7. The Authorities Are Useless
Never rely on the police. Or hospital staff. Or government agents. That's basically the gist of this entry on the list of cliches. Quite generally, whenever the police get involved in the spate of mysterious killings, they're either practically nonexistent and work in the background, reacting to the murders and maybe interviewing people, or they become cannon fodder themselves, leading to hapless officers being slewn in their cars or on patrol. Sigh. The horror movie reasoning behind this one is a bit clearer - as much as we rely on the government and our local authorities, they're not superheroes who can stop murder and death at every turn or solve every case. They're as human as we are and while we don't think slasher films are advocating some
I Spit On Your Grave level of vengeance, there's definitely something to be said for the fact that our protectors can't always protect us, a lesson that comes across in horror films perhaps more than any other.