10 Horror Movie Cliches That Need To Die

10. No Mobile Phone Service

In the age before mobile phones, horror movies didn't really need to explain why characters lacked a direct line to civilisation.

But given that practically everyone in the developed world has a portable computer in their pocket nowadays, it's not particularly realistic that they wouldn't immediately call the cops as soon as something fishy went down.

And so, one of the laziest tropes in modern horror screenwriting was born: if all else fails, just make sure that wherever the victims are located - be it a cabin in the woods or an underground bunker - there's no mobile phone service.

It's a laughably inelegant solution to the ubiquity of mobile phones in modern society, and rouses an enthusiastic eye-roll every time it occurs, either by way of a throwaway line of dialogue or a shot of a phone screen without a signal.

Examples: House on Haunted Hill (1999), Saw, The Ruins, You're Next, 10 Cloverfield Lane.