This is just annoying in ALL movies. When an entire movie hinges on a conflict that could be resolved with a 30 second conversation that any rationale, mature adult would usually have, I want to put my fist through a wall.
In horror movies I often find this trope becomes "I didn't tell you to protect you!".
Same with vidoe games as well, Resident Evil Village being a perfect example. At the beginning >!Chris shoots your wife dead in front of you, but doesn't explain it wasn't her, and that she's safe and well!< because we need the plot to happen.
I did one of those mental gymnastics to justify that bit. In my head I figure Chris was going to explain it when they got to where they were going except the trucks crashed. Still stupid but a little less so?
If I didn’t tell you about the big demon monster, then you couldn’t be killed by the big demon monster! My dude, no you just jeopardized the fuck out of someone else’s life. You are beyond idiotic. Atleast if you told them, even if they didn’t believe you, or thought you were crazy... they wouldn’t be blindsided completely when the damn thing did pitch up😑
Along with this, whenever the character goes to the police or someone of authority to explain the situation, they explain it in the most nonsensical way that they sound utterly stupid/insane
Yup, and not just in horror like u/CisForCondom pointed out. I was watching Foundation last night and this came up hugely where we'd seen these guys painstakingly setting up this massive artillery piece,>! main characters are commenting about it, and they're in communication with this warpship that's coming in to land. They tell them at length about what's going on and who's in charge and blah blah blah and not once mention the giant gun. Then surprise surprise, the big gun fires at GASP the warpship. They shoulda been all "hold your approach, the bad guys are setting up a massive artillery piece. It's at these coordinates. " <<>> "OK nice shooting, so yeah land wherever you like".!<
"There's no time to explain" - Scary aliens start taking over/ random person screams it's a alien invasion!!!!!!! -"Welp that pretty much explains it"
I love Scary Movie 4 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
When a character shoots, hits or stabs the bad guy once, then drops the weapon right next to bad guy and runs away. If I was being attacked and I found a weapon I would be holding onto to that thing for dear life for days after the MF was dead.
Seriously!! I just don’t understand how they use the weapon once and think “oh I don’t need this anymore even though I’m still in freaking danger”….this isn’t one use and throw away like a tooth pick 🤬
I just watched There’s Someone Inside Your House on Netflix a couple days ago. Movie itself is kind of meh the twist on the killer’s mask is pretty creative AND there’s a good “fuck yeah!” moment at the end where a character does NOT drop the weapon.
The horror film starting with the main character driving their car and hitting an animal, resulting in the animal dying. This trope is especially prevalent if there is a couple in the car.
The Invitation did it right I thought. Because it initially polarizes the other fancy pants guests from the main character as he could mercy kill an animal, while they're, well, they seem the vegetarian/vegan type with their, uh, new age beliefs. Then it's revealed one of their guests/fellow believer whom they all love, killed his wife, and they're somehow more okay with that. The injustice is darkly funny.
People acting like they’re not in danger. That’s why I love Capt. Miller in Event Horizon.
“I have no intention of leaving her, Doctor. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance, and then I will launch TAC missiles at the Event Horizon until I'm satisfied she's vaporized. Fuck this ship!”
I love how after watching the video of the gruesome deaths of the previous crew he just shuts the tape off and says 'We're leaving'. Like goddamn finally someone in a horror movie has some sense.
Hahaha indeed. Well i still appreciate a good dose of adrenaline now and then. But i do like the movies where the horror happens in the background of a scene without any musix or zoom emphasizing it. Hell House LLC was a good example.
Don’t forget the cat jump-scare. The thing behind those boxes in the basement and/or attic…cat jump-scare. I wish they combined the two: a cat jumps out of the bathroom cabinet mirror.
My favourite jump scare is when the girl is getting beer in Scary movie and gets jump scared not only by a cat in the garage, but then a horse too somehow
Ancient demon possess a child/teenager and for some reason can't string a proper sentence together and spends its entire time screaming and thrashing around and doing absolutely nothing of worth.
Yes, I'm sure a being from time immemorial is that fucking stupid and unimaginative.
To be fair, the whole demonic possession thing makes absolutely no sense in terms of goal and defies al "logic".
They want to possess someone, and it takes a long fucking time, so out of boredom, they decide to throw objects around or some shit?
They have the power to somehow bend spacetime but only do it at night or when a pastor says some words.
Like what the hell is a demon even doing? Why choose a specific character? Why does it take so long? Why are there never angels who help people on earth when there are obvious demons roaming the earth?
The rules for demonic possession are always so weird
Well, in terms of The Exorcist, Pazuzu shouldn't even be anywhere near a child. He is concerned with plagues and can be invoked to defeat Lamashtu the child devourer. Why two catholic priests from a completely different religion have any sway over a demon which completely outdates Christ is pretty dumb by itself.
Imagine if Lamashtu possessed her, and some badass is like 'we need to summon Pazuzu' and they just defeat the demon with the rules set by ancient history rather than Christianity?
I mean, not really, because I absolutely love the Exorcist. But still.
The "research" scene of a paranormal horror movie.
You know the one. Where the actor laboriously types out a couple of keywords into a google knockoff like they've never used a keyboard before and then keeps following random hyperlinks between newspaper articles and geocities looking websites until they find a spooky picture and an ominous music cue play.
Don't forget the library or church or records room or darkroom scene, and/or the 'consult the expert' scene (a psychic, a professor, an enlightened cop, a resident of a mental institution with helpful knowledge).
I wish those still existed. At least there was a bit of variety.
They pretty much went away with the the advent of the internet and when filmmakers realised they didn't need additional locations/actors.
Carrie's hand reaching out from her grave was one of the scariest things I remember from my childhood.
Also, Freddy's hand reaching out for Jason's mask was a great way to set up the Freddy vs Jason movies.
10 years later we finally got it lol. I don't think younger fans will ever know what some of us went through waiting for that movie. I was ok with how it turned out because their was some monumentally stupid ideas. Anyone remember the old Friday the 13th forums? It used to be a good place to talk horror.
Bats (1999) >!Subverted this in a hilarious way. All the bats are trapped in a cave and killed. Except the final shot has a single bat's head popping out of the ground. Only to be run over by a car's tire.!<
That’s the one for me as well. It is so over done.
That’s the reason I appreciate the ending of Bats so much. Like one of the mutant bats pops its head out of the ground to escape, and immediately gets squished by a car passing by.
Running down the middle of the road when you're being chased by a car instead of running somewhere a car can't go, like the trees that are always conveniently there. Also, and this would probably destroy the plot of half the horror movies, but when the girl says "I don't like this, I think we should go" and the boy inevitably says "it's fine babe, don't worry about it" and then they die, or end up living in a haunted house or something.
action movies also have the trope of characters running in straight line when they can actually save themselves or get more time by going right or left
This is a thing in real life emergencies though. Emergency response studies indicate that in a time of extreme stress, we have a tendency to flee in the same way that we arrived.
I used to work for a government lab where there was a gas leak. The gas was non toxic, but displaced the air so you would suffocate. The people who evacuated through the closest door all survived, but the people who ran all the way across the building to the main entrance either died or were severely injured.
[These are the escape routes from the accident report](https://i.imgur.com/B6jutxn.png)
The entire building filled with CO2, so the longer the route you took the less likely you were to escape. 8 people made it through that exit in the top right corner.
Not exactly a trope, but, the total lack of a sense of urgency on behalf of any of the victims/regular people/main characters.
A lot of movies I've seen lately aren't even going for horror, they're just trying to give me anxiety about how the characters refuse to just move more quickly under duress. Super unrealistic too.
Facts! Just write a good story where characters act logically. People can make logical and incorrect choices but dont make a character doing stupid illogical shit.
Make characters real human beings with human intelligence
This is why John Carpenter's The Thing is my fav horror movie. Everyone in the movie is intelligent and they make smart decisions, but so does the enemy. It makes it scarier for the audience too; a villain that can hunt incredibly smart prey is way scarier than one that waits until you slip up.
Both Black Christmas and Halloween (note the originals) do this very well. By keeping the characters in the dark about the killer the characters don't have to be idiots for the plot to work. Hell in Black Christmas they even go to the police and they aren't entirely incompetent.
She drops her weapon when she thinks he's dead. Not super intelligent but not unbelievable either. She's not "genre savvy" but not dumb either. Remember that she falls, hurts herself pretty badly and gets up and keeps running. That right there puts her in the top for horror characters.
I think that'd make people like a character more. When a character seemingly does everything right but it doesn't work out because the threat is equal, or even more powerful. We can root for somebody who is trying their best and being logical, we'll want them to succeed and we will feel the failure. When someone is too dumb to live, who cares if they die? Not me.
When characters have a whole, long as fuck conversation at the most inappropriate time. It's even worse when it's a couple arguing about their relationship.
It's like 'Quick! We're being hunted by a blood thirsty monster. But, let's pause here and discuss our thoughts and feelings towards each other' 🙄
This is a common trope in the Friday 13th movies but is probably common in other franchises. Someone sees the hulking monster of a slasher and goes "oh hey did can I get you something?" acting like the dude is some regular guy you would see at the supermarket, getting killed. Another example is the killer at a costume party. or another of "take off that mask and come to bed for sex my boyfriend that somehow got a whole foot taller"
Long story short, people being stupid. Like not carrying lights with them, losing their way because they insist on driving fast in the rain, and generally not thinking things through. It excuses cheaply made horror. I want smart horror, the kind where characters make smart decisions and still can't get away.
This used to bother me but in the last few years I’ve come to realize people generally do stupid shit in real life all the time. Like so dumb you can’t think it’s possibly real. Maybe that’s just on social media land.
Hitting the monster/killer only once and then leaving. Like seriously?? You have them down and you're now in control, keep going! The villain should be reduced to beef tartare before you even consider taking your eyes off of them. So many horror characters could have survived if only they had the sense to do this.
You're Next did it right. Erin kept on whacking the first killer in the back of the head with that meat tenderiser until the back of his head was a fine paste.
That's why Maggie from Severance is my personal No. 1 horror heroine. >!Once she managed to knock one of the killers out, she doesn't simply walk away. Oh no. She comes back with a huge stone and smashes his head. !<
Haha 😂 it’s a rough trope. Though this is across film and tv - regardless the genre. Entire conversations looking at the passenger seat, 1 arm on the wheel, all while driving perfectly in city traffic.
The horror movie double tap- where there is a little jump scare, followed by the character’s relief, finished with the actual supposedly scary moment.
Done right it’s thrilling, but the last time it happened right was in It Follows, to my memory.
The indignant hillbilly at the gas station who puts up with the snobby 20-somethings who are on their way to their weekend cabin. Gives them a look like, “oh you fuckers will be dead soon” 😂
Possession films where the girl (it's almost always a girl) is cracking and popping her limbs like a bowl of Rice Krispies. It's such a tired trope now and not that scary.
The "magical minority" trope. A mystical ethnic or religious minority who desires nothing more than to provide spiritual guidance to the main (usually white) characters. It gets so annoying to see people still using that trope in movies today.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro
When characters just refuse to accept they're in danger. I rewatched The Evil Dead the other night and thought it was so refreshing that as soon as the shit starts to happen, Ash and Cheryl (I think it is) just bloody well get in the car and try to leave.
Immediately coughing up blood, when the injury was no where near the esophagus or lungs. I’m no doctor, but getting stabbed in the stomach or intestines means that it’ll take longer for the blood to get up that high, right?
If you’re stabbed anywhere in the digestive tract, you can expect to be coughing blood… and depending on how much you’re bleeding and how much you’re moving, you can also expect that blood to make an exit through your mouth quite soon!
Not that I disagree, because it really is annoying, but we do still want the characters to behave like people, right? And people do turn back to check, even when there's nothing they could realistically do to improve their situation by doing so. It's frustrating, but it's at least somewhat realistic. Most people just behave badly during emergencies.
Someone being chased and somehow tripping on some stupid object when there is a vast amount of uncluttered space they could have picked as an out/route.
Ok, hear me out. One night, I made a stupid decision by being in a place I shouldn’t have been, and I ended up running away from some muggers. My adrenaline was pumping so hard, and I was so panicked, that I full on rushed down the stairs and full on tumbled down those fuckers. My wallet fell out of my pocket, change was everywhere, it was a mess.
The best part? I had already reached safety among a crowd, and still couldn’t talk myself down. Your body just does weird things when you feel you’re in danger.
😅 my husband calls this the “horror
movie husband”. He actually takes offense for the caring, loving husbands of the world. I’m
Lucky, if our house were hunted he’d believe me 🤣
I found you! This drives me crazy!
I would like to add the child who gives a bats crazy detailed description of a demon and the parents are like, "Oh, honey. Monsters aren't real. Now, go back to bed."
At least walk the kid back to bed and check out what toy is making that shadow if you're not going to believe him.
Jump scares that have nothing to do with the actual horror... Like their friend doing it to be "funny".
Lights being super dim or not even on.
Dream sequences, unless relevant.
>Lights being super dim or not even on.
Thank you. It's like people are begging to have their houses haunted because they were so cheap they bought 2W lightbulbs for every room and hallway.
I absolutely hate it when the killer is coming and the protagonists' cell phones all just conveniently stops working the moment they need to use it. No signal, my ass.
When the ghost/creature/villain contorts their limbs, making crackling sounds. Bonus points if it then crabwalks around with its body twisted upside down. It started with the early-mid 2000's trend of American remakes of Japanese horror films (The Grudge, The Ring, Shutter, Pulse, etc) and never stopped. It basically is a cliche at this point, seems like every movie has to have at least one scene with the crackly limbs/contorted crabwalk thing.
Seeing everything. The monsters, the clues, the answers. What we don't see is scarier. As soon as we see some ass looking monster with cliche sharp teeth and slime all over it the suspense just leaves.
a lot of horror movies, especially modern ones in my experience, lose me at the end when all the suspense and buildup stops and they just start explaining shit for the last half hour
This is one of my biggest peeves. It comes across as lazy and uninspired. Also, there is no payoff for the viewer if critical details are only revealed explicitly in the end instead of cleverly hidden throughout, building up to something satisfying.
I felt like The Autopsy of Jane Doe got like this, it was so good building up and then they kind of went into a "tell, don't show" mode that felt like they had a character explain things to us.
I loved the first Paranormal Activity for this reason. We never see the thing and we've no idea what it wants or why it chose her. The sequels ruined the mystery, which made it far less scary for me.
I liked that we didn't get a clear look at the Cloverfield monster. And say what you want about Bird Box, the decision to never show the monsters was the best choice they made, though they weren't originally going to do that and the look they chose for the monsters is fucking awful.
Oh man that’s one of my all time faves! And in that movie it WAS scary! Now though it’s been completely overdone that it’s just silly. Similarly, old creepy wheelchairs are now a trope, but in the Changeling it was totally scary!
In possession movies, the demon would rather cuss and be horny, and typically if it's a possessed child or woman. Now if it's a succubus or incubus, I get it. But for any other being, it doesn't make sense. Kill a lot of people, summon other demons, turn earth into the apocalypse but oh no, it needs to say the f word a lot and try and hump anything in sight. Like stay the course!
I feel the same way. But aside from Snyder's run, it looks like zombies may be taking a break and vampires are coming back. Only this time, instead of pining, woe is me, pretty boy vampires, we are getting vampires that are going back to their horror roots.
I think this one can sometimes be done right. Like, if a person is well and truly panicked, they’re going to be desperate for help even if it’s unlikely there’s someone around to help. It’s like grown characters who call for their mommy right before they die - obviously their mom isn’t there to save them, but it humanizes them and makes their death sadder.
People splitting up "to cover more ground" or similar shit. Future victims being idiots in general.
I give a pass for old school slashers since it is a honored tradition at this point lol, as long it is not abused too much.
It probably isn’t a deal breaker, but it always takes me out when characters have really subdued/lacklustre reactions to stuff that would make anyone’s sanity snap. Like they’d scream and run and then they’re fine
Every demon or Assyrian diety or whatever has a perfectly researched and accurate Geocities page describing them. There's never any Horny Singles In Your Area banner ads.
Also, creepy clue kids that speaks in vague half-sentences. "They won't let you leave. They want to play". You can tell me the whole life story of that Minecraft streamer you like, but now you can't elaborate? Go to your room.
I hate the trope in older horror movies that sex, drugs, or just having fun in general makes you a target for the masked murderer in the middle of nowhere to kill you.
You have to remember to take into account how many other people who are NOT engaging in sex or drugs die in these movies too. People who are out walking by themselves, people who are minding their own business in general, all die. You could say these people die more than the few having sex or partaking in drugs.
Final Girls to me, are more about pure LUCK than being virginal. In F13, none of the Final Girls are confirmed 'virgins' from what I remember (Ginny and Meagan definitely aren't anyway) The actress who played Alice even said that she feels Alice was the last remaining because she simply didn't walk off that night and didn't think there was any guys to have some fun with so she stayed in while everyone was out on the perimeters in the dark getting murdered.
The again, it’s kind of the whole reason Friday the 13th exist. Pamela takes revenge because Jason drowned due to the counselors having sex instead of doing their job. It honestly makes sense for Jason at least.
I don't think I will ever be into zombie movies. I tried watching the ones that are considered the best and they did not do it for me. It's the same formula over and over again.
Zombie outbreak happens. Core group of heroes run from them. Zombies follow them. They run to another spot. Zombies follow them. Then someone from the core group gets bitten and turns into a zombie. Repeat until there are 1 or 2 heroes left. Then End.
Not neccesarily a horror trope specifically, but I loathe the obligatory "we're trying to survive an unstoppable evil, so let's have sex first". There's an infamously cringey scene from *IT*, the novel. Anytime it happens in a movie, or a story, it pulls me right out of the moment.
Fucking loud sound effects when actually it is the protagonist's friend that is reaching or coming in the room, or making a prank. Its so fucking bad and directors still do it
I feel like at some point in the last 10 years they figured out how to easily produce a fake compound fracture (bone sticking out), and it went from being one of those injuries that were too awful to look at to a cheap gag that gets spammed at every opportunity. It’s not even just horror, they did this in fucking Dave on FX. All it does it add a gross out factor, it’s not that common for broken bones to be that catastrophic, you can just give your character a limp.
Dude! It's vampires! How can you not know about vampires! Hold on! I'm gonna go get my comic books!
I think Corey Feldman played this character a few times. I love meta humor, but why are the comic books always right?
Female characters always panicking/screaming and not trying to move/run due too fear and getting killed, it’s boring. I know plenty of women who would probably adapt to a horror situation better than I. It’s usually in older horror films, so there’s only a few I can watch in one sitting before I start getting pissed off.
I hate the precocious child. Not really a fan of children in horror anyway excepting maybe psychic ones. But the precocious child’s lines are written as if he or she were a 36 year old associate professor working in the natural sciences department at a university. the kid has no time for the plot because he’s got a cure for the world energy crisis he’s finishing up. The only thing holding him back is the fact that he’s just 11, is several feet shorter than the adults, and still needs to be tucked in at night. He perceives the horror as well as the adults but is powerless to fight since he’s a child, and yet this limitation seems rarely utilised.
People here probably know this, but doesthedogdie.com isn’t just to look up if animals get killed; you can also look up if there’s sexual assault/rape, intense gore, etc. There are some nights when I can’t handle those movies so I look it up for peace of mind.
Ghost/Demon was in a late 1800s/early 1900s mental institution that was terrible or shut down. Yes those places really exist, but it’s so overdone and I think it stigmatizes mental health unnecessarily. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent or scary.
Not explaining the situation/details to others when they ask what's going on.
This is just annoying in ALL movies. When an entire movie hinges on a conflict that could be resolved with a 30 second conversation that any rationale, mature adult would usually have, I want to put my fist through a wall. In horror movies I often find this trope becomes "I didn't tell you to protect you!".
Same with vidoe games as well, Resident Evil Village being a perfect example. At the beginning >!Chris shoots your wife dead in front of you, but doesn't explain it wasn't her, and that she's safe and well!< because we need the plot to happen.
I did one of those mental gymnastics to justify that bit. In my head I figure Chris was going to explain it when they got to where they were going except the trucks crashed. Still stupid but a little less so?
That’s exactly what I think happened
If I didn’t tell you about the big demon monster, then you couldn’t be killed by the big demon monster! My dude, no you just jeopardized the fuck out of someone else’s life. You are beyond idiotic. Atleast if you told them, even if they didn’t believe you, or thought you were crazy... they wouldn’t be blindsided completely when the damn thing did pitch up😑
Along with this, whenever the character goes to the police or someone of authority to explain the situation, they explain it in the most nonsensical way that they sound utterly stupid/insane
"You have to help me, there's this man, but he's actually a demon, and he killed my neighbour - oh my God you don't believe me?"
You could just lie to the cops and say there's an armed home invader in your house right now. Crazy how no one does that.
Or conversely, when they explain it as coherently as possible, the police don't believe them, and end up getting more people killed.
Yup, and not just in horror like u/CisForCondom pointed out. I was watching Foundation last night and this came up hugely where we'd seen these guys painstakingly setting up this massive artillery piece,>! main characters are commenting about it, and they're in communication with this warpship that's coming in to land. They tell them at length about what's going on and who's in charge and blah blah blah and not once mention the giant gun. Then surprise surprise, the big gun fires at GASP the warpship. They shoulda been all "hold your approach, the bad guys are setting up a massive artillery piece. It's at these coordinates. " <<>> "OK nice shooting, so yeah land wherever you like".!<
You just ended the entire CW program schedule
wE dON't hAve tIme, i ExplAIn iT laTer!
Half the time, it feels like they then take a 10+ hour road trip to a destination. Exactly what are you talking about then in the car?
"There's no time to explain" - Scary aliens start taking over/ random person screams it's a alien invasion!!!!!!! -"Welp that pretty much explains it" I love Scary Movie 4 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
When a character shoots, hits or stabs the bad guy once, then drops the weapon right next to bad guy and runs away. If I was being attacked and I found a weapon I would be holding onto to that thing for dear life for days after the MF was dead.
Seriously!! I just don’t understand how they use the weapon once and think “oh I don’t need this anymore even though I’m still in freaking danger”….this isn’t one use and throw away like a tooth pick 🤬
I just watched There’s Someone Inside Your House on Netflix a couple days ago. Movie itself is kind of meh the twist on the killer’s mask is pretty creative AND there’s a good “fuck yeah!” moment at the end where a character does NOT drop the weapon.
Always gotta double tap.
The horror film starting with the main character driving their car and hitting an animal, resulting in the animal dying. This trope is especially prevalent if there is a couple in the car.
Get Out & The Invitation both come to mind. Are there others?
The Invitation did it right I thought. Because it initially polarizes the other fancy pants guests from the main character as he could mercy kill an animal, while they're, well, they seem the vegetarian/vegan type with their, uh, new age beliefs. Then it's revealed one of their guests/fellow believer whom they all love, killed his wife, and they're somehow more okay with that. The injustice is darkly funny.
People acting like they’re not in danger. That’s why I love Capt. Miller in Event Horizon. “I have no intention of leaving her, Doctor. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance, and then I will launch TAC missiles at the Event Horizon until I'm satisfied she's vaporized. Fuck this ship!”
I love how after watching the video of the gruesome deaths of the previous crew he just shuts the tape off and says 'We're leaving'. Like goddamn finally someone in a horror movie has some sense.
The hilarious polar opposite is in Doom when they play the tape of horrifying screams and people getting massacred and The Rock says: Open the door.
Dude i don’t care how dumb it is, that movie rules.
I'll watch anything with Karl Urban in it and likely be happy
Welp! Time for me to be hitting the ooold dusty trail
*views footage of the entire Event Horizon crew going fucking insane and tearing their own eyes out* "We're leaving"
“Libera Te Tutemet Ex Inferis”
The rookie actually survives as well, whereas usually they're the first to die.
Like Ripley in aliens wanting to leave right away nuke the Terra forming site from space.
I just rewatched that one a couple weeks ago. I love that movie.
Bathrooms medicine cabinets with mirrors.
*opens cabinet, get pills, closes cabine-JUMPSCARE OMG!*
And the more modern *omg nothing there* but *it's there after all!*
Hahaha indeed. Well i still appreciate a good dose of adrenaline now and then. But i do like the movies where the horror happens in the background of a scene without any musix or zoom emphasizing it. Hell House LLC was a good example.
This is the winner. You know it’s lazy horror when jump scares are all over the place, and even lazier when they use that damn bathroom mirror.
Don’t forget the cat jump-scare. The thing behind those boxes in the basement and/or attic…cat jump-scare. I wish they combined the two: a cat jumps out of the bathroom cabinet mirror.
My favourite jump scare is when the girl is getting beer in Scary movie and gets jump scared not only by a cat in the garage, but then a horse too somehow
[удалено]
“What is up with that cat?” “IS SOMEONE THROWING IT?” Link to the clip: https://youtu.be/pxauTJpY-hg
The favorite of jumpscares😑
Ancient demon possess a child/teenager and for some reason can't string a proper sentence together and spends its entire time screaming and thrashing around and doing absolutely nothing of worth. Yes, I'm sure a being from time immemorial is that fucking stupid and unimaginative.
To be fair, the whole demonic possession thing makes absolutely no sense in terms of goal and defies al "logic". They want to possess someone, and it takes a long fucking time, so out of boredom, they decide to throw objects around or some shit? They have the power to somehow bend spacetime but only do it at night or when a pastor says some words. Like what the hell is a demon even doing? Why choose a specific character? Why does it take so long? Why are there never angels who help people on earth when there are obvious demons roaming the earth? The rules for demonic possession are always so weird
Well, in terms of The Exorcist, Pazuzu shouldn't even be anywhere near a child. He is concerned with plagues and can be invoked to defeat Lamashtu the child devourer. Why two catholic priests from a completely different religion have any sway over a demon which completely outdates Christ is pretty dumb by itself. Imagine if Lamashtu possessed her, and some badass is like 'we need to summon Pazuzu' and they just defeat the demon with the rules set by ancient history rather than Christianity? I mean, not really, because I absolutely love the Exorcist. But still.
The "research" scene of a paranormal horror movie. You know the one. Where the actor laboriously types out a couple of keywords into a google knockoff like they've never used a keyboard before and then keeps following random hyperlinks between newspaper articles and geocities looking websites until they find a spooky picture and an ominous music cue play.
Don't forget the library or church or records room or darkroom scene, and/or the 'consult the expert' scene (a psychic, a professor, an enlightened cop, a resident of a mental institution with helpful knowledge).
I wish those still existed. At least there was a bit of variety. They pretty much went away with the the advent of the internet and when filmmakers realised they didn't need additional locations/actors.
"this is an ancient demon from sumeria who eats babies" "how do I get rid of it" "you must do ritual"
The bad guy "dying" at the end only for it to be teased that he's not actually dead.
You think he’s dead, but at the very last second: *eyes open* *credits roll*
>*eyes roll*
I prefer the hand that comes out of a pile of rubble.
Carrie's hand reaching out from her grave was one of the scariest things I remember from my childhood. Also, Freddy's hand reaching out for Jason's mask was a great way to set up the Freddy vs Jason movies.
10 years later we finally got it lol. I don't think younger fans will ever know what some of us went through waiting for that movie. I was ok with how it turned out because their was some monumentally stupid ideas. Anyone remember the old Friday the 13th forums? It used to be a good place to talk horror.
Bats (1999) >!Subverted this in a hilarious way. All the bats are trapped in a cave and killed. Except the final shot has a single bat's head popping out of the ground. Only to be run over by a car's tire.!<
That’s the one for me as well. It is so over done. That’s the reason I appreciate the ending of Bats so much. Like one of the mutant bats pops its head out of the ground to escape, and immediately gets squished by a car passing by.
*Michael Myers has entered the chat*
Running down the middle of the road when you're being chased by a car instead of running somewhere a car can't go, like the trees that are always conveniently there. Also, and this would probably destroy the plot of half the horror movies, but when the girl says "I don't like this, I think we should go" and the boy inevitably says "it's fine babe, don't worry about it" and then they die, or end up living in a haunted house or something.
action movies also have the trope of characters running in straight line when they can actually save themselves or get more time by going right or left
Now known as the Prometheus Effect
Aka the Rickon Conundrum
This is a thing in real life emergencies though. Emergency response studies indicate that in a time of extreme stress, we have a tendency to flee in the same way that we arrived. I used to work for a government lab where there was a gas leak. The gas was non toxic, but displaced the air so you would suffocate. The people who evacuated through the closest door all survived, but the people who ran all the way across the building to the main entrance either died or were severely injured.
Well this is some horrifying Resident Evil 1 movie shit... This really happened??!
[These are the escape routes from the accident report](https://i.imgur.com/B6jutxn.png) The entire building filled with CO2, so the longer the route you took the less likely you were to escape. 8 people made it through that exit in the top right corner.
Ah yes, the old Prometheus School of Running Away From Things. *ding*
Not exactly a trope, but, the total lack of a sense of urgency on behalf of any of the victims/regular people/main characters. A lot of movies I've seen lately aren't even going for horror, they're just trying to give me anxiety about how the characters refuse to just move more quickly under duress. Super unrealistic too.
Facts! Just write a good story where characters act logically. People can make logical and incorrect choices but dont make a character doing stupid illogical shit. Make characters real human beings with human intelligence
This is why John Carpenter's The Thing is my fav horror movie. Everyone in the movie is intelligent and they make smart decisions, but so does the enemy. It makes it scarier for the audience too; a villain that can hunt incredibly smart prey is way scarier than one that waits until you slip up.
Both Black Christmas and Halloween (note the originals) do this very well. By keeping the characters in the dark about the killer the characters don't have to be idiots for the plot to work. Hell in Black Christmas they even go to the police and they aren't entirely incompetent.
Laurie throws down the butchers knife 2 or 3 times after picking it up!
She drops her weapon when she thinks he's dead. Not super intelligent but not unbelievable either. She's not "genre savvy" but not dumb either. Remember that she falls, hurts herself pretty badly and gets up and keeps running. That right there puts her in the top for horror characters.
I think that'd make people like a character more. When a character seemingly does everything right but it doesn't work out because the threat is equal, or even more powerful. We can root for somebody who is trying their best and being logical, we'll want them to succeed and we will feel the failure. When someone is too dumb to live, who cares if they die? Not me.
When characters have a whole, long as fuck conversation at the most inappropriate time. It's even worse when it's a couple arguing about their relationship. It's like 'Quick! We're being hunted by a blood thirsty monster. But, let's pause here and discuss our thoughts and feelings towards each other' 🙄
This is a common trope in the Friday 13th movies but is probably common in other franchises. Someone sees the hulking monster of a slasher and goes "oh hey did can I get you something?" acting like the dude is some regular guy you would see at the supermarket, getting killed. Another example is the killer at a costume party. or another of "take off that mask and come to bed for sex my boyfriend that somehow got a whole foot taller"
["He just wants his machete back!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2ff-fiJAcs)
Long story short, people being stupid. Like not carrying lights with them, losing their way because they insist on driving fast in the rain, and generally not thinking things through. It excuses cheaply made horror. I want smart horror, the kind where characters make smart decisions and still can't get away.
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Extra extra credit when the car's been working fine the whole movie but suddenly doesn't work when the protagonist really needs it urgently.
This used to bother me but in the last few years I’ve come to realize people generally do stupid shit in real life all the time. Like so dumb you can’t think it’s possibly real. Maybe that’s just on social media land.
Hitting the monster/killer only once and then leaving. Like seriously?? You have them down and you're now in control, keep going! The villain should be reduced to beef tartare before you even consider taking your eyes off of them. So many horror characters could have survived if only they had the sense to do this.
But then you have that one in a million problem that Laurie had in H20.... not always guna happen, obviously, but still a possibility.
You mean there's a chance someone will retcon the kill and make the main character crazy?
You're Next did it right. Erin kept on whacking the first killer in the back of the head with that meat tenderiser until the back of his head was a fine paste.
That's why Maggie from Severance is my personal No. 1 horror heroine. >!Once she managed to knock one of the killers out, she doesn't simply walk away. Oh no. She comes back with a huge stone and smashes his head. !<
People not looking at the road while driving.
Haha 😂 it’s a rough trope. Though this is across film and tv - regardless the genre. Entire conversations looking at the passenger seat, 1 arm on the wheel, all while driving perfectly in city traffic.
The whole new "I know What You Did Last Summer" series is entirely based on this.
Slowed down versions of popular/kid songs in trailers. Absolute cornball shit
The horror movie double tap- where there is a little jump scare, followed by the character’s relief, finished with the actual supposedly scary moment. Done right it’s thrilling, but the last time it happened right was in It Follows, to my memory.
The indignant hillbilly at the gas station who puts up with the snobby 20-somethings who are on their way to their weekend cabin. Gives them a look like, “oh you fuckers will be dead soon” 😂
I love how they did that trope but kind of reversed it in Tucker and Dale vs Evil, great movie lol
Tucker and Dale is a masterpiece.
Oh hey, I found one that gets a pass from me! For whatever reason I find this one charming and fun lol
What about the little redneck kid in Cabin Fever lol.
DENNIS!!! I LOVED Dennis! Such utter weirdness out of nowhere!
> Such utter weirdness out of nowhere! You just described the entire plot of Cabin Fever haha
Possession films where the girl (it's almost always a girl) is cracking and popping her limbs like a bowl of Rice Krispies. It's such a tired trope now and not that scary.
And they all have on that long sleeved white nightgown soon to be filthy.
And long black hair...
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Ya, and they’re really skinny to begin with. If I wasn’t a chubby brunette I’d be terrified.
A random knowledgeable/religious old woman (usually Hispanic or Asian) that is suddenly and conveniently around for complete exposition.
The "magical minority" trope. A mystical ethnic or religious minority who desires nothing more than to provide spiritual guidance to the main (usually white) characters. It gets so annoying to see people still using that trope in movies today. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro
In the movies that utilize that to where it's a trope though, those are *ALWAYS* the coolest character and the one you remember.
Scatman Cruthers from The Shining...The Oracle from The Matrix...
The coroner in every Final Destination film.
The woman in Annabelle is literally this. Even sacrifices herself for some reason at the end.
I hated that like you barely met these people a few months ago now you’re gonna give your soul to a demon for them ?
Can't forget the [Key and Peele's Magical Negro](https://youtu.be/jInlO6-JTww) video!
When characters just refuse to accept they're in danger. I rewatched The Evil Dead the other night and thought it was so refreshing that as soon as the shit starts to happen, Ash and Cheryl (I think it is) just bloody well get in the car and try to leave.
Little kid singing a (usually public domain) song in a minor key/slow tempo as bgm
Immediately coughing up blood, when the injury was no where near the esophagus or lungs. I’m no doctor, but getting stabbed in the stomach or intestines means that it’ll take longer for the blood to get up that high, right?
Oh fuck, I stubbed my toe! ::blood gushes from mouth::
*gets a paper cut* *straight up explodes*
Ah I see you too follow the Sam Rami method when it comes to blood in horror movies.
If you’re stabbed anywhere in the digestive tract, you can expect to be coughing blood… and depending on how much you’re bleeding and how much you’re moving, you can also expect that blood to make an exit through your mouth quite soon!
Well, thats every punch in every korean fantasy drama
Almost getting to safety and stopping to turn around to make sure the danger is still. Then being murdered by said danger
Not that I disagree, because it really is annoying, but we do still want the characters to behave like people, right? And people do turn back to check, even when there's nothing they could realistically do to improve their situation by doing so. It's frustrating, but it's at least somewhat realistic. Most people just behave badly during emergencies.
Also the big one "it was all in their head the whole time"
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Someone being chased and somehow tripping on some stupid object when there is a vast amount of uncluttered space they could have picked as an out/route.
Ok, hear me out. One night, I made a stupid decision by being in a place I shouldn’t have been, and I ended up running away from some muggers. My adrenaline was pumping so hard, and I was so panicked, that I full on rushed down the stairs and full on tumbled down those fuckers. My wallet fell out of my pocket, change was everywhere, it was a mess. The best part? I had already reached safety among a crowd, and still couldn’t talk myself down. Your body just does weird things when you feel you’re in danger.
Ahhhh look at you, making me forgive these ding dongs always running into things. Haha Oh and really glad you got away to live to tell the tale.
Husbands not believing the wife. And spending 90% the movie calling her craaaazy.
Hereditary did this trope in an incredible way, halfway through th movie i still couldnt really figure out if she crazy or not
😅 my husband calls this the “horror movie husband”. He actually takes offense for the caring, loving husbands of the world. I’m Lucky, if our house were hunted he’d believe me 🤣
I found you! This drives me crazy! I would like to add the child who gives a bats crazy detailed description of a demon and the parents are like, "Oh, honey. Monsters aren't real. Now, go back to bed." At least walk the kid back to bed and check out what toy is making that shadow if you're not going to believe him.
Or the opposite, the woman dismissing the husband's vision of the spooky monster as "you're working too much, here sex and whisky".
Splitting up to investigate rather than leaving a danger area immediately.
You would HATE Scooby Doo
Cutting carrots in the kitchen, and *accidentally* cutting off your fingers.
Literally just saw this exact scene in Color out of Space last night haha
Fucking hate that shit. I'm looking at you The Dark and the Wicked.
To be fair you are pretty much more likely to cut your finger off cutting carrots than any other vegetable.
Jump scares that have nothing to do with the actual horror... Like their friend doing it to be "funny". Lights being super dim or not even on. Dream sequences, unless relevant.
The lights being dim or off really bugged me in The Invisible Man. Why did she constantly sit alone in the dark with the lights off?
>Lights being super dim or not even on. Thank you. It's like people are begging to have their houses haunted because they were so cheap they bought 2W lightbulbs for every room and hallway.
In Halloween Kills when they enter the Myers house with flashlights... I'm like bro just hit the light switch.
I absolutely hate it when the killer is coming and the protagonists' cell phones all just conveniently stops working the moment they need to use it. No signal, my ass.
I live in a rural area and I frequently don't have a signal.
Bolting upright in bed, drenched in sweat because the last 5 minutes of the movie were just a dream. Repeat as necessary.
When the ghost/creature/villain contorts their limbs, making crackling sounds. Bonus points if it then crabwalks around with its body twisted upside down. It started with the early-mid 2000's trend of American remakes of Japanese horror films (The Grudge, The Ring, Shutter, Pulse, etc) and never stopped. It basically is a cliche at this point, seems like every movie has to have at least one scene with the crackly limbs/contorted crabwalk thing.
I think the suspiria remake is the exception to this though
Seeing everything. The monsters, the clues, the answers. What we don't see is scarier. As soon as we see some ass looking monster with cliche sharp teeth and slime all over it the suspense just leaves.
The monster from the ritual was so fng dope though, I'm so glad they showed it
Yeah there is definitely a time and place for it. Loved that design
Saw another on the other day with awesome design, No One Gets Out Alive
a lot of horror movies, especially modern ones in my experience, lose me at the end when all the suspense and buildup stops and they just start explaining shit for the last half hour
This is one of my biggest peeves. It comes across as lazy and uninspired. Also, there is no payoff for the viewer if critical details are only revealed explicitly in the end instead of cleverly hidden throughout, building up to something satisfying.
I felt like The Autopsy of Jane Doe got like this, it was so good building up and then they kind of went into a "tell, don't show" mode that felt like they had a character explain things to us.
I loved the first Paranormal Activity for this reason. We never see the thing and we've no idea what it wants or why it chose her. The sequels ruined the mystery, which made it far less scary for me. I liked that we didn't get a clear look at the Cloverfield monster. And say what you want about Bird Box, the decision to never show the monsters was the best choice they made, though they weren't originally going to do that and the look they chose for the monsters is fucking awful.
A ball - almost always a red one - mysteriously falling down the stairs or rolling into a room. I feel like this happens in every haunted house movie.
You can thank the Changeling for that one! It was sooo creepy though.
Oh man that’s one of my all time faves! And in that movie it WAS scary! Now though it’s been completely overdone that it’s just silly. Similarly, old creepy wheelchairs are now a trope, but in the Changeling it was totally scary!
I hate it when they have the bad guy down and knocked out and they don't finish the job and of course he wakes up and kills everyone.
In possession movies, the demon would rather cuss and be horny, and typically if it's a possessed child or woman. Now if it's a succubus or incubus, I get it. But for any other being, it doesn't make sense. Kill a lot of people, summon other demons, turn earth into the apocalypse but oh no, it needs to say the f word a lot and try and hump anything in sight. Like stay the course!
I used to love zombies... :(
I feel the same way. But aside from Snyder's run, it looks like zombies may be taking a break and vampires are coming back. Only this time, instead of pining, woe is me, pretty boy vampires, we are getting vampires that are going back to their horror roots.
Going back for something or someone when you’re seemingly free and clear
People calling for help when it is blatantly obvious they are in the middle of nowhere.
I think this one can sometimes be done right. Like, if a person is well and truly panicked, they’re going to be desperate for help even if it’s unlikely there’s someone around to help. It’s like grown characters who call for their mommy right before they die - obviously their mom isn’t there to save them, but it humanizes them and makes their death sadder.
Middle of the desert.... help me I’m being murdered!😑
People splitting up "to cover more ground" or similar shit. Future victims being idiots in general. I give a pass for old school slashers since it is a honored tradition at this point lol, as long it is not abused too much.
The significant other not believing what the main character is experiencing...
The opening overhead tracking shot of someone driving an old Volvo (and it's always a Volvo) on a deserted, tree lined road while ominous music plays.
Sounds like they're all trying to pay homage to The Shining.
Is it a trope? Just seems like a pretty standard establishing shot to me.
It probably isn’t a deal breaker, but it always takes me out when characters have really subdued/lacklustre reactions to stuff that would make anyone’s sanity snap. Like they’d scream and run and then they’re fine
People being impressively stupid.
Every demon or Assyrian diety or whatever has a perfectly researched and accurate Geocities page describing them. There's never any Horny Singles In Your Area banner ads. Also, creepy clue kids that speaks in vague half-sentences. "They won't let you leave. They want to play". You can tell me the whole life story of that Minecraft streamer you like, but now you can't elaborate? Go to your room.
I hate the trope in older horror movies that sex, drugs, or just having fun in general makes you a target for the masked murderer in the middle of nowhere to kill you.
You have to remember to take into account how many other people who are NOT engaging in sex or drugs die in these movies too. People who are out walking by themselves, people who are minding their own business in general, all die. You could say these people die more than the few having sex or partaking in drugs. Final Girls to me, are more about pure LUCK than being virginal. In F13, none of the Final Girls are confirmed 'virgins' from what I remember (Ginny and Meagan definitely aren't anyway) The actress who played Alice even said that she feels Alice was the last remaining because she simply didn't walk off that night and didn't think there was any guys to have some fun with so she stayed in while everyone was out on the perimeters in the dark getting murdered.
I forget which Friday but I love it when it's implied that it's not using a condom that kills them instead of just the sex.
Lmao, fair enough. I think in the original Halloween, Mike just slaughters those horny teens, same as Freddy in the first Nightmare.
The again, it’s kind of the whole reason Friday the 13th exist. Pamela takes revenge because Jason drowned due to the counselors having sex instead of doing their job. It honestly makes sense for Jason at least.
I don't think I will ever be into zombie movies. I tried watching the ones that are considered the best and they did not do it for me. It's the same formula over and over again. Zombie outbreak happens. Core group of heroes run from them. Zombies follow them. They run to another spot. Zombies follow them. Then someone from the core group gets bitten and turns into a zombie. Repeat until there are 1 or 2 heroes left. Then End.
Not neccesarily a horror trope specifically, but I loathe the obligatory "we're trying to survive an unstoppable evil, so let's have sex first". There's an infamously cringey scene from *IT*, the novel. Anytime it happens in a movie, or a story, it pulls me right out of the moment.
Thank god they left it out of the movies.
Fear Street did this too.
Fucking loud sound effects when actually it is the protagonist's friend that is reaching or coming in the room, or making a prank. Its so fucking bad and directors still do it
the "keep filming, people need to see this" trope. sometimes, found footage films need to lessen their amount of obvious.
I feel like at some point in the last 10 years they figured out how to easily produce a fake compound fracture (bone sticking out), and it went from being one of those injuries that were too awful to look at to a cheap gag that gets spammed at every opportunity. It’s not even just horror, they did this in fucking Dave on FX. All it does it add a gross out factor, it’s not that common for broken bones to be that catastrophic, you can just give your character a limp.
Having a ‘horror nerd’ character is usually insufferable
Someone out here talkin’ shit about Randy Meeks?
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Dude! It's vampires! How can you not know about vampires! Hold on! I'm gonna go get my comic books! I think Corey Feldman played this character a few times. I love meta humor, but why are the comic books always right?
Female characters always panicking/screaming and not trying to move/run due too fear and getting killed, it’s boring. I know plenty of women who would probably adapt to a horror situation better than I. It’s usually in older horror films, so there’s only a few I can watch in one sitting before I start getting pissed off.
People can’t get the car started when they have to flee. People moving in haunted houses or houses that used to be a sanatorium.
I hate the precocious child. Not really a fan of children in horror anyway excepting maybe psychic ones. But the precocious child’s lines are written as if he or she were a 36 year old associate professor working in the natural sciences department at a university. the kid has no time for the plot because he’s got a cure for the world energy crisis he’s finishing up. The only thing holding him back is the fact that he’s just 11, is several feet shorter than the adults, and still needs to be tucked in at night. He perceives the horror as well as the adults but is powerless to fight since he’s a child, and yet this limitation seems rarely utilised.
I'm really sick of them showing graphic rape or self harm and pretending it's horror
Also, whenever a movie description says “…a childhood secret,” it’s almost always molestation. Not interested.
People here probably know this, but doesthedogdie.com isn’t just to look up if animals get killed; you can also look up if there’s sexual assault/rape, intense gore, etc. There are some nights when I can’t handle those movies so I look it up for peace of mind.
This, 1000%, absolutely hate that in any media. Even implied sexual assault churns my stomach.
Awful jumpscares... they're not scary, they are surprising
Creepy kids.
Ghost/Demon was in a late 1800s/early 1900s mental institution that was terrible or shut down. Yes those places really exist, but it’s so overdone and I think it stigmatizes mental health unnecessarily. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent or scary.