10 Annoying Movie Tropes That Can Ruin A Horror Movie

Things go bump in the night? “Probably the pipes, honey.” Dead animal carcasses in the basement? “Wow, those former tenants didn’t like cleaning, huh?” Priest running out of the new house screaming? “Looks like he caught a case of the runs.”

Yes, we know, horror movies thrive on people being stupid, but how many times do our main characters need to face the inevitable and not just leave?

Audiences are willing to let it slide to a point. Certainly, in real life, most people will try to accept or downgrade a situation as much as possible. For example, when that scruffy lady starts screaming supernatural forces are coming for her on your morning commute, who else doesn’t just put their headphones on? 

However, there is a point that crosses the threshold of believability. If characters are so dumb as to ignore the obvious, you lose involvement and stop caring for them. In a way, their fate is written by their own stupidity, so why root for them?

Stronger horror films can move around this trope with subversive plot tricks. Case in point, in Sinister, Ethan Hawke’s protagonist Ellison Oswalt moves his family into a haunted house on purpose as he wants to research and write a book, but the ticking time bomb aspect comes down to how long he can stay before it's too late. Likewise, Insidious pulled a great twist with the family exiting their haunted house, only to find out that it was their son who was haunted, not the property.