# What you want/don't want to see in a horror movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310 "2005-05-17T21:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/41 "2005-05-19T07:22:26Z")
Also, avoid the hackneyed plot twists. See Taking Lives as an example of a bad plot twist. See Silence Of The Lambs as an example of how plot twists aren’t needed. Plot is good. Twist is bad. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/42 "2005-05-19T13:56:30Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Freaky tangental shit that never gets explained is cool. Amen! Not just in horror but in **all** filmmaking! Real life is full of events that have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever storyline you think you’re living. Movies should be the same way. ---
**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 19, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/43 "2005-05-19T16:16:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Amen! Not just in horror but in **all** filmmaking! Real life is full of events that have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever storyline you think you’re living. Movies should be the same way. Like the SUV crash at the opening of Punch Drunk Love. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/44 "2005-05-19T16:41:54Z")
> [@Lisa-go-Blind](#): > > **Dante** , that made me laugh so hard I choked on my own saliva. And I’ll bet that was scary, wasn’t it? See? Genius. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/45 "2005-05-19T19:43:51Z")
No misleading tension filled music. Nothing makes me turn a movie off faster is to have a scene where someone is walking up a stairwell slowly with suspenseful music playing only to have something normal happen, like adoor whips open and the neighbor walks in saying “Hey What’s Up?”. That is just shitty writing and film making. Suspenseful music is for suspense - not for misleading. And it should be used sparingly. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/46 "2005-05-19T19:46:35Z")
Like: Suspenseful, eerie music Real startling, jump-out-of-your-chair moments Tension out the ears Creepy cinematography Really bad, twisted, evil, fearsome monsters Dislike: Too much gore and violence Too much obvious sensationalism Too much noise ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/47 "2005-05-19T19:48:23Z")
> [@Lisa-go-Blind](#): > > As far as the people who say that they wish the characters were smarter - if they didn’t do stupid things, then they wouldn’t be in this mess and there _wouldn’t be a movie_. That’s why we suspend disbelief! But IRL, horrible (not supernatural, but pretty horrible) things happen to smart people, too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/48 "2005-05-19T19:53:37Z")
> [@Dante](#): > > Can we please stop having cats jumping out of everywhere? I mean, damn, that’s some kind of tired cliche. Maybe use a different animal, or something. What about a pelican? Nobody would expect that. Just have some buxom teenager peeking around a corner, and then WHAM! Pelican jumps on the dresser. Classic. Extra points if the pelican is actually the killer. A horrible fiend is the pelican His bill ravage deep in your belly can As you helplessly shriek He’ll stuff more in his beak Flap his wings and fly straight off to Hell, he can! ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/49 "2005-05-19T19:58:23Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I like real suspense. If there’s a monster, don’t show it all right away. To be really scared, you have to know that whatever the creature does is truly horrific, but one, or possibly two, good scares and after that you don’t need much gore. Give a quick “Grrrr!” as the creature confronts someone, then cut away. What your imagination then invents is infinitely worse than anything that might be shown on screen. **Night of the Demon** is an interesting example. You see the demon right at the start (it was imposed on the director by the studio) but then the rest of the movie plays like a gradually-unfolding oh-my-god-he-really-is-a-black-sorceror script. Except that, because you know the demon exists, when the hero is expressing scepticism, you’re thinking, “You fool. How can you be so dense?” Makes for a really different vibe. Oh, and I second the boobies. Never can have too many. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/50 "2005-05-19T21:45:08Z")
> [@Dante](#): > > Can we please stop having cats jumping out of everywhere? I mean, damn, that’s some kind of tired cliche. Maybe use a different animal, or something. What about a pelican? Nobody would expect that. Just have some buxom teenager peeking around a corner, and then WHAM! Pelican jumps on the dresser. Classic. Extra points if the pelican is actually the killer. I know this isn’t the same, but in the new movie _Madagascar_ you don’t want to trust the penguins. I saw a trailer, and at one point, one character said, in dismay, _“the penguins are psychotic!”_ That’s a cool line. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/51 "2005-05-19T21:46:48Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > Oh, and I second the boobies. Never can have too many. Be careful . . . that itself could be a source of horror. I refer you to “Great Is Diana,” a classic short story by Avram Davidson (published in _The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,_ 1958; collected in _Or All the Seas With Oysters_ and _The Other Nineteenth Century_ – see [The AVRAM DAVIDSON Website - Title Index](http://www.avramdavidson.org/long.htm)). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/52 "2005-05-19T22:25:24Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I know this isn’t the same, but in the new movie _Madagascar_ you don’t want to trust the penguins. I saw a trailer, and at one point, one character said, in dismay, _“the penguins are psychotic!”_ That’s a cool line. Evil penguins? [It’s been done.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108598/) ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/53 "2005-05-19T22:43:51Z")
It has also been noted in beer comercials ( I can’t find a link to it ☹ , and in the last line of the OP of [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=317141) [sub]Doobie doobie doo…[/sub]What was that? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/54 "2005-05-19T22:48:59Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Evil penguins? [It’s been done.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108598/) And who can forget the giant green-tentacled penguin in “Scott of the Antarctic”? [http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Epi2.html#23](http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Epi2.html#23) ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/55 "2005-05-19T22:56:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > A horrible fiend is the pelican > His bill ravage deep in your belly can > As you helplessly shriek > He’ll stuff more in his beak > Flap his wings and fly straight off to Hell, he can! Can I use that in my screenplay for _Night of the Living Pelicans_? If you recite it five times into a mirror, then Candypelican appears! ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/56 "2005-05-19T23:03:35Z")
Less music - much less music. Especially the loud jarring blare of sound when something unexpected happens. I find it ends up making things less scary or effective. Silence is a much better way to build up tension. The great moments in horror I’ve seen, the director lets the audiences imagination fill in the details of what happens. In [Shadowbuilder](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117611/) a character backs towards an open door (always a bad idea) & gets yanked into the darkness behind them. After that all you hear is a wet _cruncccchhhhhhh_. Great stuff (plus any film that has a Catholic priest running around with a pair of laser-sighted Glocks whacking devil worshipers has to have something going for it) 🆒 As for chartacters acting like real people, in [The Forgotten One](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099601/), a pretty much run-of-the-mill ghost story, the main character goes upstairs to investigate a noise, hears a voice, freaks out & spends the night sleeping in his car trying to figure out whether or not he was hearing things. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/57 "2005-05-19T23:11:39Z")
> [@Dante](#): > > Can I use that in my screenplay for _Night of the Living Pelicans_? If you recite it five times into a mirror, then Candypelican appears! By all means! 😃 For an arcane highbrow touch, see if you can work in the symbolism of the pelican in alchemy and Rosicrucian mysticism: [Loading...](http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Pelican%201.%20Intro.htm;) [Birds in Alchemy](http://www.crystalinks.com/birdsalchemy.html;) [404 Page Not Found. - GMOインターネット](http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~jafarr/The%20Pelican.html). Throw even the most pathetic Nostradamus-quoting horror geeks for a loop! ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/58 "2005-05-20T03:48:33Z")
ME! I want to be in a horror movie! (heavy sigh) Sadly my story where a masked killer, bumps off many teen-age girls, who resemblance to the girls I went to highschool with me, by blowing them up as a mad bomber/band geek has not been optioned. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310/59 "2005-05-20T04:36:14Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > ME! > > I want to be in a horror movie! I’m sure that can be arranged, **Zebra.** Don’t look behind you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-want-dont-want-to-see-in-a-horror-movie/304310.md?page=2)