10 Annoying Movie Tropes You Can't Un-See

There is perhaps no trope more annoying, or yawn-inspiring, than the mirror scare. Not because it isn't effective - as, once upon a time, it was indubitably the height of horror film tension - but because we so clearly know it's coming.

It follows a simple formula: the bathroom mirror door is opened by the protagonist and, when it closes, the killer or monster or whatever is stalking the suburbs these days is suddenly there, waiting to strike. Of course, there are a plethora of variations on the trope, from car wing mirrors to reflective TV screens, but the result is the same.

The bane of horror movies across the globe, from grindhouse theatre B-movies to great works of cinema, none are safe from the trope of the bathroom mirror jump scare.

This trope is so cliché as to have spawned its own baby trope - the anti-mirror scare. The setup is essentially the same, but with no payoff in the reflection, or at least with the payoff postponed for an extra beat. Use of either nowadays in a serious piece of cinema is laughable - a trait which ought to have most horror directors running in fear...