad Ash" in his first appearance?) comes to life, reaches out, and grabs him, before telling him that he is absolutely not "okay"; he just chopped up his girlfriend with an axe!
• Occurs in Flatliners when Rachel (Julia Roberts) looks in a mirror and sees the ghost of her dead father on the room behind her.
• The Friday the 13th series - Jason has a knack for standing behind people when they look in the mirror◊ and sometimes using the mirror as an instrument of death, such as using a shard of broken glass as an edged weapon◊ in Part VIII, or slamming a girl's face into the mirror◊ in Part VI.
  • Milked subversion at the beginning of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. A woman is getting ready to shower and stands before the mirrored medicine cabinet. She opens the cabinet, puts her toothpaste inside, and closes said cabinet. But Jason is not standing behind her in the reflection of the mirror. She then accidentally drops her purse on the floor. She bends to pick it up. The camera follows her and we can't see the mirror. She stands back up and looks into the mirror and Jason... is still not standing behind her in the reflection. She takes off her tomboyish baseball cap and obstructs the camera's view by waving her long hair around. Still no Jason. She starts to disrobe with the mirror reflecting the window, and Jason does not appear in the reflection of the window. Followed by a plot where Jason possesses various people, and one can see the true Jason if they see the possessed person's reflection. as seen here◊.
  • The comic book adaption◊ would have you believe otherwise.
• In It: Chapter Two grown-up Henry Bowers attacks Eddie Kaspbrak in the bathroom of his vacancy room after making his presence known through a mirror scare.
• In Just Friends Mike is shown gargling in the bathroom before closing the medicine cabinet and we see Samantha suddenly reflected in the mirror.
• Michael Myers has fun with this trope, especially in Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. Admittedly, most of the time, they are just Hallucinations of Laurie's. But the few times he isn't...
• In Layer Cake, there's a subversion where the main character, in the middle of an angst-riddled drug- and whisky-fueled freak out, opens the mirrored bathroom cabinet, music builds and then as he closes it the action suddenly cuts to the next morning, with the character neatly dressed and his problems resolved.
• Lust, Caution: The heroine closes a window, and she spots the reflection of the villain in it—he had been sitting in a corner of the room all along, but she hadn't seen him.
• Subverted for what little it is worth in the Eddie Murphy action vehicle Metro in which the Scare Chords begin to play when the Love Interest opens then closes the medicine cabinet yet the man out for her blood is not there. Perhaps the only thing "clever" that this movie did was subverting as many cop movie cliche' the writers could get their hands on.
• In The Mothman Prophecies, Gordon describes a strange hallucination which turned out to be prophetic, and started with his seeing something in his mirror that wasn't him. Later, John closes a medicine cabinet while looking away, the mirror briefly showing an indistinct face behind him which he doesn't see.
• Happens during the boat scene of The Mummy. Not from the titular mummy, but from a heavily-scarred Medjai mook sneaking behind the film's heroine when she's in a washroom.
• In Nadja, one of the indications that Nadja is (metaphorically) preying on Lucy's mind is a shot from Lucy's point of view as she watches Jim opening the bathroom medicine cabinet: as he opens it, Nadja seems to be reflected in the room behind them, but when he closes it again a moment later, she's gone. An interesting usage considering that the actual non-hallucinatory Nadja, being a vampire, doesn't have a reflection.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street:
  • In Freddy's Dead, Tracy is splashing water in her face in a bathroom, but when she looks up, she sees in the mirror's reflection that the room has changed into her old childhood home, where her abusive father is waiting.
  • Freddy vs. Jason: In Mark's nightmare, he's getting some pills to help him stay awake from the mirror cupboard in the bathroom. When he closes it again, his reflection is replaced by Freddy.
  • Subverted in the A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) remake, when Kris wakes up from her nightmare and goes to the bathroom to splash water on her face. Played straight at the very end.
• Double subversion in Octopus. The sexy scientist is getting changed. She closes the bathroom mirror while ominous music plays in the background, then... nothing. Until she turns around, and suddenly the bad guy is there.
• The mirror in Oculus not only uses this, but it's power of this trope extends outside of its reflection.
• Happens twice in Orphan. The first time Kate visits the medicine cabinet, she closes the door to find nothing, the second time it's her husband standing behind her in a fake scare.
• Shown in the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3, in which the two young sisters turn a video camera on in a darkened bathroom to try out the old 'Bloody Mary' Urban Legend, leading to a brief Jump Scare when the older sister turns on a flashlight and screams to scare the younger. As the two girls run out of the bathroom, however, they fail to notice the ominous silhouette in the mirror behind the camera.
• Occurs at the end of Phantasm when The Tall Man tells to the main character that things are far from over...
• There's a window scare in The Poughkeepsie Tapes when Tim goes into his girlfriend's dark kitchen, turns on the light, and sees the killer's plague doctor mask in the glass.
• Happens a few times in the Japanese version of The Ring — after Reiko watches the cursed videotape and switches the television off, the ghostly form of Sadako is (very briefly) reflected in the TV screen. However, when she turns around, no-one is there. Also, near the end of the film, Reiko sees the spirit of Ryuji, her estranged husband killed by Sadako shortly before, reflected in her television set.
  • In the sequel of the American remake, Aiden discovers Samara is haunting him when he takes his own picture on a mirror — each shot reveals Samara standing behind him... coming closer... closer... closer...
  • Parodied in a Mexican advertisement for Renault's auto shop service. The auto mechanic is inspecting the interior of the car when he adjusts the rear view mirror —and the horrific rotted form of "Samara" pops up into view. He berates her and tells her that her car will be ready in less than seven days. She whimpers and leaves him to his work.
• In Repulsion this is the first sign that Carol is more than just shy and high-strung.
• Shaun of the Dead uses this twice, once using Shaun's uptight flatmate complaining about his habits, and again, with a zombie attack by the same roommate.
• The scene in Signs where Graham pushes the television into the living room only to see the reflection of the injured alien standing across the room holding Morgan's body.
• Stir of Echoes uses this shot, but only for the audience: the monstrous ghost is unseen by the main character.
• Used in a moment of self-parody in Targets when Boris Karloff's elderly horror actor is startled by his own reflection.
• Done in The Movie of V for Vendetta at the murder of Lewis Prothero. Prothero watches himself on the TV and mimics himself wishing to meet V face to face. He then turns off the TV and OHMYGOD,HEISSTANDINGRIGHTBEHINDYOU!!!
• Used a few times in What Lies Beneath, most prominently when the ghost seen reflected in the bathwater for the first time.
• Used in Wild Things when Kelly suddenly shows up in Sam's motel room after the trial, just before it's revealed that they were partners.

Literature

• Used in a way in the Broken Sky series; the secret police of King Macaan, the Jachyra, can see, hear, and even travel through mirrors, or anything sufficiently reflective. This causes a number scares with the mirror being stationary, as well as the main characters being incredibly paranoid around them. Any base which the Parakka make has no reflective surfaces whatsoever.
• The Dresden Files has an Eldritch Abomination called "He Who Walks Behind". As his name implies, He is always behind you, no matter where you turn, so the only way to see Him is in a mirror. Harry first encountered Him while looking at an arcade game. It shorts out, and something appears reflected in the screen. Harry turns around; nothing there. Harry turns back; He Who Walks Behind is now standing two feet closer and smiling.
• Father Brown:
  • Inverted in the story "The Man in the Passage". Three witnesses testify to seeing a man in the passage after a murder. Only the last, Father Brown, managed to see that it was his own reflection.
  • Another Father Brown story, "The Mirror of the Magistrate," invokes a mirror scare. Police investigating a murder found a full-length mirror broken in the victim's front hall, but the man was actually murdered in his garden. They theorized that he'd struggled with the killer, breaking the mirror, and then fled into the garden before being killed. Father Brown realized that the killer physically resembled his victim; he'd opened the front door, saw his own reflection and mistook it for the man he'd come to kill, and panicked, shooting the mirror. Then he made his way out to the garden and found his real target.
• Played with in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with the Mirror of Erised. When Harry first looks in the mirror and sees a load of people in the room behind him, he has to fight to stop himself from screaming. However, they are actually visions of his family and only exist in the mirror itself.
• In the horror novel Jago, Wendy sees the burning figure of Badmouth Ben reflected in the eyes of the person she's talking to, but when she looks behind her there's nobody there.
• The Reflecting Eye features the Grady House, a creepy house filled to the brim with mirrors taken from the scenes of murders.
• In the Warrior Cats book The Darkest Hour, Firestar sees a lion reflected in water, and is so startled that he runs backward into a tree and yowls loud enough that some of his Clanmates come running. Turns out the lion isn't actually a reflection of something real; it's a vision sent to him by StarClan hinting at something he must do.

Live-Action TV

• Angel invokes this trope a few times. Usually someone is focused on something and looks up in the mirror as if to reassure themselves there's no-one behind them. Then the camera pans to behind them where it's revealed Angel is standing right there but, obviously, isn't reflecting as he's a vampire.
  • A classic example occurs in "Rm w/a Vu". Cordelia is cleaning her teeth in front of the medicine cabinet mirror, and the camera watches from over her shoulder using the mirror to show behind Cordelia. Cordelia opens the medicine cabinet, closes it again, to reveal to the audience that there's a dead woman standing right behind her.
• Arrow has a variation when a man working in his office at night turns off his computer, and the now dark monitor reflects the Arrow and Arsenal standing behind him.
• In an early episode of Dawson's Creek, Andie sneaks into Abby's bedroom and spots her reflection in the mirror. What's scary? Abby had died a few days before and she didn't get better.
• Death in Paradise: In "La Murder Le Diablé", the Victim of the Week opens a sliding glass door, sticks her head out and looks around, and then closes the door again. As she does so, she sees reflected in the door her soon-to-be killer standing behind her in a devil mask and holding a large knife.
• Appears in the season 4 opening of Dexter, as the Trinity Killer claims his first on-screen victim.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Vampires of Venice" inverts it: The Doctor looks at himself in a mirror briefly and turns around, only to run into a group of creepy vampire-like girls. He then turns back toward the mirror and does not see their reflection. Subverted in that, far from being scared, the Doctor is fascinated; "How are you doing that? 'Cause I am loving it!"
  • "Vincent and the Doctor": The Doctor first gets a good look at the Krafayis this way because it's invisible, and thus his species-detecting mirror is the only way he can see it at all.
• In Jekyll this, plus a sink full of blood, was one of the earliest signs that Hyde was first emerging.
• Legends of Tomorrow. Played for laughs when Ava Sharpe is doing her Morning Routine and her lover Sara Lance (a former member of the League of Assassins) does this complete with Scare Chord.
  Sara: Sorry! Old assassin habits die hard.
• A more humorous than frightening example but done exactly in the standard manner. In Lois & Clark, a source has tried to dodge Lois Lane by faking his death. He's brushing his teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, opens it to get mouthwash, closes it and sees in the reflection something truly terrifying: Lois Lane at 6 in the morning. Interestingly, the point about him brushing his teeth is not just to set up the gag but also a reference to the fact that Lois figured out he faked his death by the fact that he took his toothbrush. So the scene does not feel like it was shoehorned in or that the mirror trick was getting too much focus for something not that clever.
• Person of Interest: In "High Road", a criminal sees a glass door on a balcony unlocked and pulls it closed, revealing John Reese reflected from behind him, having entered through the door earlier.
• Psych: In "Tuesday the 17th", after participating in the dry run of a murder mystery camp, Annie gets out of the shower and sees a man with a burlap sack on his head holding a machete. She's startled at first, but thinks it's camp owner (and previous "kidnapper") Jason playing a prank on her. She's very, very wrong.
• Parodied on Roseanne, with Dan getting spooked when he sees Roseanne materialize in the medicine cabinet mirror during an episode when he's trying to avoid her due to her P.M.S., and she says menacingly, "Dan...do you think I'm pretty...?"
• Parodied in the overly long Saturday Night Live sketch "The Mirror": Elliot Page, a Catapult Nightmare, a medicine cabinet, Andy Samberg's ridiculous faces. Lather, rinse, repeat, invert...
• Sesame Street: Quoth Lovable Furry Old Grover:
  ''If your mirror has a monster in it, do not shout
  This kind of situation does not call for freaking out
  And do nothing that you would not like to see him do
  'Cause that monster in the mirror, he just might be you.
• In Smallville, Lana's monitors started staticing out. As she went to look at them, they went out and she could see Brainiac standing behind her in the reflection.
• Star Trek:
  • The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web" has Uhura look in a mirror in her quarters and be confronted by an image of Captain Kirk...who had died just the day before! (He gets better, of course.)
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sub Rosa", Beverly picks up a mirror and sees the ghost that has been haunting her standing behind her.
• In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", Dean sees the woman in white, now covered in blood, in the mirror on the closet door.
• Happens in Teen Wolf, although not with a mirror. In the first episode, Scott sees someone behind him through his webcam.
• Famously used at the end of the pilot episode of Twin Peaks — an eagle-eyed viewer can spot BOB as a reflection in Sarah Palmer's wall mirror.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • "The Hitch-Hiker" ends with Inger Stevens finding the title character in the back of her car this way. It's not really that much of a scare, though, since by that point she's already figured out (and accepted) his true identity.
  • This trope is also explored in "The Mirror". A Fidel Castro Expy named Ramos Clemente stages a successful coup with the help of four allies. The dictator they depose warns Clemente that he will soon begin to see enemies everywhere, especially in an ornate mirror hanging on his office wall. Clemente ignores this, but as the episode goes on and he begins to use more and more militaristic tactics, he starts having Mirror Scares of his four allies standing behind him with weapons. He orders them killed one by one, only to realize too late that the true demon in the mirror was himself all along.

Music

• "Stuck in a Movie!" by The Aquabats!:
  I saw your face in my rear-view mirror
  I turn around, and you're not there
• The final verse of "Recognize" by Better Than Ezra:
  Just before I hit the ground, I woke up in my bed.
  I was dazed and I was weary and my heart was full of dread.
  When I looked at my reflection, I was horrified to find
  there were seven horsemen next to me, the angel close behind.

Professional Wrestling

• During their feud leading into Armageddon 2005, The Undertaker uses his supernatural abilities to play some horror-themed mind games on Randy Orton. One of the mind games he pulls is this, after Randy goes to calm himself in a restroom after Undertaker begins scaring him shortly after an in-ring promo.

Stand-up Comedy

• Comedian Paul F. Tompkins has a bit about this, and how much he hates it.

Tabletop Games

• The prior page image was a common fan interpretation of a special rule from Warhammer 40,000. The character (the one in the image with a cigar) is Lord Castellan Ursakar Creed, who has a special rule called "Tactical Genius", which has been interpreted to let a unit appear from nowhere. (In this case, moving the Lord Castellan and a small force through time and space to ambush, in the bathroom, the guy who's the closest thing the Chaos Space Marines have to a supreme leader). In practice, the rule allows one unit to outflank, more specifically to make a stealthy insertion onto the battle field from an unexpected quarter when the battle is underway. The part where it become Memetic Mutation is that it may allow superheavy tanks and Titans to make that stealthy insertion, and a more liberal interpretation of the rules could allow squadrons of them to appear.

Video Games

• At one point in Blood, Caleb is startled by the sight of himself in a mirror. "WAUGH! ...oh. Just me."
• In Catherine if you go wash your face in the bathroom of Stray Sheep before going home, the lights will flicker, the walls will drip with blood and there will be a brief flash of the boss you'll face that night.
• The first time you look at the bathroom mirror in Doom 3.
• Used in Fahrenheit, though it's only the main character's mind playing tricks on him.
• The mirror room in Silent Hill 3. First blood vessels start coming out of the sink in the mirror and covering the mirror image and your reflection. Then the room itself gets covered in blood and starts draining your health. The door also locks once you enter, so you think you're permanently trapped, but you can leave once your reflection stops moving. And you'd better take advantage of it - Heather dies if you stay in the room too long.
• In Ib, Ib and Garry find themselves in a room at one point where the only thing they can do is to look into a mirror some distance from the door. Doing so reveals nothing scary, but when they turn around they find a mannequin head blocking the door. Trying to move the mannequin head doesn't do any good, so Ib and Garry have no choice but to look into the mirror again and see the mannequin head looking right over Garry's shoulder.
• Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has one where Junpei spots a man in a gas mask in the mirror.
• Pocket Mirror opens with the protagonist getting frightened at not seeing her reflection in the mirror.
  • Taken up a notch in the Mirror Hall, where Lisette stalks the protagonist and starts a chase scene by popping out of a mirror.
• In one cutscene in [PROTOTYPE 2], Rooks, alone, hangs up a phone call only to discover a reflection of Heller in his phone's screen. But just as he turns to look, he sees Riley, who has long since been consumed by Heller, who is assuming his appearance.
  Douglas Rooks: (turns around quickly) Jesus Christ, Riley, you should wear a fucking bell.
• Is both played straight and averted in Resident Evil: In the Advance Mode of the Director's Cut of the original game, looking in the mirror in the mansion's bathroom causes a zombie to spring from behind you. In Invisible Enemy mode in R Emake, seeing the monsters reflection is the only way you ever actually see them.
• Several in The 7th Guest, including Elinor Knox as a wealthy version of herself in the bedroom mirror, Julia Heine watching herself grow younger and younger in front of her dressing table mirror, and the literal Tomato in the Mirror scene in the attic near the end.

Web Original

• Used quite subtly in The Angry Video Game Nerd's episode on Polybius, when something briefly appears in the reflection of an Asteroids cabinet, then runs off before the Nerd notices them. This is never referenced again or explained.
• And now a Supercut with scenes from 36 films: YouTube Video blog post

Western Animation

• Batman: The Animated Series
  • In "Dreams in Darkness", Bruce is trying to go over clues in the Batcave, only to see The Joker come up behind him in the reflection on the Batcomputer monitor. When he turns around, he finds Alfred there instead.
  • "The Ultimate Thrill" sees Batman doing this to Penguin as a lead up to a High-Altitude Interrogation regarding Roxy Rocket and the zeppelin robbery.
  • "Beware the Creeper" has a woman seeing the Creeper (who is perched on a building ledge and looking in the window) in the mirror. This case is Played for Laughs (the Creeper is crazy but not malicious).
• Stacy Cornbred does this to Debbie on Celebrity Deathmatch.
• Home Movies uses it in the season one finale when McGurik hides in a heckler's car and pops up to fill his rear view mirror while he is driving home.
• In Jackie Chan Adventures Jade is getting her mouthwash from behind a mirror cabinet and when she closed the door the mirror reveals three Shadowkhan behind her. It turns into more of a funny moment when it takes her several seconds to notice them and does so with a Spit Take to the mirror. Becomes even funnier when the Shadowkhan instead of attacking her offer her cereal, toast and other breakfast food.
• Subverted in an episode of Justice League. The dream-manipulating Doctor Destiny is stalking his ex, who goes into the bathroom to wash her face after having a nightmare. The musical build-up makes it sound like he's going to be revealed with a mirror scare, but he isn't there. He's right next to her.
• The Owl House: In "Yesterday's Lie", Luz is at her home in the human realm and going through her closet with sliding mirror doors. When she closes it, her reflection is suddenly replaced by a different version of herself that angrily shouts "YOU!". The one in the mirror is the real Luz, having entered a portal dimension that lets her see from any reflective surface; the Luz in the human realm is actually a basilisk that's been masquerading as her the entire time she's been gone.
• In Phineas and Ferb, during the "No Momo" song number, Candace opens the medicine cabinet and the mirror reveals Ducky Momo in its reflection. But when she closes it and looks over, he is gone.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Otto Octavius is startled by his own reflection in his lab equipment, but is then frightened when he catches sight of Supervillain the Green Goblin hovering right behind him, in the process of stealing a Tech-Flight glider. This trope is later inverted when Harry Osborn holds a vial of Globulin Green up to his face, the viewer is briefly allowed to see the Green Goblin, as Harry's own, distorted reflection.
• In The Transformers during an arc where a Hate Plague is going off and infecting most of the world including both Autobots and Decepticons, Rodimus Prime is currently shutting off Metroplex to make sure he won't be infected, only to look up at the monitor screen and see that an infected Ultra Magnus is coming up right behind him. Cue commercial break.

Real Life

• During the production of one of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Robert Englund once woke up and saw Freddy Krueger staring at him from out of a mirror. Mr. Englund admitted to being scared until he realized he'd fallen asleep while the make up artist was working on him.
• Your brain can play tricks on you if you stare at the mirror for too long. This is known as the Troxler effect, or Troxler fading.

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