Horror Movie Cliches
You know the movie: A young woman is home alone. She hears a strange noise coming from the basement and goes to investigate. The music speeds up as she looks around. Something moves, and whew! It's just a cat.
But lurking behind her we see a masked man wielding an impressively huge machete. She screams and, naturally, runs outside into the nearby woods. She has a good lead, but trips and falls, giving the killer ample time to catch up and hack her to pieces.
You know the movie: It's called 'Your Typical Horror Film.' From vintage classics to awful remakes, horror flicks tend to use the same plot devices so often it's scary. Check out our list of the 26 most used horror clichés, then tell us your favorite.
Sony / AP / Everett Collection (2)
Fun = Death
Think horror films are all about blood and gore and titillating thrills? Think again. They're also thinly veiled cautionary tales against premarital sex, drugs and alcohol: Anyone who indulges in said sinful acts winds up on the business end of the killer's weapon of choice, whilst the prudish babysitter with the turtleneck and pigtails survives to not have sex another day. In a weird way, the Puritans likely would have been huge horror fans.
Related Links
31 Best Horror Movies of All Time
31 Scariest Movie Moments
How Did They Die? Quiz
Warner Bros. / Everett Collection
Go It Alone -- The Eerier the Better
Pop quiz: A creepily suspicious sound emanates from a shadowy basement, lightless attic or pitch-black backyard -- what do you do? If you're in a horror flick, you investigate it by yourself, of course, preferably grabbing an always handy baseball bat (the perfect weapon against a cleaver!). And, just in case the killer didn't know where you were already, you scream, "Anyone there?" Because he'll definitely respond: "Just me, your friendly neighborhood murderer!"
Related Links
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31 Scariest Movie Moments
How Did They Die? Quiz
Sony
How Many Horror Movie Characters Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
After the aforementioned creepy noise in the basement or attic, our dimwitted victim will inevitably explore, but alas, the light switch never works. Has the killer turned off the electricity, or is someone behind on changing the light bulbs? Good thing they just so happen to have a flashlight! Or, for style points, a candle.
Related Links
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How Did They Die? Quiz
Warner Bros.
Somebody's There! Nope, Just the Cat
As our soon-to-be-victims navigate the darkness, they (and we) will inevitably be scared to high hell by a member of the animal kingdom, most commonly a cat but occasionally a raccoon or snake. And if a cat meows in act 1, it's bound to show up dead in act 3, murdered by the very killer who was lurking in the shadows all along. If pets could only talk, they'd tell us what idiots their owners all are.
Related Links
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31 Scariest Movie Moments
How Did They Die? Quiz
Sony
"It's Probably Just the Wind."
A plea to Hollywood screenwriters: Please never, ever, ever type this line again. Really, who would say that? Yet we've heard it time and time again, the moment the victims (most likely in a wooded cabin area) hear a creepy noise coming from out yonder. And you know what, it's never the wind. Thus the one brilliant aspect of M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening' (spoiler alert): It actually IS the wind that's killing people. A very, very angry wind.
Related Links
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Fox
Split Decision
There's safety in numbers, so the saying goes. But apparently no one knows that in horror films. The victims are always splitting up, either to find a missing friend or the way out, and especially if they're young and sexy and stupid. Just think, all of Ash's friends from 'Evil Dead' would still be alive, if only they'd stuck together.
Related Links
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Sony
Movie-Phone Service
If there's one thing horror movie killers are impressively adept at, it's planning ahead. They know their victims will attempt to call for help once the reign of terror starts, thus the inevitable moment when one of them picks up the phone to discover ... someone's cut the lines! Well played, slasher man. Luckily for you, no one ever has a cell phone, or at least cell phone service. Where's the Verizon army when you need them?
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31 Scariest Movie Moments
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Sony
"I'll Be Right Back." NOT!
There's no clearer hint that someone's about to bite the big one than the utterance of these four words: "I'll be right back." No, you won't be right back. In fact, within five minutes you'll be laying face-down in a pool of blood, crushed to a pulp under a garage door, decapitated by an axe or disemboweled on the toilet bowl. And if you tell someone to "Stay right here," well, that's tantamount to ordering them to "Sit tight until the psycho with a hook for a hand turns you into a human kebab."
Related Links
31 Best Horror Movies of All Time
31 Scariest Movie Moments
How Did They Die? Quiz
Dimension Films / Everett Collection
The Man in the (Bathroom) Mirror
This is one of those moments that's so predictable, yet so effective, it's no wonder roughly 86 percent of horror movies must employ it: A main character or soon-to-be-victim is in the bathroom, washing her face or brushing her teeth. She looks down for a split-second, looks back up and the mirror's reflection reveals someone (or something) shockingly terrifying behind them. Cue the blood-curdling scream.
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31 Scariest Movie Moments
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New Line
Reader Comments (34)
Rodz at 3:33PM on Oct 13th 2008
I've just found this Festival...
must be a whole world of cliches!!!
check it out:
http://apps.facebook.com/lovecinema/movie/profile/Screamfest-Horror-Film-Festival
Sarah at 8:52PM on Oct 15th 2008
I just wanted to add a few things like: what about the toddler from pet semetary? baby gage was planty scary with all the stabbing and eating of humans. And Alessa from Silent Hill was a real freak with the way she killed off the cultists in their church. And as for freaky cliche moments, their is also the scene similar to the mirror/bathroom scene, you know when someone comes home from work/partying or is just plain hungry, they enter the kitchen open the fridge and stick their heads practically inside for something to eat or drink, they close the door and there's some psycho, mutant or ghost waiting patiently for them to close the fridge door? After all, it's not good to leave the firdge door open.
dlarovere at 9:15PM on Oct 15th 2008
How about the shower scene in any haunted house movie. I don't care how nasty I smell if I even suspect my house is haunted there is no way I'm getting into the shower where the shower curtain is going to wrap around me and choke me out or the shower head is going to start spurting out blood or some other goo. Forget it. Me and the garden hose outside are going to be real good friends.
jagyularr at 10:11PM on Oct 15th 2008
See, the whole seeing-someone-behind-you-in-the-mirror thing is why even now, I'm afraid to look in the mirror at night. Same thing for windows; I'm just sure I'm going to see a creepy face out there.
Ami at 10:20PM on Oct 15th 2008
Does anyone know what movie the picture in the "Not Just Their Imagination" cliche[the kid with the mask over his/her face] is from?
lbw at 10:46PM on Oct 15th 2008
The movie is The Orphanage. It is a spanish movie.
Sheila at 11:26PM on Oct 15th 2008
The virgin never dies either....but the ones having sex always do...most times during sex......
C.K. M. Ziros at 1:05AM on Oct 16th 2008
This was one tepid presentation. I have never considered "slasher" movies true horror movies. Even the worst movie of the 'forties had more true horror, much of it authentic psychological horror that grabs you in your imagination, than all these slasher flicks do with their buckets of blood spilled all over the place. Too many script writers of the current crop don't seem to know how to create true horror; they're stuck on the idea that an idiot with a goofy mask running around killing victims in the most graphic method causes horror. All that junk does is to make me sick to my stomach. I'll take the old films, thank you, and not spend ten or fifteen dollars to get in a theater to see stuff that's milder than what happens in today's headlines.
By the way, the so-called zombie mania is sheer stupidity. True zombies have no will of their own and are created to do work for their "masters." They don't go around killing people and trying to eat human flesh. They might kill if a master is standing around and actually orders them to kill and instructs them exactly how to perform the killing. The so-called zombies depicted in current films are actually ghouls. That's what they should be called and identified as, not zombies. Ghouls are a step down from vampires and they seek human flesh to eat and they won't reject a little blood to wash it down.
An open suggestion to would-be horror-film writers: do a wee bit of research before you try to write your next insipid horror screenplay. And please do learn the difference between zombies and ghouls. Human history is filled with all sorts of scarifying folk tales that could be used as wonderful points of departure for your obviously absent creativity.
A note to the SCI-FI Network: Please stop making your own films about nasty critters who do nothing but chomp off victims' heads so you can show blood spurting out of the necks of decapitated bodies. Blood isn't scary--it's just sickening and disgusting. Get my drift?
Mike at 1:18AM on Oct 16th 2008
I am so tired of zombies, bovine fem fatals, Freddy and Michael remakes and a host of other unimaginative attempts to scare movie goers, I am almost no longer interested on scren horror flix. Not since "Alien" which sparked a new genre of Sci-Fi spin offs, has the movie industry ventured into true originality. "The Ring" was quite well produced and offered some different prospects, floundered after the secound installment. I have written a book: "Tales from the Dreamtime" that I sincerely hope will inspire some film producer to bring to the silver screen. It has scenarios that will inject a fresh originality that will bring horror movies to renewed art form never before explored. When you see this book, soon to be released, buy it. I garrantee it will terrify the most hard hearted, at the same time make itself all too possible! This book is not for the faint of heart!!
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iGeek at 5:17PM on Oct 16th 2008
Lets not forget the omnipresent idiots that are head of the town or have some spot of import. out to turn a major crisis into a quick buck. You know what I mean. People popping up dead? Blood splatered cars (Always the side facing away from the road and towards the forest mind you) apearing on the side of the road? Claw marks on the sides of houses? Unknown tracks? Hey, I have an awesome idea! Capture the thing alive and make it into a tourist atraction. All you need are some iron chains, a cage, and some armed guards with tranqualisers. Suuuuuuuuure. You know how long it took them to think up that brilliant plan, about as long as it will take whatever it is to break out, kill the guards, kill the people who hear the shrieks of terror/ unnatural growls, and make its escape to it's forest sanctuary
tbman412 at 1:32AM on Oct 16th 2008
did you spoil the happening with that "its just the wind" part ? If you are either retarded, a jerk or both
Autumn at 3:02AM on Oct 16th 2008
What a rip off. I've done the same thing on my myspace blog for the last two years. Have one ready to go up this year as we get closer to Halloween. Something I do for fun to show my love of horror movies.
Matt at 3:07AM on Oct 16th 2008
LMFAO the commentary analogies made by whoever had put the pictures together is funny as hell. "Killers having more lives than Morris the Cat" I never heard of that cat before lol.
laura at 3:37PM on Oct 16th 2008
that was not haley joel osmet's bed that girl crawled out from under, it was her own, at her own house. also, on the how did they die? quiz. tara reid does not die from a fall she dies from an ax being chopped into her body in the sound booth, after she gets up from the fall from the balcony/stairs, and heads back upstairs to the sound booth. and michael cera is 31 years old, not 20. thank you.
Uncla Al at 2:10AM on Oct 17th 2008
Did you just fart? No, it's just wind!
Henry Le Corno at 3:29AM on Oct 18th 2008
Yeah, horror/slasher movies are just to pradictable now.
Henry Le Corno at 3:38AM on Oct 18th 2008
Horror fans are so used to these cliches that most would complain if the writers stopped using them.
Haterman at 9:27AM on Oct 21st 2008
They forgot to had all the ridiculous resident evil spinoff's. or should i say "Zombies" which are basically people running around with some type of "virus" that makes them rabid and crave human flesh, biting other peope and turning them into said "Zombies"
Really i wish they would stop making Movies like this. Resident evil was great, but it seems now that everyone in their mother with a virus is trying to be like resident evil. get your own ideas already
They also forgot the badass death scene, where the most badass character always dies trying to save weaker more idiotic characters
paul moholland at 3:12PM on Oct 21st 2008
A GHOUL IS A CREATURE THAT FEEDS ON DEAD BODIES ONES THAT HAVE RECENTLY DIED SO TO CALL THE ROMERO - FULCHI - ZOMBIES GHOULS WOULD STILL BE WRONG TYPE CASTING BECAUSE THE SAID ZOMBIES EAT THE LIVING, HEY ITS A MOVIE SHEESH DONT BE SO ANAL ITS SCARY MOVIE YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR TYPE OF MOVIE GO MAKE IT , YES I AGREE WITH YOU ON ALL THESE REMAKES JASON 22 - FRIDAY THE 13TH 15 FREDDY 13 IT DOES GET MONOTNOUS AND SAME OLE BS, BUT IN THE ROMERO ZOMBIES WHERE BROUGHT BACK FROM RADIATION FROM A RETURNING PROBE FROMVENUS THAT EXPLODING IN THE ATMOSPHERE SO THERE MUTATETED CROSS BETWEEN ZOMBIES/GHOULS/CANNIBALS LOL AND IF THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE FANS OF SAID MOVIES THEN SO BE IT, YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO YOUR OPIMION BUT LIKE BACKSIDES EVERYONE HAS ONE SOME BIGGER THEN OTHERS.
M. Irving at 11:27AM on Oct 21st 2008
I find all those manipulative movie devices tiresome and annoying. I haven't seen too many teenage slasher movies and hadn't noticed the virgin survives. I had noticed that skinny dippers inevitably come to premature and nasty demise.
Another device that worked well in the original Friday the 13th Movie but has become too much of a crutch for modern directors is the "everything is finally over, but not, but it is because it's a dream/nightmare" scenario.