10 Golden Rules For Making The Perfect Horror Movie
3. Avoid The Tropes
You all knew this was coming. Horror is a genre with such a passionate audience that its clichés and genre tropes have been analyzed to death more than any other genre of film. Its gotten to the point that mainstream (and even particularly well reviewed) horror films can be made using ONLY stock situations and characters from other horror films.
For reference, see The Cabin in the Woods, The Final Girls, and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
We've essentially gotten to the point that if any serious minded horror film slips in a cliché or trope it runs the risk of self-sabotage. As a horror fan, I have to say there is nothing more distracting than when the token black character is the first one to die. Nothing ruins immersion like obnoxiously overexposed clichés rearing their heads.
We live in a world where tropes for every genre are documented to a frankly alarming degree (don't believe me? try looking up your favorite film on TV tropes). But horror is the genre most vulnerable to this kind of meta-textual madness because of how the tropes don't even apologize for themselves anymore. Using tropes in horror comedies or hybrids such as Scream is forgivable, but you always run the risk of alienating your audience when you bring them up.
A horror film where you start noticing the cliche is like a lucid dream. Entertaining maybe, but once you notice, it becomes impossible to lose yourself in it.