10 Annoying Movie Tropes That Can Ruin A Horror Movie

This one tends to happen consistently in the third act of a slasher or survival film. There’s a massive tussle with the big bad, all hope seems lost, and the lead protagonist is being overpowered, until the security guard we all thought was dead shows up and smashes the villain with a chair. Bad guy down. Hooray!

But, instead of seizing the moment and dropping a boulder on the assailant’s head to ensure they never breathe another day, the victims simply stand up… and walk away?

That’s right, the bad guy is lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious, and they just turn their backs on them. No tying them up, no finishing the job. They leave and try to find an exit, complacent in the belief that there’s no way the rogue will get back up.

We all know how this pans out, as the killer often rises and jumps out at our heroes all over again. Rinse and repeat. It’s tired, predictable, and feels like the writers are padding out the third act for one last showdown.

The Scream franchise gets a second shout-out as it brilliantly mocks and subverts this trope. In the 1996 original, when Billy Loomis lies incapacitated, Sidney Prescott puts a well-deserved bullet in his head, not giving him another chance for one final scare.

Classic (and welcome) stuff.