Top 20 Infamous Horror Movie Cliches
#20: Explaining Away the Cell Phone
Old slasher movies had it easy because characters weren’t walking around with phones and lines to the outside world in their pockets. Modern screenwriters have it a bit tougher, and stories are finding a variety of ways to hand-wave away the cell phone problem. Most of it boils down to a character waving their arms in the air and saying, “Damn, no signal out here!” It’s pretty lazy, but whatever. Others do the dreaded low battery trope, typically accompanied by a horribly-timed phone call being cut off by the dying phone. Just once we’d like to see a character bring a portable charger or something.
#19: Mirror Scare
If there’s a prominent mirror in a horror movie, you better believe that mirror is being used. There are so many variations to the mirror scare it’s not even funny. Maybe a character looks into the mirror and sees a warped version of themselves on the other side - typically smiling in some malicious fashion. Sometimes they pass by one and some spooky monster or person can be seen in the reflection. Maybe someone looks in their car’s rear-view mirror and sees someone in the backseat. The worst is when a bathroom mirror cabinet is slightly ajar; you just know someone is going to be standing there when the character closes it.
#18: No Guns
Top 10 Biggest Horror Movie Trailer Clichés
In the first episode of “Stranger Things,” a terrified Will immediately runs to the shed and loads up a rifle to defend himself from the monster. Scenes like this are unbelievably rare in movies. Many people own guns, whether for hunting, hobby reasons, or personal protection. So why are guns so rare in horror movies? The easy answer is that it would give the characters and story an easy out - Michael wouldn't be so unstoppable with a shotgun on-hand. Instead, characters resort to baseball bats, knives, and even a clothes hanger in the case of Laurie Strode. Props to her, though, as it actually worked. For a while, anyway.
#17: “Paranormal Expert”
Top 20 Creepiest Paranormal Events On Movie Shoots
In every single movie involving ghosts, poltergeists, or the supernatural, there’s always some type of “expert.” Some social outsider knows a lot of handy information about the occult and can communicate with ghosts or something. The family calls in a ghost hunter or professional demonologist - because those are easily found. Most often, they go to the local church and a priest performs an exorcism. In any case, the affected are rarely left to their own devices. Points to “The Exorcist” for handling this in a relatively realistic fashion and acknowledging that exorcism is a long-outdated practice. Most movies aren’t so smart.
#16: Clumsy Running/Slow Walking
For some bizarre reason, slasher movies keep going back to the same trope-y well - the slasher walks at an eerie - if unrealistic - pace, and the victim always trips or gets their foot caught in something while running. The whole tripping trope has long gotten stale. And yes, people trip and get their feet caught in things in real life. But seeing it in every single horror movie, and being able to predict roughly when it will happen, gets old really fast. It’s mostly used as a means to get the villain closer to their victim, because their unnecessarily cumbersome movements would leave them eating dust, otherwise.
#15: “Is He Really Dead?”
Top 10 Strongest Horror Movie Protagonists
This person just slaughtered your entire group of friends in exceedingly grotesque and horrific ways and has every intention of doing the same to you. Should you really linger around while they’re knocked out? It’s happened in numerous movies - the victim finally gets the upper hand and actually downs the villain. They’re either knocked out or vulnerable. Yet, they decide to linger, typically doing the whole “Is he really dead?” thing and/or trying to unmask their attempted murderer. And then the killer wakes up and they get attacked. Props to the first “Scream” for subverting this trope. And then “Scream 2” went and did it...
#14: Overexplaining the Unexplainable
Sometimes a movie devoted to the supernatural goes out of its way to over-explain everything. And it’s very annoying. Why can’t a ghost just be a ghost? Does it need to be “residual ectoplasm leaking from another dimensional plane” or whatever? Do we really need to know how your ridiculous ghost hunting contraption works? Do we need to know the complex history and motivations of the demon, or where the alien came from? This seems like a way for filmmakers to “legitimize” their outlandish story and have it rooted in bases of science and reality, but it just comes across as try-hard at best, unintentionally ridiculous at worst. Again, “The Exorcist” does this best by not really explaining anything. It’s so much scarier that way.
#13: Off Them One by One
Top 10 Signs A Horror Movie Will Suck
It’s slasher movie tradition that the victims have to go down one by one. This is obviously done to inflate the movie’s runtime and provide paying audiences with consistent excitement. Real serial killers often work in this manner as well, for obvious reasons. But just once we’d like to see a slasher dispose of five different characters all at once in some bloodthirsty rampage. That type of stuff is typically reserved for the finale, but by then we’re expecting most of the cast to die, anyway. The only exception to this rule is characters sleeping and dying together, but even that becomes a trope in and of itself. More on that in a bit...
#12: False Hope
If a character seems to be in the clear long before the movie’s climax, then they’re most certainly not in the clear. This trope isn’t seen as often as the others, but it’s still around and has popped up in various horror movies throughout the decades. In “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” Sally is seemingly saved by the gas station proprietor, only to be kidnapped and taken to Leatherface. In “1408,” John Cusack’s Mike escapes the room and returns to normal life, only to realize that this is just another sadistic machination of the room. Point is, escape never comes to the main character halfway through the movie. If it does, it is most certainly a trick.
#11: Inept Authorities
It’s very rare for horror movie authorities to be good at their jobs. In many cases, the police aren’t even informed of the movie’s events - usually because of the “dead cell phone battery/no signal” nonsense. And even if they are informed, they typically act in a generally inept and helpless manner, usually by not taking the protagonist seriously, being incompetent and unprofessional, or being knocked off in ten seconds. (xref) And then, even if they are relatively competent, they usually show up far too late and barge into the site of a massacre. “Get Out” subverts this wonderfully through the character of Rod.
#10: Generic Ghost Activity
Why do movie ghosts always resort to the same bag of tricks? Some movies try to spin the ol’ ghost yarn in unique and imaginative ways, but most are unfortunately content with reusing the same scares we’ve seen thousands of times. Ghosts will always make the old floorboards creak, slowly open or slam doors, make the lights flicker, and if they’re particularly powerful, throw household objects around. If they want to be seen, they typically stand a distance away from the character and stare at them (usually from an upstairs window) or scream directly in their face for some reason. Is there a “ghost handbook” they’re all forced to follow or something?
#9: Hiding in Dumb Places
Top 10 Movie Hiding Places
We understand that characters are scared and panicking when confronted with a remorseless boogeyman, but what’s with the constant hiding under beds and in closets or lockers? Often without a weapon, no less! It’s a horrible strategy and it often never ends well. When confronted with stress, the body reacts with the fight or flight response. And in this case, characters should listen to their bodies - start running and don’t stop. Run outside and scream bloody murder if you can. The absolute last thing you should be doing is running upstairs and hiding in a small, enclosed closet with one exit.
#8: The Middle of Nowhere
Top 10 Terrifying Horror Movie Families
There’s a reason slasher movies rarely take place in Manhattan or downtown Los Angeles. It doesn’t make for a scary setting, and there are way too many obstacles for the writer to overcome to have the story make any kind of logical sense. Which is why slashers often take place in the middle of absolute nowhere. At the very least it’s a small town suburb with oblivious neighbors. (xref) Bonus points for setting the movie in a decrepit mental asylum or prison that’s been abandoned for fifty years. These certainly make for unique settings, but after the 183rd time we saw a movie take place in the woods, desert, or rural countryside, it got a little annoying.
#7: Jump Scares
Top 10 Horror Movie Jump Scares
It seems like jump scares will never go away. Now, there are tasteful and intelligent ways to utilize jump scares. But most are just a cheap way to startle the audience rather than scare them. Jump scares come in a wide variety, (xref) almost always accompanied by paused music and that annoying “DUUUN!” sound effect. Some movies even utilize the ol’ false scare trick, which almost always involves a cat. And some even utilize the false-scare-actual-scare trick, which involves a character calming down after seeing the cat, then immediately being attacked by the killer/monster/ghost who was there all along. And this attack, inevitably, comes in the form of a jump scare. There’s no escaping them.
#6: Nothing Ever Works
Top 10 Horror Movie Clichés
We don’t know if everyone buys cheap crap or what, but nothing ever seems to work in horror movies. Like the aforementioned phones - they either never have a signal or lose battery at very inopportune moments. Lights constantly flicker and often go out completely, leaving characters stranded in the pitch black. They use a flashlight, but lo and behold, that doesn’t work, either (almost always resulting in the character hitting it and saying “Come on!”). Doors get jammed and won't open. (xref) The car inevitably doesn’t start, despite that never being a problem before. If the car starts, they get a flat tire. We could go on and on.
#5: No One Believes the Protagonist
Top 10 Horror Movie Scenes That Made Normal Things Scary
Horror movies are quite outlandish by their very nature, especially ones involving the supernatural. This is why it makes a certain kind of sense that unimportant characters never believe the protagonist and their so-called insane ramblings. Usually, this comes in the form of authority figures, who brush away the protagonist’s stories and tell them “it’s all in your head” or something of that nature. Sometimes it even comes in the form of the protagonist’s friends and acquaintances, who often see them as a weird kook. If people actually listened, these stories would be over ten times faster and a lot of problems could be mitigated.
#4: Let’s Split Up!
Top 10 Tips To Survive A Horror Movie
You know what they say - there’s power in numbers. So why do horror movie protagonists continuously insist on splitting up? This trope is as old as horror itself, and it has been parodied to death. But it makes such great fodder for parody because it’s both so prevalent and so very stupid. Even if the characters don’t intentionally plan on splitting up, they always do, owing to one character taking a wrong turn, falling down a hole, or any other contrivance meant to separate the characters. And once they’ve been separated, you just know one of them is going to die.
#3: Slashers Never Say Die
It’s always very refreshing when a movie slasher actually dies. More often than not, they are depicted as inhuman, literally unstoppable monsters. This trope is especially bad for franchises like “Friday the 13th,” “Halloween,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” although it certainly isn’t exclusive to those movies. There’s simply no tension in slashers like that; we know the main protagonist will survive, and we know the villain isn't going to die. (xref) This trope is especially annoying when the movie portrayed the killer as being dead, only to reveal right before the credits that they’re actually alive. Gotta get that easy sequel money!
#2: Creepy Kids
Top 20 Creepy/Dark Songs from Animated Kids' Movies
There are three main roles for children in horror movies - helpless victims the protagonist must protect, ghosts, and kids who are somehow “connected” to the conspiracy and do creepy things. Kid ghosts have been seen in countless movies, from “The Shining” to “The Grudge.” They’re typically accompanied by quiet, whispery voices. And the conspiracy kid has been seen in the likes of “The Omen” and “The Ring.” Sometimes the helpless victims even turn into creepy kids, like the zombies in “REC” and “Night of the Living Dead” or Regan in “The Exorcist.” Chances are if a child is in the movie, they’re going to be used in a creepy capacity. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “Who’s There?” Has Asking “Who’s There?” Ever Led to a Response? Based on a True Story… ...Even If It Isn’t Giving Away Your Position Stepping on a Stick, Knocking Something Over, Etc. “Finish Me Before I Turn!” No One Ever Wants to Be a Zombie
#1: Don’t Sleep Around!
Top 20 Stupidest Horror Movie Characters
It’s a long-established trope that sex equals instant death. Sometimes they are killed together, but more often than not, one is killed while the other goes to the bathroom or the kitchen. Either way, sex is a big no-no in horror movies. But that’s not all. Sex in horror is often used as some type of abstinence morality lesson, as the “pure” virgin always lives and the almost always blonde chick who sleeps around eats it in the first thirty minutes. This has been parodied in numerous movies, and for good reason. It’s a huge cliché and it almost always turns out the exact same, predictable way.
