Horror Tropes – Short: Terribly Titled Horror Movies

A title can do a lot for a movie. It can affect our initial opinions of what the story will be about and whether or not we have any interest in seeing it. This can be particularly true with sequels, with a lot of common and cliché titles coming into play. "Returns", "revenge", "resurrected"—these are …

Horror Tropes – Short: It’s All in Your Head

There are plenty of horror movies that focus on mental health as well as emotional metaphors that stem from trauma and loss. Sometimes it works really well; other times, not so much. I mean the movies that feel like the writers shoehorned in a mental health issue in service of a twist ending. Not only …

Horror Tropes: Let it Ring

It seems that when it comes to horror movies, phones cause nothing but trouble. Not just in the case of needing one to call for help—only for your mobile to die or have no signal—but it's used as the perfect tool for a killer to torment you before stabbing you mercilessly dozens of times. It …

Horror Tropes – Short: Death to the Promiscuous

So, back when I did my article on my theories on how to survive a horror movie, I had a different idea about sex getting you killed. To summarise, my theory is more about the distraction that sex poses than about it being a moral issue. The idea in horror is usually that the good …

Horror Tropes – Short: Splitting Up

Do you know when a character is more likely to die in a slasher movie? When they're alone. It's all well and good arriving with your core group, but it's completely pointless when you make the decision to split up in a desperate attempt to save time. If the inspiration comes from Scooby and the …