KATIE MARIE

Lets turn off our brains

Today I want to write to you about some generic cliches, that being cliches that fall into the horror genre in general and don’t fall into any specific subgenre, character type etc.

The thing they have in common is that they fall into my ‘This makes no sense’ subheading. Horror is very guilty of the ‘this makes no sense’ cliche, that being a moment that only really works if all your characters suddenly turn off their brains.

Here are a few of my favourites.

Never making sure the threat is dealt with

The best example of this is a serial killer/slasher type story where the plucky teens defeat the killer only for the killer’s body to have magically vanished when they go to check on it, or for the killer to suddenly burst out of a cupboard in a tacky jump scare.

I understand that in these moments of heightened adrenaline you won’t be thinking at your optimum best, but come on, everyone knows to double tap. Partly because of this cliché but if I ever found myself as a character in a horror story where there was a killer and he goes down, you bet your last penny I’m lopping his head off.

I also understand that this is done for plot purposes, it can be used as a cheap jump scare later, or as a way to raise tension when the previously defeated threat isn’t actually defeated, or for sequel bait. But for it to work every character’s brain has to stop working and that can be extremely jarring for the consumer, be they reader, watcher or player.

Moving into a haunted house and staying there

This one has become such a meme. The family that buys a suspiciously cheap house and doesn’t question why, or writes off the reason why as superstition or, as in Sinister, deliberately moves into the bloody murder house. This is easy to write off in the beginning, you just need the more dominant character to be pushy about not believing anything bad will happen etc. But then things start to go bad and suddenly we can’t leave. We’ve sunk all our money into this house and couldn’t possibly leave.

Quite frankly if you’re sinking so much into a house, which is easy to do, then do your bloody research. If everyone who lived in the house before died mysteriously, even if you don’t believe in spooky shenanigans then don’t buy the house.

I do understand that this is another shortcut for writers to keep the characters in a rapidly escalating situation when all common sense says they’d be running for the hills, but surely there’s got to be a better way for this to work.

Separating

Do I really need to say anything here?

You’re with a group of friends, something sinister is going down so we all split up, to ‘cover more ground’ or ‘get out faster’ this is so unbelievably transparent. You need your characters to separate so they will be more vulnerable, heighten tension, lengthen the plot etc. but there are better ways to do this than have the group make stupid decisions.

Have the threat forcibly separate the characters, if need be, but don’t have them separate willingly, covering more ground is pointless if you have to back track to find each other again, same for finding a way out of a trap-like situation.