3. Stop Using Classic Movie Monsters
Starting with Nosferatu there have been over 170 adaptations of Dracula. In fact Dracula has been the subject of more movies than any other fictional character. Also that's just Dracula. There have been countless vampire movies, and it's the same with Zombie movies, Werewolf, Mummy, and ghost movies. While there is nothing wrong with this and every one probably has a favorite movie monster, this has led to horror becoming stale as every one of these movie monsters have become clichéd or their image has been warped. The solution is to make something original. Every country has its own terrifying version of the bogey man or sinister urban legends just waiting to be made into a movie, and history is filled with horrific incidents which would make amazing horror movies. A particularly horrific example from World War 2 where on a small island called Ramree a force of 900 Japanese soldiers chose to make a getaway through a swamp to make it to their own lines after being outflanked by the Allied forces. Only four hundred lived through that night, because the swamp was infested with an unholy amount of saltwater crocodiles. That's right 500 soldiers were killed by crocodiles. The movie practically writes itself.