20 Things Horror Movies NEED To Stop Doing

20. Trauma, Trauma, Trauma

Surely the biggest horror buzzword over the past decade-or-so has been trauma, because while trauma has and likely always will be a thematic cornerstone of the genre, it's felt excessively commodified in recent years - especially as part of the divisive "elevated horror" movement.

Though horror can absolutely be a ripe avenue through which to explore, say, the impact of abuse, the 2020s have been defined by an absolute deluge of trauma-with-a-capital-T horror movies.

And for every film that approaches the subject with a worthwhile perspective - say, Hereditary, Talk to Me, The Invisible Man, and The Night House - there are many, many dozens which use it as an empty substitute for actual narrative substance, to cash in on an easy, popular metaphor.

That is to say, it often ends up feeling rather tired and trite for the supernatural entity to be a stand-in for a character's own troubled past, and there's something to be said for a tangible villain that's just pure evil in its own right.