# Horror movie cliche question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124 "2015-05-15T17:43:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/1 "2015-05-15T17:43:47Z")
The Poltergeist promo reminded me of a question I’ve meant to ask. How long has rapid unexpected movement been the standard for horror movies? Like when the clown jumps at the kid, and the little girl is whisked upstairs? I’ll admit I’ve not seen a lot of current horror movies, but I’ve seen a lot of commercials, and that technique is frequently used. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/2 "2015-05-15T18:05:19Z")
Seems fairly recent to me. I’m old, so by fairly recent, I mean approximately the last ten years. I don’t like it. It’s…gimmicky. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/3 "2015-05-15T18:08:01Z")
Horror has always been my favorite genre and I’ve been watching since way before I was really old enough to. The first thing that comes to my mind is the end scene in _Carrie_ which came out in 1976. Holy crap was that ever effective. Now “jump scares” are just annoying and totally overused. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/4 "2015-05-15T18:10:44Z")
Reminds me of the movement of insects or spiders. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/5 "2015-05-15T20:18:52Z")
What was the first “fast zombie” movie? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/6 "2015-05-15T20:30:15Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > What was the first “fast zombie” movie? _28 Days Later_is the first one that comes to my mind. Zombie movies are not my thing but a zippy one is way more menacing than a shambling one, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/7 "2015-05-15T20:31:42Z")
Do you mean where they speed the film up to make something move faster? Seems like I first saw that when The Ring came out in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/8 "2015-05-15T21:13:14Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Do you mean where they speed the film up to make something move faster? > Seems like I first saw that when The Ring came out in 2002. I believe it existed before this but the original “the Ring” (Ringu) made it cool and inspired copy-cats. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/9 "2015-05-16T00:25:55Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > _28 Days Later_is the first one that comes to my mind. Zombie movies are not my thing but a zippy one is way more menacing than a shambling one, IMO. 28 Days Later was neither first to have fast zombies, nor even a zombie movie at all. Return of the Living Dead, which was actually a zombie movie, had fast zombies in 1985. I’m not saying it’s first, just one that definitely came out long before the modern zombie phase. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/10 "2015-05-16T00:33:04Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > 28 Days Later was neither first to have fast zombies, nor even a zombie movie at all. > > Return of the Living Dead, which was actually a zombie movie, had fast zombies in 1985. I’m not saying it’s first, just one that definitely came out long before the modern zombie phase. Of course 28 Days Later was a zombie movie. No, technically the victims weren’t undead, but the original folkloric idea of zombies is different enough from Romero zombies that if we’re going to call Romero’s creations zombies, we need to allow latitude for later artists to reinterpret them as well. 28 Days Later depicts mindless ravening humans who infect others with their disease and in so doing effect an apocalypse; that’s zombie lore for you. If you were confusing it with 28 Days, my apologies, because you’re right that that’s not a zombie movie. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/11 "2015-05-16T14:30:55Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > 28 Days Later was neither first to have fast zombies, nor even a zombie movie at all. > > Return of the Living Dead, which was actually a zombie movie, had fast zombies in 1985. I’m not saying it’s first, just one that definitely came out long before the modern zombie phase. Well, I did say that zombie movies aren’t my thing. Still, As \*\*Lefty \*\* says, if _28 Days Later_ isn’t a zombie movie I don’t know what is. The question is, do you prefer you Sandra Bullock fast and erratic or shambling? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/12 "2015-05-16T15:11:49Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > The question is, do you prefer you Sandra Bullock fast and erratic or shambling? Blonde and southern accented, thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/13 "2015-05-16T23:40:15Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Do you mean where they speed the film up to make something move faster? > Seems like I first saw that when The Ring came out in 2002. I thought he meant when a person or thing looks like it is being grabbed and whisked to another location. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/14 "2015-05-19T19:21:38Z")
There was a bit of that sudden movement type thing in Evil Dead II - not sure if there was in Evil Dead as well, I can’t remember that one very well. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/15 "2015-05-19T19:54:36Z")
The first movie in which I saw this type of movement, if it’s the correct movement that’s being described in the OP, is the 1999 remake of \*House on Haunted Hill \*-- one of the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt is seen on a security monitor, and he moves really quickly and with jerky action. The movie was awful, overall, but that scene was really jarring to me. I found a clip with the scene on YouTube, but the scene begins with some pretty extreme gore and some blue language from Geoffrey Rush so I’ll spoiler it (the action of which I’m writing starts at about 13 seconds in): Not the best-quality clip, but you get the idea. If the movement is something else – someone being whisked away unexpectedly and in a supernatural fashion … dunno. I agree with other posters, though: it’s been overdone in movies as of late. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/16 "2015-05-19T21:11:25Z")
I’d bet you money the jerky look of that Dr. ghost with the bone saw was accomplished by filming the actor walking backward out of the room. The bit where he produces the saw is some kind of editing trick, designed to disorient the viewer, but it’s definitely overdone. And yes, awful movie. Any film that dispatches Bridgette Wilson-Sampras in the first 15 minutes is beneath contempt. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-movie-cliche-question/720124/17 "2015-05-19T21:56:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There was a bit of that sudden movement type thing in Evil Dead II - not sure if there was in Evil Dead as well, I can’t remember that one very well. I was going to mention _Evil Dead_ as well, but I’m remembering it as the fast movement being represented as what the viewer (one of the ghouls)is seeing, i.e. at the end when you think the demons have been defeated there’s a super fast forward zoom where you’re seeing what the demon does. It was actually a very creepy effect and one of the few things I remember from the movie. If the OP is referring to the technique that **burpo** is talking about, the first use I remember of that is in _Jacob’s Ladder_, which came out in 1990. That one is also overused but it still creeps me the hell out.