From folklore to fairy tales, superstition to religious tradition, the mythology surrounding mirrors has always tended towards the dark.
'There is something very universal and interesting about the cultural mystique of mirrors. They provided the basis for a great dramatic piece,' says Arnon Milchan, executive producer of new horror release Mirrors.
Mirrors is about a man who tries to save himself and his family from the horrors that lie behind the reflective surfaces at home and at his job. There are similarities in the film to the 2003 South Korean horror movie Into the Mirror.
Kiefer Sutherland, star of massive television drama 24, plays Ben Carson, an undercover policeman who is suspended from duty when he shoots and kills a fellow undercover detective by mistake. The accident transforms him into an angry man who tries to numb the pain with alcohol, pushing away his wife and children in the process.
Ben tries to pull himself together, taking a job as a night watchman at the burned-out ruins of the Mayflower department store
As Ben patrols the store each night, he starts seeing horrific images in the mirrors: scenes of torture, suffering and bodies being sliced up. He attributes this to his alcohol problem, but then he sees himself in the reflection and realises something it wrong
Through the reflections, evil spirits are able to manipulate what is happening in the real world. As Ben sees his reflection being tortured, he starts to feel the physical effects himself.