I was waiting for the subway today and across from me was the poster for the movie The Orphan. I have no desire to see it but the poster had me staring at it. Intently.
I couldn’t figure out why the image was so creepy, other than the obvious “Children of the Corn” vibe for brunettes. Then it hit me: the kid has been mirriored vertically:
Nobody’s face is a perfect copy of itself from one side to another and we’re designed to search out imperfections to that effect when we meet people. The poster designer is a psychological genius!
I’ve cut the image, flipped it and made it slightly transparent. You can see by my adroit animation, other than some minor blemishes, that’s exactly what they’ve done:
7 thoughts on “Mirror Creepy”
Great catch! Symmetry is usually attractive to people, but I guess too much is creepy. People shouldn’t be two perfect copies of one of their halves.
I’m impressed. I’m such a slowpoke when it comes to illusions. The longer I look at it, the creepier it gets. When I saw this poster in Calgary, Canada, thought it wasn’t that catchy, though.
your next task is to explain why nothing but shit movies are typically made.
Very cool! I thought it was just bad lighting hehehe
thank you! i’ve been trying to figure this out for weeks! she looks so different in the movie. but i thought the mirroring thing made people look better…not insane.
Good catch– and adroit! I dd a blog post a LONG time ago about facial asymetry. It’s cool how NON symmetrical we are
Very cool – Your animation is a great way of showing it off too. Well spotted
Utterly, utterly creepy.
Although I have heard somewhere, that humans respond more favorably to symmetrical faces, what our minds cannot deal with is an even balance of light across the face, in nature this just doesn’t happen. Not sure where I heard that or how true it is though.