History Main / PhantomZonePicture

* Creator/SimonRGreen's ''The Bones of Haven'' has Messerschmann's Portrait, a painting that works as a magical booby-trap: if a person looks into it for too long, they end up trapped in the [[DeathWorld highly unpleasant]] landscape of the painting, from which they can only be released if someone else falls for the trap and takes their place. Someone who spends too long trapped in the portrait comes out no longer entirely human, and completely insane.

** ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' has this as well, with Mario and Toads being trapped in paintings by King Boo. He also wants to do this to Luigi and Professor E Gadd, but it thankfully never happens.

* HumanPopsicle - The prisoner is not aware of time passing, but is frozen in one moment

* Some of the many captive whom Margle from ''Literature/TooManyCurses'' keeps in his castle are imprisoned in this fashion, most of them in paintings that mock or menace them (e.g. a dwarf scholar in a library where all the books are on shelves he can't reach). Because the pictures that entrap them all hang in the same gallery, the captives spend most of their time chatting and arguing with one another.

If the person is forced to immobility, may become a case of AndIMustScream. This sort of trap has a strong possibility of being the work of a MadArtist. Compare CrystalPrison.

* Used both in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode 3 season 2 "The Painted World", and in episode 7 season 8 "The Lost Picture Show".

* Luxord from ''KingdomHearts'' can imprison people within cards or dice, and Zexion can imprison people in his Lexicon.

* One episode of ''Series/NightGallery'' features a middle-aged man named Joseph Strobe who discovers a beautiful, idyllic painting of a man fishing in a lake in a Buenos Aires museum. He's captivated by the image and begins to see himself literally inside of it. As the episode progresses, the truth comes out: "Strobe" is actually a former Nazi and concentration camp commander, who escaped to Argentina to avoid punishment. When Strobe eventually snaps and murders an elderly Jewish man who's figured out his identity, he flees from the authorities and enters the room with "his" painting, and finally manages to permanently will himself into it...[[spoiler: but the fishing painting has been replaced with one showing a ''crucifixion'', and [[KarmicTwistEnding Strobe finds himself doomed to eternally suffer for his crimes.]]]]

* Tabletopgame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Poor [[spoiler: Fulgrim]] is trapped in one of these, while a Daemon uses his physical shell.

--> "Nooooo! Not into the pit! It buuuurns!!!"
--> "Aargh! The chains! Nooooo! You haven't seen the last of me!"

** A slight inversion occurs in "Fight Fighters", when [[spoiler: Rumble [=McSkirmish=] attempts to look directly up, despite not having a looking up animation, and ends up falling flat like a picture onto the ground himself. He proceeds to get up off-camera.]]
** Played straight in "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls", when [[spoiler: Bills traps Wendy, Soos, Old Man [=McGucket=], Robbie, Gideon and Pacifica inside tapestries]].

-->'''Green Lantern''': If it's money you want, Luthor, try this on for size! (''zaps him with his ring'')

* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', the non-lethal means of defeating Delilah in the ''Brigamore Witches'' is to replace the painting which will allow her to [[spoiler:steal Emily's body]] with a [[spoiler:painting of a tree in the Void. When her ritual is complete, she is sucked into the Void for eternity.]]

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* A variation exists in book two, ''The Black Unicorn'', of the Terry Brooks fantasy series ''Literature/MagicKingdomOfLandover'': the black unicorn of the title is [[spoiler:the collective soul of the trapped unicorns,]] [[SealedGoodInACan sealed in]] [[SoulJar one of the volumes of magic]], while the rest of the unicorns are [[spoiler:their bodies]] trapped as drawings in the other volume. In this case, destroying the books frees those imprisoned in them.

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* In the ''Give Yourself Goosebumps'' book "Scream of the Evil Genie," wishing to be attractive [[spoiler:[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor turns your character into a painting in a museum.]]]]

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* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "The Family of Blood", [[spoiler:the mirror variant was the fate of Sister of Mine]].
** And then there are those drawings made by that CreepyChild in "Fear Her".
** Lots of people get trapped in paintings in the [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane adventure]] "Mona Lisa's Revenge". Not least of which was Mona Lisa herself, when the painting was originally made. Probably. It's left ambiguous just ''what'' was going on with her, and she explicitly wasn't the woman who was actually painted, but the painting seems to have been made as a prison for her.
** Done first in the 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors" as a means of capturing said Doctors, TheBrigadier and Sarah Jane Smith.
** The 50th anniversary special, "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", revolves around Gallifreyan pictures which, like the TARDIS, are larger on the inside. Although they're ordinarily only used to make great-looking 3D art, several characters hitch a ride in the spacious interiors.
* ''Series/PowerRangersSPD:'' [[MonsterOfTheWeek Alien criminals]] are basically turned into playing cards.
* This trope is named for the visual effect used to depict people trapped in the Phantom Zone in ''Series/{{Smallville}}.'' It's pretty much the same as in the Creator/ChristopherReeve movies.
* Used both in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode 3 season 2 "The Painted World," and in episode 7 season 8 "The Lost Picture Show".
* [[Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass Lewis Carroll's mirror]] turns out to be one of these in ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}''.

* In Series/WitchesOfEastEnd, an ex-boyfriend of Freya has been trapped in a painting for decades. He escapes and takes Freya with him into another painting to imprison her there. But she escapes and the witches put him into another painting and bury it.
* One episode of ''Series/NightGallery'' features a middle-aged man named Joseph Strobe who discovers a beautiful, idyllic painting of a man fishing in a lake in a Buenos Aires museum. He's captivated by the image and begins to see himself literally inside of it. As the episode progresses, the truth comes out: "Strobe" is actually a former Nazi and concentration camp commander, who escaped to Argentina to avoid punishment. When Strobe eventually snaps and murders an elderly Jewish man who's figured out his identity, he flees from the authorities and enters the room with "his" painting, and finally manages to permanently will himself into it...[[spoiler: but the fishing painting has been replaced with one showing a ''crucifixion'', and [[KarmicTwistEnding Strobe finds himself doomed to eternally suffer for his crimes.]]]]

** Lots of people get trapped in paintings in the [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane adventure]] "Mona Lisa's Revenge".

->''"My bracelet did what now? Huh. Who knew? Pretty neat that you can turn into a painting. Wowie-wow, I wish I was you!"''
-->-- '''Ravio''', ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds''

* Luxord from ''KingdomHearts'' can imprison people within cards or dice.

** A slight inversion occurs in "Fight Fighters", when spoiler: Rumble [=McSkirmish=] attempts to do something outside his and ends up flattening himself.

* A slight inversion in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', in the episode ''Fight Fighters''. [[spoiler: Rumble McSkirmish]] attempts to do something outside his [[spoiler: programming]] and ends up flattening himself.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode where Spongebob creates an evil drawing of himself with a magic pencil, he defeats the doodle by slamming it between a book, causing it to become just an illustration on the page.