# Is this a horror cliche? And if so, where did it start? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488 "2007-12-18T19:19:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/1 "2007-12-18T19:19:18Z")
I can think of it from only three horror films/episodes and one of those is an episode of [Star Trek Enterprise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_%28Star_Trek:_Enterprise%29)šŸ˜› the other two being John Carpenterā€™s [In the Mouth of Madness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mouth_of_Madness) and another film Iā€™ve just not been able to Google for. The cliche (if thatā€™s the correct way to describe it) has our heroes looking one way while in the background, someone runs right across the screen. Does it appear enough times to make it a cliche? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/2 "2007-12-18T19:32:19Z")
Itā€™s hardly a _horror_ cliche. Charlie Chaplin used to do the same thing for laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/3 "2007-12-18T19:32:48Z")
If it happens in more than one episode of Scooby-Doo Iā€™d say it qualifies as a cliche. Bonus points if the background is a long hallway with several sets of parallel doors. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/4 "2007-12-18T20:06:14Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I can think of it from only three horror films/episodes and one of those is an episode of [Star Trek Enterprise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_%28Star_Trek:_Enterprise%29)šŸ˜› the other two being John Carpenterā€™s [In the Mouth of Madness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mouth_of_Madness) and another film Iā€™ve just not been able to Google for. The cliche (if thatā€™s the correct way to describe it) has our heroes looking one way while in the background, someone runs right across the screen. Does it appear enough times to make it a cliche? [/QUOTE] Interesting that you mention John Carpenter. In the movie you reference, and in most of his other movies, now that I think of it, he has that kind of shot ā€“ but with the other figure moving across the _foreground_, with a jolting musical cue. Iā€™ve seen that in a lot of horror movies, but I think he popularized that particular technique. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/5 "2007-12-18T20:26:52Z")
**Exorcist 3** (which was 2/3 of a fantastic horror movie, followed by 1/3 of a crappy one) used variations on this twice for great effect. Once was a character crawling across the ceiling, unnoticed by the other characters onscreen. The other was a nurse checking a room, finding nothing amiss, moving to check the one across the hall, and a killer suddenly stride out of the room she had just checked. ---
**Author:** ![Skylark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Skylark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skylark)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/6 "2007-12-19T01:42:11Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] If it happens in more than one episode of Scooby-Doo Iā€™d say it qualifies as a cliche. Bonus points if the background is a long hallway with several sets of parallel doors. [/QUOTE] Benny Hill, I believe. Well, wait. Actually, not so much. Or, wellā€¦ sort of? Itā€™s so often that those two devices have been combined. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/7 "2007-12-19T02:39:51Z")
[QUOTE=Skylark] Benny Hill, I believe. [/QUOTE] Iā€™m not saying Scooby-Doo _invented_ the gag. They sure did run it into the ground though. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/8 "2007-12-19T05:30:15Z")
[QUOTE=Scupper] **Exorcist 3** (which was 2/3 of a fantastic horror movie, followed by 1/3 of a crappy one) used variations on this twice for great effect. Once was a character crawling across the ceiling, unnoticed by the other characters onscreen. The other was a nurse checking a room, finding nothing amiss, moving to check the one across the hall, and a killer suddenly stride out of the room she had just checked. [/QUOTE] Damn, thatā€™s what I was going to say. Iā€™d have to say, that the ceiling crawling Bitch is the most disturbing moment in Cinema, ever (or at least to me.) It skeeved me to the bone. Iā€™d have to say that the ā€œVampire Zombieā€™s first Contactā€ scene in _I am Legend_ is the latest and most effective use of this technique. Will Smith spotting and hand shielding his Army issue Carbineā€™s spotlight. Just a glimpse of a circle jerking group of dormant vampires in the corner. Pure Terror ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/9 "2007-12-19T06:13:27Z")
I think the ennui started with that old bitch on a dolly in the old House on Haunted Hill, to answer your geneology. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-horror-cliche-and-if-so-where-did-it-start/430488/10 "2007-12-19T16:53:45Z")
One great example is in the otherwise-pretty-forgettable **Clownhouse**. Synopsis: insane murderers disguise themselves as clowns, sneak into a house, and skulk around menacing the three boys therein. The scene takes place, as I recall, in the attic, where one of the boys has gone to check the fusebox. As he adjusts the fuse, the attic lights flicker, and the flickering lights momentarily highlight one of the scary clowns right behind him, silent and menacing. As the lights strobe a bit, the clown sprints into hiding, and the kid never notices. Really creepy.