One of the things I hate is (usually amateur stuff on YouTube) in which the person is getting overly scared even when it makes no sense.
Like they’ll over act and start hyperventilating at a leaf and saying shit like “Oh my god what is that!!! WHAT IS THAT!!!” at like…a thud in the distance.
YouTube and Ghost Hunting shows seem to be the worst offender.
Another trope I hate is a horror game one but it’s somewhat related; I hate it when the game tells you when to be scared by having a “sanity” effect or by the player character gasp or scream or whatever. Worst is if they have some kind of heartbeat sound effect that plays when you’re supposed to be spooked.
But yeah, if a character starts saying shit like “WhAt ThE FuCk WaS ThAt?!” then I just get more annoyed than scared.
Characters being unconvincingly incompetent or foolish. Alien and Aliens are some of my favorite horror movies to this day because the characters behave in a consistent and believable fashion based on who they are and what they know. The space truckers aren’t at all equipped to handle the situation but they apply their knowledge as best they can. The marines are totally absorbed in their self image as gung ho badasses and so wildly underestimate their enemy while making foolish but believable decisions.
Basically; I like when the characters behave competently and lose not because the writer’s made them carry the idiot ball and behave foolishly, but because the threat overwhelmed their competence and resourcefulness. It makes the threat more legitimately frightening; these peopkle did their best and were still wiped out, so hwo could I expect to do better?
Extreme skepticism/refusal to believe what’s happening.
I’m an absolutely annoying skeptic, never seen anything i would consider paranormal in the slightest.
People in horror movies will see something completely fucking bonkers and still be 20 movie minutes from believing the one character who says there’s a problem. I can’t think of any examples right now but especially when a child continually describes horrible things happening and the parents say “is just a series of bad dreams that are escalating and oddly coherent” like buddy at least spend a few nights in their bed to see what’s going on
As a Marxist I subscribe to a materialist worldview and therefore have no belief in ghosts whatsoever, but if my furniture started floating I would run screaming from the house
But like after you calm down, you probably start thinking of ways to make furniture float (or your daughter’s head spinning in circles while she vomits everywhere). There should be some explanation for what’s happening, even if it’s a supernatural one.
This trope is silly because no one thinks to experiment or investigate. Okay, so my child is possessed. Clearly some things we thought about the world are wrong. But you’d think people would be ask questions like “How does possession occur? Are there ways to prevent it? Where do the demons come from and how does culture change our interactions with them?”
For real! My fundamental understanding of the world has been broken, time to learn. “Ok so if it can manipulate objects, is it just avoiding touching me when it’s not causing Havok?” You know, next time the couch lifts up have a jar of flour and throw it around to see if it’s just an invisible guy being a dick.
I have so much hatred for “The front room” and they were egregious in this troupe .
Guy: by the way my grandma is pretty racist
Black wife: I don’t believe you(?? Literally what black person says this)
racist things happen
Black wife: you’re right she is racist
Guy: no she isn’t, it’s all in your head
Yeah I hate this one. It’s probably my least favorite, too. You’d think with the SCP Foundation being over a decade old at this point, writers would realize you can do some creepy shit with the scientific method, skepticism, and experiments.
For example, let’s say a house is haunted. Some science nerds go to the house to start investigating how the house became haunted and they conduct a study the same way you’d study animals in the wild. Lions are still really fucking scary when they rip your colleague’s head off when something supposed to protect them didn’t work.
It’s also one of the ways that unintentionally makes characters unlikable. We, the audience, know the protagonist is experiencing something real. Then having some asshole brush them off (especially a man being skeptical of his wife) just makes us frustrated with the film as a film and not with the plot. It Follows was great because even though only one person could see the monster at a time, everyone who cared about the protagonist believed her that she was experiencing something irregular.
Using music or loud sounds to startle, it’s the definition of cheap and hackery
Eternal Darkness broke the mold on sanity effects in console games. The only thing that’s compared to that for me, since then, was haptic vest heartbeat effects in Half Life Alyx.
Anyway, least favorite trope is the racist black guy first to die trope. Followed by whomever had sex. Seems prudish.
lol, it’s just USA as a Horror Genre. Maybe throw in that it’s all on an Native American Burial ground to really cement the hierarchy of marginalized peoples.
Don’t forget the bad guy has to be disabled. Physically deformed, neurodivergent, something that somehow translates to them being evil.
Eternal Darkness was so, so good. Just amazing. It deserves a re-make so a new generation can experience the absolute bonkers terror of it.
I was in college when it came out and we legit stacked couches on tables to make stadium seating and had like twenty people watching someone play like it was a horror movie in a theare. Whenever some new mind-screw faked everyone out the whole audience would start shrieking and going omg omg omg. It was a wonderful experience.
The ritual of hear noise/turn around/see nothing/sigh of relief/turn back/die
I can easily imagine that it was once a masterstroke of tension-building, because otherwise every movie for 50 years wouldn’t have copied it. But now it’s so easy to see coming that it actually flatlines all tension and leaves me knowing exactly what will happen and just waiting for the formalities to occur.
