What moviegoers find scary differs dramatically from person to person but everyone can agree
that some horror movie tropes are totally played out. From zombies to creepy kids to
haunted dolls, these are some horror movie staples that should be laid to rest.
There are plenty of terrifying movie monsters out there. But which one perfectly combines
extreme gore and mindless violence into one flesh-eating package?
"I'm thinking zombies."
That's right. However, something strange has happened to these undead villains in the 21st
century: Zombies just aren't as scary as they used to be.
Zombies lost a good chunk of their bite in the 2000s with films like Zombieland and Shaun
of the Dead, which deliberately take all the gravitas out of the walking dead. Zombies
became downright funny, and were also portrayed as increasingly easy to take out. Unlike other
supernatural creatures, you don't need silver, holy water, or wooden stakes to dispatch a
zombie. As long as you've got a couple long-range weapons and you're smart about how much noise
you're making, you could probably live indefinitely in a zombie apocalypse. Who knows? You might
even have the time to develop your very own undead transportation system.
Really, a lot of zombie movies these days tend to be blood-soaked comedies or action
flicks, rather than outright horror films. The creatures just amble around, while armed
civilians pick them off one by one or use them as visual punch lines. Many of these
movies are seriously entertaining but they're not even close to being frightening.
Night of the Living Dead truly terrified audiences when it came out in 1968. However, more recent
movies like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Little Monsters probably won't make you
scream but they might make you laugh or even cheer.
"Hurray!"
Creepy kids are an understandably popular horror trope. Children are supposed to exemplify
innocence, so to see that purity tainted by, say, a demon is definitely disturbing. From
Damien in The Omen to the twins in The Shining, kids have been extraordinary tools of terror
for decades. But this storytelling device has lost a whole lot of power in recent years.
The thing about creepy kids is that well, they're still kids. They have the potential
to be seriously scary if a scene is done right, but if it's not things can get silly real
fast. Also some modern horror films seem to assume the audience will be frightened of
any child doing commonplace things, as long as those moments are punctuated with a loud
music cue.
Then there's the tendency of filmmakers to randomly wedge a strange kid into a movie
just to add an extra bit of atmosphere or whatever this is...
"Pancakes!"
"No pancakes."
Discovering that a young character is capable of supernatural mayhem used to be a novelty.
These days, it's so overdone that it would be more shocking to see a normal kid who is
under the influence of sugar, rather than an ancient curse.
Plus, even in classic horror films, it just feels wrong to root against children who have
gone to the dark side especially when their adversaries are so much bigger than they are.
"No fair."
Films like Rosemary's Baby terrified the world with visions of avowed Satanists. These days,
however, if you hear someone is a Satanist, you might just laugh it off. Most people's
experiences with Satanists involve heavy metal bands with lots of makeup and awesome videos.
Fans of these bands may like the aesthetic of inverted crosses and pentagrams, but no
one really expects them to sacrifice goats let alone people.
The Church of Satan's website makes it clear that their members are more interested in
individual freedom than literal devil worship. Additionally, documentaries like Hail Satan?
have revealed that real-world Satanists aren't very scary.
"We're here to spread a message of goodwill and benevolence. And, uh, open-mindedness
and free expression."
All of this means one thing for movies: Satanists just aren't that ominous anymore. No one's
worried about them roaming around their neighborhood in robes looking for recruits. There are a
lot of scary things in the real world, but generally speaking, devil worshippers aren't
at the top of this list.
The Blair Witch Project revolutionized horror films. Not only is it genuinely suspenseful
and frightening, it had a totally unique marketing campaign. Through the use of missing person
leaflets and online message boards, The Blair Witch Project initially managed to convince
thousands of people that the film was totally real and composed of actual footage. Even
today, when everyone knows the truth, the raw, found-footage nature of the film manages
to impress.
However, the success of the movie, along with its rock-bottom production costs, led to an
overabundance of found-footage films. And, of course, the quality and impact of this
sub-genre slowly dissipated over time. Plus, no matter how hard these movies try to convince
viewers that what they're seeing is totally real, audiences have become a whole lot savvier.
All it takes is a quick Google search to show that a film is not, in fact, based on a true
story. Those days are long gone.
The other issue is that found-footage movies started to feel a bit repetitive and loaded
with clichés, like night-vision jump scares. That's not to say found-footage films can't
be great. But filmmakers need to find a unique angle on them, much like The Blair Witch Project
did all those years ago.
Chucky was far from the first evil doll in cinema, but he quickly became the most popular.
Since Child's Play was released in 1988, haunted dolls have cropped up in countless horror
movies, including a never ending string of Chucky films.
"I'll be back. I always come back."
Whether it's Annabelle in The Conjuring or Billy the puppet in the Saw franchise, there's
something unsettling about seeing a doll, a puppet, or any child's toy used for nefarious
purposes. However, despite the surprisingly high number of movies that incorporate an
evil doll, you're more likely to chuckle from their antics than scream in horror.
At the end of the day, it's just hard to be afraid of something you could toss in a toybox.
Sure, the dolls usually have supernatural abilities, but a lot of movies don't explore
this very thoroughly. Featuring a demonic doll in a film is just a fun excuse to have
a series of sight gags of them attacking humans with their tiny limbs.
Sure, it would be a shock to see a Cabbage Patch Kid hopping towards you with a power
tool and a murderous gleam in its eye, but it's probably not going to give you any nightmares.
At the other end of the spectrum, there's the haunted doll that basically just sits
there and occasionally moves its eyes. Again, at some point, this was probably really terrifying
but now it just seems like the cheapest possible way to make a horror movie.
Still, the fact remains that studios are constantly pumping out new movies with cursed dolls and
puppets, so there's clearly an audience for these films and somebody is making plenty
of money from them.
"Now, who's the dummy?"
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