The Tropes of Horror

Off the top of my head, here are the top horror movie tropes:

Moody lighting
Bad VFX
Jumpscares, more recently
Teenagers with no adult supervision being somewhere they shouldn't
Someone 'mad' (scientists, doctors, killers...)
A monster of some sort (zombies, vampires, werewolves...)
Anything that's abandoned! If people haven't been there in years it's fair game!

Comments

The Answer to the Satirical Universe

Nothing is real, and the answer to the universe is 42. At least, according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I think it’s safe to assume that most people, at the very least, have heard about Hitchhiker’s guide and some of its more memorable jokes from word of mouth. I only just got around to listening to the radio play (the narrative’s original format) and found that I loved several parts about it. At some point, all of the characters fall into the trope of being a “straight man” in an otherwise crazy world. Of course, when one character falls out of being the straight man to act extremely silly, another takes their place, keeping the balance of one sane character at a time. So no matter how the plot is moving forward with the quirky characters making a mess of things, their designated sheepdog keeps some amount of order. Another thing that I absolutely love about the Hitchhiker’s Guide is its dedication to nihilism. The fact that the answer to the entire ...

Insights into Bloodchild

The short story Bloodchild by Octavia Butler perfectly combines disgust and intrigue, as well as a big heap of detachment. My first thought after reading was it’s an interesting take on the parasitic alien trope; more domestic, more normalized, just as traumatizing. It’s obvious the race of the Tlic is based on insects, which of most organisms looks the most alien to humans as well as having members that are parasitic in nature, so the connection makes sense. As in certain insect species as well, it seems as though the Tlic are matriarchal - which adds to the interesting role reversal to the men who bear Tlic children. The Terrans in this short story are implied to be minorities, as T'Gatoi mentions them leaving the planet due to subjugation. Terrans are thought to be given an equivalent exchange, as they have access to shelter as well as nonfertilized eggs, which make the Terrans live longer lives. Of course, objectively, being put on a preserve like they are and having to b...

"How To Not Be a Horrible Person", AKA Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman is, overall, a novel about family. A really dysfunctional, not super healthy family, but about family nonetheless. The novel follows two brothers through their adventure of meeting each other for the first time after many, many years, and the frustration behind both their clashing personalities and the death of their father. Anansi Boys also shows the importance of family, with how Fat Charlie and Spider (the respective brothers) save each other in different ways, as well as the influence of their father, the god Anansi, on their lives. This novel also explores the unpredictability of life. The boys’ lives don’t quite work out the way both they think they should - defying both their and the audience’s expectations. Anansi dying unexpectedly, which hits both boys hard (in Charlie’s case, harder than it should) is extremely unexpected to everyone in the novel, though it’s revealed he’ll come back in a few years. Rosie, Fat Charlie’s fiancée, at the be...

Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction

Search This Blog