Heather O'Rourke in Poltergeist (1982)
The adults believe that their child just has an imaginary friend, and realize too late that it was not the case.
The adults believe that their child just has an imaginary friend, and realize too late that it was not the case.
Where are they when the victim needs them??
It's always better to split up and cover more ground, but by doing so dwindles the numbers to make it easier for the killer.
The movie is coming to an end, the killer is dead and everything is going back to normal....But Wait!! The screen pans to the wreckage where the killer is ALIIVVEEE!!!
When the killer is on their tail the phone is always disconnected, dead, out of range, etc.
There never is a quick getaway in tense situations.
The tempo increases and the protagonists thinks the killer is closing in, but ends up being the neighbor's cat or something else that is silly.
At first there appears to be no one in the mirror, but once the character looks away and back again the monster reveals itself.
Instead of looking for the front door, the protagonist will run upstairs and hide in either the closet or under the bed.
When there are just too many in one movie and the result is underwhelming horror.
When something like a Jack in the Box jumps out at the protagonist.
Such as the Jock being the courageous one who wants to kill the monster alone, or the Blonde who is portrayed as dumb and sleeps around with the rest of the group.
No matter how fast the victim runs and how slow the killer follows, the victim can never get away.
When the victim falls over and can't get back up at once on the ground.
Whether it is while the victim is running (which would be hard on the lungs) or trapped where it is obvious no one will be able to hear them.
The victim strikes a big blow to the killer that renders the killer unconscious, but the victim doesn't finish the job. This leaves the killer to rise again and prolongs the movie.
Even if the victim has picked the perfect hiding spot, there is a phone that goes off, or a creaky floor board that will give the killer the location of the victim.
The main killer is the perfect assassin, very strong and can kill people with great technique, unless he is trying to attack the main protagonist and then he becomes unbelievable clumsy and weak.
The old strange man/woman that suddenly appears and tell the main character to be careful, usually with some scary old story about a place/person, of course, the hero thinks he/she is crazy and don't believe him/her.
Rarely do we see the killer use an actual gun to hunt down the victims. Instead we see them use bladed weapons that prolong the movie.
The old cliche was that the minority character was the first to die in a horror movie. Now typically they are not the first to go but the chances of making it through the entire movie is still unlikely.
Typically someone in the group will go out in the dark with a flashlight, and see what was all the commotion. Of course there is not a single useful weapon accompanying him or her which leads to the first death in the movie.
You know when you hear the creepy tune something is about to go down, which usually ruins the tension.
When the protagonist has a dream about their own demise or the death of someone close to them. They believe it as a warning and will try and convince everyone else the same.
By the end of the movie the protagonist will have stopped being useless and has somehow built an elaborate trap to catch the killer.
The dreaded last words of anyone who speaks them in a horror movie.