You want to go where?

Everywhere I go its the Same

Today I want to write to you about cliched settings. 

Cliched settings, like most cliches, are used as a shortcut. They can be useful for generating an atmosphere without having to do as much work as you would otherwise. Unfortunately, due to their overuse, they have become tropey, bland and tiresome. 

Normally I will pick three or four of my top cliches from any given topic and rant for a little bit. However, with settings there is just not that much to say apart from these locations are overused and the minute they turn up I usually have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen. So, with that in mind, I am listing a few more than normal. 

Before I start, I do want to stress that just because these settings are overused doesn’t mean they can’t still be awesome. Spoilers, one of them is the hospital or asylum setting and while I think my point is valid some of my favourite films and books are set in hospitals and asylums. 

An abandoned place

This is your typical, no one has lived/been here for a long time. It probably has broken windows, graffiti, holes in the wall, mould etc. bonus points if it also has a horrifying past. 

An isolated place

Now this one I get. Isolating your characters is a great way to make them more vulnerable, you up the stakes and put your characters in a situation where help will not be within reach. However, it’s a cheap way to amp up tension because it’s been done and done again. There are other, sometimes more effective, ways to isolate your characters other than physically dumping them on top of a mountain or in the woods etc. Bonus points if the isolated place is some kind of cabin. 

A hospital 

Now, this plays into the horror staple of subversion. A hospital is somewhere you go for help, for healing so turning that on its head and making it dangerous, wow that’s horror gold right? 

No. 

It was once, but now it’s become very overdone. Everyone has seen or read something that is set in a spooky hospital. Or even a perfectly normal hospital but where the doctors are all mad etc. Bonus points if the hospital is an asylum.

Summer camp 

Being from the UK I have never been to a summer camp, but I have seen a lot of them in the horror genre. I think Friday 13th and Jason have popularized the concept, but even if they hadn’t I can see why it works. Kids away from home will automatically feel vulnerable. Bonus points if the camp is creepy and run down.

A church 

Le gasp, a house of God is spooky? You mean the massive building designed to make people feel small and insignificant is threatening in some instances? Yup and it’s overused as well. As I’ve said before subversion is a staple of the horror genre, hence why churches pop up a lot, you go there for spiritual help but oh no the church is secretly a cult, or the demons have infiltrated the church and its corrupt! Gasp! This would be more effective if the real-world church wasn’t already tarnished with abuses.