10 Horror Movie Cliches That Need To Die

3. The Creepy Local

The creepy local, often a gas station attendant, is a cliche so pervasive over the last 50 years of horror that it's tough not to laugh at it a little, even if it's also howlingly generic.

Typically, as the future meat puppets make their way to the haunted cabin of their choice, they'll encounter an odd-looking, "eccentric" local who will likely give an ominous yet vague warning about the dangers they're about to encounter.

Though these scenes often give talented character actors a ripe opportunity to ham things up, from a storytelling perspective they're as hackneyed and played-out as anything the genre has ever seen. Trying to make audiences take them seriously nowadays is a fool's errand.

The cliche was subverted wonderfully, however, in The Cabin in the Woods.

Examples: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Urban Legend, Cabin Fever, House of Wax, The Hills Have Eyes.