10 Horror Movie Cliches That Need To Die

There's probably no movie genre more reliant on cliches and tropes than horror, because given the sheer number of horror films released in any given year - many of them made on a shoestring budget - it's little surprise they mostly stick to delivering what works.

Since the slasher movie boom of the 1980s in particular, horror has typically leaned back on a set of firmly established rules and plot points, which undeniably feel quite tiresome in 2020.

That's not to say that all cliches are bad, but some are certainly more well-worn than others, and when a movie actively defies them it's genuinely refreshing for audiences.

These 10 cliches represent the most tired and unimaginative within the entire horror genre, the lazy and ultra-formulaic screenwriting elements which, if used today, elicit nothing more than groans from viewers.

It's only for the good of horror as a whole if these howlingly overdone cliches are retired for good and never return, because it's practically impossible to use them in a way that actually feels fresh and unique...

In the age before mobile phones, horror movies didn't really need to explain why characters lacked a direct line to civilisation.

But given that practically everyone in the developed world has a portable computer in their pocket nowadays, it's not particularly realistic that they wouldn't immediately call the cops as soon as something fishy went down.

And so, one of the laziest tropes in modern horror screenwriting was born: if all else fails, just make sure that wherever the victims are located - be it a cabin in the woods or an underground bunker - there's no mobile phone service.

It's a laughably inelegant solution to the ubiquity of mobile phones in modern society, and rouses an enthusiastic eye-roll every time it occurs, either by way of a throwaway line of dialogue or a shot of a phone screen without a signal.

Examples: House on Haunted Hill (1999), Saw, The Ruins, You're Next, 10 Cloverfield Lane.