Ghosts, Poltergeists & Apparitions > Ghost hunters

'Haunted' Mirror Sells For $155 On EBay

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Jake:
Seen on Huff Post


--- Quote ---An antique mirror managed to scare up $155 U.S. in a recent eBay auction despite -- or perhaps because of -- claims that it might be haunted.

The two sellers -- Joseph Birch, 20, and Sotiris Charalambous, 43 -- claim they acquired the allegedly haunted mirror when their landlord put it in a dumpster outside their London home about five months ago.

Since then, the duo claim they've suffered a streak of bad luck, including financial problems and illness according to the Daily Mail.

The duo claim that since they took possession of the mirror, they've woken up "screaming in pain," felt "a sense of impending doom," and spotted "flickering shadows" reflected in it, MSNnow.com reported, adding that the final straw was when one of the owners woke up "covered in deep red scratches."

The two recently decided to get rid of the bad luck mirror by auctioning it off on eBay, but making sure to fully disclose its paranormal properties.
--- End quote ---

Reminds me of a 1974 Hammer movie, From Beyond the Grave. Starring one of my favourite actors, Peter Cushing, the film was composed of four segments, each based on stories by the brilliant R. Chetwynd-Hayes. The first, titled "The Gatecrasher," started with Edward Charlton buying


--- Quote ---an antique mirror for a knockdown price, having tricked the [shop keeper] (Cushing) into believing it is a reproduction. When he takes it home, Charlton holds a séance at the suggestion of his friends, and falls into a trance. He finds himself in a netherworld where he is approached by a sinister figure. The figure appears to stab him, and Charlton awakes screaming.

Later, the figure's face appears in the mirror and orders Charlton to kill so that he can "feed". Charlton butchers people until the apparition is able to manifest himself outside of the mirror. The figure then explains that Charlton must do one more thing before the figure can walk abroad and join the others like him. The figure says he will take Charlton "beyond the ultimate", and persuades Charlton to kill himself by impaling himself on a knife. The mirror stays in Charlton's flat for years after his death, until the latest owner also decides to hold a séance. Once the séance starts, Charlton's hungry spectre appears in the mirror...
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I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that mirrors are almost archetypal "scary things"? From Alice and the looking glass, right through Bloody Mary and into the - now rather hackneyed - "jump scares" of more recent filmmaking, there is just something... hair raising about mirrors. L. Vincent Poupard has identified four particular uses of the mirror in horror symbolism:

1. Show the Future
2. Show the Past
3. See What is Behind ("jump scare")
4. Mirrors as a Gateway

Number four is the one that I find most fascinating.

Edit to add: I'm pretty sure that Stephen King watched this movie before writing "Needful Things"...

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