Least favorite storytelling or writing tropes in horror?

[Chronos314_XD]

Happy October everyone, this is inspired by a thread I made a couple of weeks ago and I decided to make a follow up thread, but specifically just about horror related content cause you know, spooky month and stuff.

1. Gore, it can be done well but most of the time it's just handled really poorly. I feel like gore can work as long as there is a good build up, but most of the time it's just used for boring shock value that becomes less impactful the more you go back to it.

2. Murderers who kill just to kill, like can you at least give an explanation as to how they turned into a crazy murderer and why they do the things they do? Not saying you gotta explain everything to the audience like their five but at least have some sort of backstory or something that explains or implies how they went down that path instead of just "because it's fun for them" or something, feels more like something in a parody than something I'm actually meant to take seriously.

3. Something kid friendly that is actually really scary and deep on the inside. Once again, works if it's done well, but I'm just so sick of this one and it's really starting to get on my nerves with how common this one is.

 

[Yanrima~]

Unpopular opinion, but I disliked the Final Girl trope. It became an overdone trope in most horror movies. They're usually walking plot armors without a solid buildup. Bonus points for the final girl being plain and boring with basic character beats without any defining traits and just survive because plot conveniences and sheer luck.

Zombie apocalypse is also an overdone, tiring trope I dislike because they're oversaturated in every horror media especially in the post-apocalypse genre and not as dangerous or interesting as mythical monsters, cosmic horror, or enviroment changes in post-apocalyptic fiction.

 

[Bluelady]

Jump scare scenes. They are so overdone. Yesterday I was watching a preview trailer of a movie on Peacock. It looked interesting until the camera zoomed in on the keyhole and an eye appeared for a split second. It just made laugh instead of being frightened.

 

[SkyKnight03]

Blood and Gore are not horror to me. It's usually lazy and uncreative. Watching somebody get ripped apart in the most gruesome way possible tires me out instead of scaring me.

Blood should be used secondary and appropriately to whatever story is being told.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I don't like gratuitous straight-up torture scenes... not very fun to watch/read, I think it's better to imply that kind of stuff rather than give us all the details

Not so much of a trope but I also dislike when horror is predictable.. and man.. a lot of horror shows/movies/books are extremely predictable

 

[BetsySundrop]

Predictability - hate it. Especially if it's extremely predictable, but all the other characters are oblivious.

I recently read a book where it was super obv who the killer was and what he was doing - in the first chapter! But all the other super smart people hunting the killer were like, completely oblivious!

I don't like tstl characters. Too stupid to live. They make constant bad decisions that nobody with a single ounce of self preservation would make, and then they end up being the sole survivor. Meanwhile, the one character talking sense usually gets killed early on.

 

[skarmoury]

sudden visual in-your-face jumpscares are so overdone i just hate them. i love fictional horror stories but dang i truly hate random jumpscares without build-up or tension (side eyeing all the recent popular horror games that bank on them). im a very jumpy person and it really takes away my enjoyment knowing a certain piece of media has them, it makes me really uncomfortable but in an unrewarding way? and more often than not the story is like subpar too. boo

also i dont want to get too detailed but some 'horror' stories are just downright disgusting and i really hate those. theyre not even scary, they're like some twisted fantasy projected by the maker and uh. just no