Ok, some horror movie cliches are a good thing. Exposed breasts, is the clear winner of this. But what are some bad ones that just bring down the whole mood and, often times, the sympathy for the characters? The ones that remind you, that after all, it is only a movie.
The camera tricks of somebody walking into a hallway or up (or down) some stairs and the camera is either following behind closely or is focused on a face close-up. You just know something is going to jump out from the other direction and “scare” you,
That and those fucking cats in the trash or the closet or behind the door.
Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive article on the subject.
A squeak, and the camera shows a rat running across somebody’s foot.
Nuclear radiation/testing results in a giant creature
which the army cannot kill
a scientist, accompanied by a pretty woman
(who sprains her ankle)
finds a way to electrocute the creature.
The first time I saw the fungus called Corn Smut, I got goose bumps, because several horror movies had started with something weird in a corn field.
Vampires never, ever just jump in and bite. They have to futz around, admiring the victim, so you have time to scream and freak out.
That’s no fun, let’s do it by our selves. Oh, but that’s a horror cliche, too.
My favorite horror movie cliche: houses built on top of old burial grounds (especially Native American ones). I live in such a house. No spooks yet, but I fully expect that after I’m dead, the new occupants will complain that someone is singing Joni Mitchell songs in the shower.
Damn straight it is! Hilarious.
If the protogaonist is a female and she has a boyfriend… he will probably die, but she won’t discover his body until later.
Chicks in bad situations who are never wearing fucking shoes. In junkyards, fields of glass shards, coral and hot coals. PURCHASE SOME FOOTWEAR, LADIES!
If you split up, you might as well kill yourself.
but
I remember a Tiny Toons episode where they decided not to split up, but walked around in a circle facing out. They still got picked off one-by-one.
“An intellectual carrot! The mind boggles!” – from THE THING (1953)
Damn. I was going to say “let’s split up so we can find the deadly monster more quickly”.
OK, how about “the scientists shouldn’t have played God”
If you don’t bother to visually confirm that you’re talking to whom you think you’re talking to, you’re not. On second thought, that’s not necessarily a horror cliche - even Bond movies aren’t excluded (cf. “Tee Hee” from the end scene on the train in Live and Let Die)
If the screen obscures the rest of the shot (looking in the fridge, looking in a mirror), the killer has materialized in that spot.
No vehicle required in a crisis situation will start. If it does, you’d better check that back seat.
Women have no compunction taking showers in the creepiest of locations.
Nobody ever turns on the lights when searching that creepy store room or warehouse.
Women, apparently, can not move very quikly unless a man is holding her arm.
So many movies begin with that premise, I believe Native Americans should be banned from burying anything. Nothing good can come of it.
Let’s see, someone already mentioned the spring-loaded cats; how about the constant thunderstorms? Whenever there’s a killer on the loose, there’s a thunderstorm right there with him, and the electricity will go off, because horror movie houses still have the original wiring from 1942.
People hearing a funny noise in the basement will be stupid and go investigate. Females will do it in their nighties.
Flashlight batteries have a 30 second lifespan.
Watching the Lost boys the other night I saw the one where some folks are running away from something and of course one of them has to fall down and then somebody has to come back and help them up and then they manage to scramble to safety just in the nick of time.
If a computer is hit by lighting or a huge power surge, it will become an intelligent killing machine, not a pile of burnt out plastic and silicon.
When stuck in a psychotic hillbilly’s cabin, the guy who’s going to get it next always hides under the bed and the camera POV is the killer’s dirty shoes.
People who live out in the sticks are always creepy and surly and stupid and have filthy habits. Some might even be cannibals. Those who aren’t won’t lift a finger to help cityfolk.