Friday, August 24, 2007

'The Ring' mirror prop

When I'm not driving cross-country to pick up obscure organs or working in the corporate machine, one side hobby I have is collecting movie props. 'The Ring' was a 2002 remake of the Japanese mystery/horror movie 'Ringu'. The gist of the story is that watching a certain video tape will cause you to expire seven days later; the video is watched in the beginning, and the rest of the movie is spent unraveling its meaning (and unfortunately some of the viewers' interest). Anyway, the tape is still the stuff of nightmares and can be found all over the internet.

One of the creepier / more memorable images in the video is the reflection of a woman (who is nowhere to be seen) brushing her hair in an oval-shaped wall mirror. This mirror is seen several times throughout the movie (incl. when the real mirror is discovered), and is sort of a main symbol for the spooky goings-on in 'The Ring'.

After the movie was released, many of the screen-used props were auctioned off on eBay. At the time I decided I would bid on the mirror, since it was creepy and I needed a mirror in the bathroom anyway. Alas, the cheapskate in me took over and I backed out of the bidding once it hit a few hundred bucks. I got a second chance when someone (presumably the guy who won it the first time) decided to auction the mirror again. This time I won it, and it hung in my bathroom for several years (much hair was brushed in that mirror with horrific results).

The picture above is the mirror as it hangs on the gameroom wall today. Below are a couple screen captures from the movie for comparison (note: since I don't have a special effects crew to edit me out, I had to take the picture from the side .. so that's why it looks slightly narrower than the screencaps):


One final note - I think there were two mirrors auctioned off originally. Not sure where each one was used (hero and backup?), but they did some work to make the mirror look old and creepy (e.g. "aging" the silver around the perimeter behind the glass). At one point I compared some of the characteristics of my mirror with the screencaps and they all seemed to match (incl. the silver patterns, which I presumed would be somewhat unique). So I believe mine is atleast the mirror in the second screencap, and possibly even in both.

Anyone out there have the second mirror and some more details?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Would you contact me please? Thanks!

Jonathon said...

How much for the mirror?