Upon further reflection, it’s a bit overused

From FourFour, home of earlier No Signal supercut, comes another montage of movie tropes, this one involving medicine cabinet mirrors and their kin.

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February 9, 2010 @ 12:14 pm | Comments (19)
Filed under: Video

19 Responses to “Upon further reflection, it’s a bit overused”

  1. Tim W.

    Some of those looked like they were from comedies, but I don’t think they were.

  2. Racicot

    And WTF happens when there’s a Vampire behind you?

    Yup. The scariest shit ever: girl brushes her teeth, nothing doing, sets the brush down, turns then — VIOLIN SHRIEK — she’s face to face with a Vampire.

  3. MCU

    Some of those were all kinds of awesome.

  4. Chad

    They left out the scariest one of all time – the alien in the television set in SIGNS. That still gets me every time.

  5. Tim W.

    John, I’m writing a script right now, and I’m having trouble. My hero is currently climbing through the ducts, because he is being chased by a killer that suddenly appeared in the mirror. And, of course, because he’s in the ducts his cell phone won’t work. I’m just wondering where I can go from there….

  6. Daniel in LA

    It’s way overused, with the ah… and intense music/effects, but it’s still effective when used right. The mirror is always a great tool, and a interesting reflection of what’s happening. I enjoy it and think it will never go away as a technique.

  7. bjoern9

    @Tim W. Put the script down and live your life lol. theres alot of re-runs going on, and not so many new mirrors…. haha ;=)

    I was thinking funny or die when I started watching. Like of course, and it was a little boring. Then I was having this meal cocking anyway, and it is August. -Stopped and brought back the girl in 2:24 -Was that Michael Bay?? And I really liked the part about james Bond. gave it some character.

    Hey John: Is it possible having a post about the job? Who applied (backgrounds)/and how many. The stats? I was just wondering.

  8. Johnny Hartmann

    I wish they did one on the “car crash filmed from inside the car with the camera on the passenger as the collision course vehicle t-bones into it” shots.

  9. Enhance

    I thought I saw something strange in the mirror in a few of those scenes.

    Let’s enhance the shot and take a better look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk

  10. Christian H.

    Wow, I never thought of using mirrors for scary movies. I use them for character emotional state though. I mean after all, how can you sneak up on a person so that they don’t see you? OK, granted a spirit could do it but that’s corny.

  11. Dylan Hintz

    I refuse to ever have a looking glass medicine cabinet. Ever.

  12. SimplerDave

    @Johnny Hartmann: Not just t-bones, but a good, if jokey, overview of “sudden car crash as plot device/shorthand/cliche”

    http://slatev.com/player.html?id=1496480828

  13. Adam Ice Rink

    @Racicot: Reminds me of Futurama…

    Alex: Mr. Mayor, if you want to see a real vampire, look in the mirror!

    Mayor: I can’t! I’m a vampire!

  14. Gus

    And the award for best acting in a scene with a mirror goes to…

    Seriously, that’s the title of the video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q53qDmcYlKk

    enjoy

  15. Dave Kittredge

    And no FATAL ATTRACTION!

    I remember I was on a date in 1987 (with a girl! What did I know?) in a packed theater, opening weekend of that film. The collected scream was deafening.

  16. FresnoBob

    Suggestion for the next compilation:

    Scenes where the protagonist sees/hears a TV or radio news report about the dire circumstances in which he finds himself which, despite the undeniable fact that said report may likely contain critical information, he switches off before it ends.

    Who’d do that?

  17. Mani

    And now we return to: Steps to Surviving a Horror Movie

    1. Never leave your mirrored bathroom cabinet door just slightly ajar.

    2. Use non-fogging glass for your bathroom mirrors.

  18. Mani

    @FresnoBob: That might be tougher to do in short clips (how’d the audience know what’s relevant about the news program without context?).

    I’d like to see a compilation of the “Cut it out, dude, you’re scaring me/that’s not funny” moments where the victim-to-be thinks the killer is their friends playing a joke, and/or the scenes where the friend IS playing a joke, and the actual killer THEN appears.

  19. EDT

    They forgot the grand daddy of them all: Polanski’s Repulsion

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