Horror Clichés that need to Go

Clichés have long been the backbone of the horror industry since people got scared at a narrative driven moving image. They fall in line with the old adage that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” whereas if the normal scare and freak out moment keep working, then they will work every time. I personally have no problem with a well placed cliché as long as they aren’t thrown in every three seconds and essentially used as the entire plot device that is the only frightening force in the movie. As a fan of the horror genre I need more than that to be my scares. I need developed characters that when I see them get slaughtered, it actually matters to me when they bite it. The following are a few horror clichés that have shown up, provided some great moments, and now need to gracefully bow out rather than get yanked off the stage with a large hook.

Insufferable Hysterical Person Culprits: Friday the 13^th(2009), Aliens, The Mist: In many tense situations that the horror genre may unfold, it is completely understandable that someone in the group would just completely lose their shit. There are many great examples of how this trick can not only be realistic and believable, but also add to the narrative. The perfect example would be when Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) freaked out and locked himself in an adjoining room thusly locking everyone into their own death. The wrong way to do this would be to have a random girl or guy in the cast freak out saying something along the lines of “This can’t be happening”, “We need to call the police” or maybe even “I need to get out of here”. Immediately after the character freaks out, they either calm down back to normal or they get killed. They may also continue to freak out, make bad decisions, then get killed. Either way we all know freak out = death. Let’s just go ahead and stop putting in worthless character break downs that aren’t consistent with their character’s motives.

Fight Club Ending. Culprits: High Tension, Secret Window, Three, Psycho, The Machinist. Since the success of Fight Club (it wasn’t the first movie to do this, but it started the new wave of it) there have been a slew of movies where we go on this massive journey with the main character with a clear antagonist and in the last few moments, we realize that the antagonist never existed and it was the main character the whole time! We are all familiar with this and it needs to stop now. I don’t want to see it in another movie for at least 40 years. Then again if you can pull of this ending and you somehow make it different or new to the audience without having any resemblance to these movies then you may be the best storyteller that ever lived.

My Buddy is actually dead! Culprits: The Uninvited, Sixth Sense, The Others. Ever since the Sixth Sense dazzled audiences and essentially made us go back through the movie and watch how Bruce Willis never actually interacted with anybody, some filmmakers believe they can use the same gimmick and still make it original. Such was the case with The Uninvited. Not only did the movie establish that the main character is mentally unstable because of the death of her mother, but it becomes painfully obvious that the cryptic older sister isn’t reacting to anyone else in the entire movie at all about 30 seconds after you see her. Also the ending of the movie was the Fight Club ending. Wow, what an unoriginal movie. Anywho this trend is now at the point where it insults the audience. There is nothing wrong with the main character being crazy and also making it clear to the audience that this person they are interacting with are all in their head very early in the story. That always works.

Pretty Kill Fodder. Culprits: Almost every slasher since 1984. I’m not saying we should put an end to all topless women and washboard abed (?) dudes in horror films, I’m just saying they shouldn’t be one dimensional so often. I’m talking about extremely underdeveloped characters that we can immediately identify as “The slut”, “The pompous douche”, “the stoner”, or “the straight shooter”. It’s a cliché that needs to fly out the window because we all automatically knew who is going to die about 30 seconds after we meet the characters. Although this can be used to great effect when you go really into depth in one character, then kill them off brutally and quickly. Of course, that shock wouldn’t ever come unless we already weren’t conscious of the cliché but… they should…. Just develop all characters, not making cardboard cutouts of stereotypes.

(photo is from Meh's 8 Erotic Horror Scenes gone wrong )

The Forewarning Person. Culprits: Friday the 13^th, Friday the 13^th (2009), Poltergeist, My Bloody Valentine. This has got to be one of my favorite clichés of all time because it is just so damn illogical and ridiculous in any situation. This is referring to that one character in the horror film, whether it be the crazy old coot that loves down the street, the creepy lady that has too many cats, or even the old retired sheriff. It is the character that knows way too much about the situation and always drops in to provide juicy tidbits of back story. Sometimes they are just creepy and tell everyone “you’re doomed!” (Friday the 13^th 1980) or maybe they just seem to know an awful lot about what has happened in the past. What really gets me is that the main characters always say “what a weirdo” and blow off the person as a psycho. NO ONE EVER ASKS FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON! These creepy assholes could be really helpful if someone gave them a chance. I’m expecting the Simpsons or Family guy to have this character somewhere who is really weird and out there and after some basic dialogue, the people know how to kill Jason with minimal effort (spoiler: blueberries kill him!)… all they had to do was listen.

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