History Main / MissingReflection

** In Season One there's a weird but tense scene where the three main characters are fooled into watching a vampire who has filmed themselves having sex and then feeding and killing a human... but only the human shows on the DVD (then the vampire's bloody footprints when she walks through the blood pooling afterwards).

** This is lampshaded when Wesley is impersonating Angel, where he screams at the sight of a mirror and insists it be covered (so it won't expose him by showing his reflection) while the people around him stand bemused and point out that they already know he is a vampire.
** When Angel visits Pylea, he temporarily loses several of his vampiric weaknesses, including the lack of reflection. The novelty of having a reflection takes a while to wear off, and his friends start making sarcastic comments about how much time he's spending looking in mirrors.

* In ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'', the vampires have to help each other get dressed before going out on the town because their lack of reflections means they can't see what their outfits look like. Like all the other vampire tropes and references used in the movie, this is PlayedForLaughs.

* ''Series/QuantumLeap'' episode "Blood Moon" has Sam Beckett leap into the body of a madman who lives in a castle and thinks he's a vampire, in order to protect a young woman from being killed by the vampire cult. Throughout the episode, Sam scoffs at the existence of vampires, until just before he leaps out; he finally sees a mirror, only to find that he has no reflection.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E11AndWhenTheSkyWasOpened And When the Sky Was Opened]]", Colonel Clegg Forbes realizes that he is about to [[RetGone disappear]] when he sees that he no longer has a reflection.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E32APassageForTrumpet A Passage for Trumpet]]", Joey Crown discovers that he does not have a reflection when he looks into the mirror at the cinema. It is later revealed that this is because he is a state of limbo between life and death.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E81NothingInTheDark Nothing in the Dark]]", [[spoiler:Wanda Dunn's suspicion that Harold Beldon is Death is confirmed when he tells her to look in the mirror and she sees that he has no reflection.]]

* In Jess Franco's faithful adaptation ''Film/Count Dracula1970'', Dracula casts no reflection in Harker's mirror.

* Franchise/{{Dracula}} film adaptations:
** In ''Film/{{Dracula|1931}}'', Van Helsing observes that Dracula is not reflected in the mirrored lid of a box, and shows it to the Count, who dramatically slaps it away.
** In ''Film/HouseOfDracula'', John Carradine's Dracula throws [[https://srichardwilkcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/dracula-no-reflection-in-house-of-dracula.png?w=550&h=412 no reflection]]. Nor does the evilized Dr. Edelmann.
** In Jess Franco's faithful 1970 adaptation ''Film/{{Count Dracula|1970}}'', Dracula casts no reflection in Harker's mirror.
** In ''Film/{{Blacula}}'', a photographer at a nightclub takes a picture of the titular vampire wooing a woman named Tina who bears a striking resemblance to his deceased wife, but it is not until after she goes to her workshop at her home next door to the club to develop the film does she realize the truth too late...
** ''Film/CountDracula1977'': After Dracula's third attack on Lucy. Helsing goes to check on her, but looks at a nearby mirror and realizes he's too late to save her when she doesn't cast a reflection anymore.
** In John Badham's ''Film/{{Dracula 1979}}'', staring Frank Langella as the Count, Abraham Van Helsing learns that Dracula is behind the attacks after learning he doesn't have a reflection. Afterwards, he and Jack Seward show Jonathan Harker the fact that the staked Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis) has no reflection — they then cut out her heart to finally free her.
** Two examples in ''Film/BramStokersDracula''
*** Jonathan pulls out a mini-mirror to shave only for Dracula to come visit in his room all of a sudden. Jonathan is startled by his presence since he didn't see him in the mirror. When Dracula sees it, he hisses and uses his powers to crack it.
*** During the scene with Jonathan and the brides who proceed to seduce him, at one point, the camera cuts to a mirror above their bed. Jonathan is the only one reflected in it while invisible forces pull at his clothes and cut into his skin.

* ''Franchise/{[Castlevania}}'':
** When Reinhardt or Carrie passes through the Villa in ''VideoGame/Castlevania64'', they will encounter a villager who frantically begs them for help. However, in the room is a large mirror in which he doesn't appear, revealing himself to be a vampire. The protagonist notices the missing reflection in time to dodge the vampire's sneak attack.
** The half-vampire Alucard also lacks a reflection, as seen in Julius Mode of ''Dawn of Sorrow''. This trait is even carried over into ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' where Alucard appears as an assist trophy. He doesn't appear on the Wii Fit Studio stage, which has a giant mirror that reflects fighters, items and off course, assist trophies.

* ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'': Hilariously done when the eponymous duck decides to redecorate the castle and one decorator hired does the place up in all windows. Since the duck is a vampire, he can't see himself in any of them.

* ''Film/FrightNight'': Peter Vincent accidentally notices that Jerry Dandrige doesn't have a reflection, shocking him into grasping that Charley was right about Dandridge being a vampire.

* Film/{{Dracula}} film adaptations:

The reason for the mirror-phobia has to do with the idea that mirrors reflect souls and because [[TheSoulless vampires don't have souls]], they don't have reflections. There is also the old argument that blood suckers exist in two worlds, in the living and in the dead. But since it isn't fully in either one it will not be seen in a mirror. Mirrors force vampires to confront their nature of existence as an undead, which is why many vampires do not like mirrors.

* ''{{ComicBook/Melusine}}'': Anearly strip has Melusine charged with babysitting a bratty vampire kid. At one point the kid escapes and runs down a hallway, only to be startled by the sight of Melusine running stright at him... then picking him up from behind (he was looking at her reflection in a wall-sized mirror).

* PlayedForDrama in ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'', [[spoiler:A six-year-old Gloria's reflection got sanded by the Mirror Cops in the Chrome Car. And just like Tulip, it's completly ''gone''. Present day Gloria has to pretend she has a fear of mirrors so no one finds the truth.]]

* Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'': Soon after his arrival at Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker observes the building was devoid of mirrors. When Dracula silently comes into Harker's room while he was shaving, Harker notices that Dracula, who is standing behind him, does not appear in the shaving mirror as he should have. The Count reacts violently and flings the mirror out a window. The missing reflection is the first solid evidence of his vampiric nature that Johnathan directly observes. Professor Van Helsing later notes that Dracula lacks both reflection and shadow; the latter is left out of most adaptations, possibly because of the practical difficulties it would create.

* In ''Webcomic/DraculaRulerOfTheNight'' this is used [[spoiler: when the hunters are trying to escape from Carfax Abbey, coming across an apparently kidnapped Mrs. Westenra (Lucy's mother) in the process. Johnathan, in trying to reassure her they'll keep her safe, catches a reflection off a metal surface and only see her clothing floating in the air. Revealing to his horror that she has long since been bitten and turned.]]

** Used again in the second movie at Johnathan and Mavis' wedding when a picture is taken of both the couple and their parents. Naturally Dracula and Mavis don't show up in the camera film. However they do show up on digital photos taken with a smartphone.

*** Johnathan pulls out a mini-mirror to shave only for Dracula to come visit in his room all of a sudden. Johnathan is startled by his presence since he didn't see him in the mirror. When Dracula sees it, he hisses and uses his powers to crack it.
*** During the scene with Johnathan and the brides who proceed to seduce him, at one point, the camera cuts to a mirror above their bed. Johnathan is the only one reflected in it while invisible forces pull at his clothes and cut into his skin.

* In Season One of ''Series/BeingHumanUK'', there's a weird but tense scene where the three main characters are fooled into watching a vampire who has filmed themselves having sex and then feeding and killing a human... but only the human shows on the DVD (then the vampire's bloody footprints when she walks through the blood pooling afterwards).

** Used again in the second movie at Johnathan and Mavis' wedding when a picture is taken of both the couple and their parents. Naturally Dracula and Mavis don't show up in the camera film.

** This is lampshaded when Wesley is impersonating Angel, where he screams at the sight of a mirror and insists it be covered while the people around him stand bemused and point out that they already know he is a vampire.

* In ''LightNovel/OthersidePicnic'' the mirror cube Toriko obtains from defeating the kunekune turns out to reflect everything like a normal mirror ''except'' humans. Toriko jokingly suggests that the cube works like this because Sorawo, who perceived the kunekune and allowed Toriko to kill it, is a misanthrope. Sorawo isn't amused.

The reason for the mirror-phobia has to do with the idea that mirrors reflect souls and because [[TheSoulless vampires don't have souls]], they don't have reflections, unless the mirror has a backing that's not [[SilverHasMysticPowers silver]]. There is also the old argument that blood suckers exist in two worlds, in the living and in the dead. But since it isn't fully in either one it will not be seen in a mirror. Mirrors force vampires to confront their nature of existence as an undead, which is why many vampires do not like mirrors.

* When Reinhardt or Carrie passes through the Villa in ''VideoGame/Castlevania64'', they will encounter a villager who frantically begs them for help. However, in the room is a large mirror in which he doesn't appear, revealing himself to be a vampire. The protagonist notices the missing reflection in time to dodge the vampire's sneak attack.

* ''LightNovel/WashioSumiIsAHero'': Gin tries to take a photograph of a Vertex on her smartphone but it isn't visible in the photo.

* ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' has a comical take on the trope in one strip where he an old acquittance of his, Liu, late one night while randomly on a stroll. Master Q remarks that he haven't seen Liu ever since the latter had that illness some months ago, but just then they pass a glass storefront and Master Q realize [[GhostlyDeathReveal Liu doesn't have a reflection]]...