Skip to main content

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

Popular posts from this blog

Interview With The Vampire's Apeirophobia And Why Everyone But The Vampire Ignores It

One of the many revisited tropes in media is immortality. The idea of seeing and personally experiencing all the world’s disasters in history captivates us, I guess. Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire establishes immortality as an integral plot point (the only reason the interview can take place). The narrative, therefore, advances some heavy opinions about the topic, as well as those who seek it. Rice’s novel leaves no doubt about it: being and becoming an immortal is gross. A freak bites your neck, you drink said freak’s blood, and your body slowly shuts down. What remains is your consciousness and blood flow, which you have to supplement in order to survive (which kind of takes away the meaning of immortality). The blood-sucking itself is graphically sensual in Interview With The Vampire, revealing their killing as the last real joy that vampires have - there’s a pun on ‘flirting with death’ somewhere in there. Oh, and you can never see the sun again, so get some spray tan. The...

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...