This sounds a little bit like the "Worse Cliches" thread, but I like this better.
I have a huge list. Oh, and by me- even if it's used once and it's really bad, it's overused. Get ready:
1. Music scores in horror that are either large orchestral snoozers, or full of stupid industrial "BOMB" sound effects whenever you're supposed to jump! As far as I can tell, Scream started it. It worked for that film. It should have ENDED there. What about the great prog-rock stuff from Suspiria? There's lots more people can do with guitars in score-form. I also really miss electronic music. Hell, even TRIBAL music would be preferable to the same goddamn thing in every single movie!
2. Films clearly ripping off other films. James Wan always ripping off Se7en. Saw ripping off Cube, the sequels ripping off Deep Red and Silence of the Lambs. The Devil's Rejects ripping off Last House on the Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Bride of Chucky. Blair Witch Project ripping off The Last Broadcast and Cannibal Holocaust.
3. Or- feeling the need to reference other films in dialogue or copy something famous from them under the disguise of "tribute": Cabin Fever copying Dawn of the Dead's screwdriver scene, The Dead Hate the Living referencing everything in Italian horror, Masters of Horror: Deer Woman referencing American Werewolf in London, and cameos from people who just show up because they were in a famous horror role (Masters of Horror: Valerie on the Stairs and The V Word).
4. Locations that are excessively dirty being passed off as atmospheric: caves, abandoned buildings, parking garages, crack-houses, shacks in the woods belonging to cannibals or hillbillies, warehouses, city streets / backalleys.
5. Flickering fluorescent / overly-electric white overhead lights. And to think as a Kid I used to be obsessed with fluorescent lights. I'm over it
now. Nobody's using it right. It only goes hand-in-hand with locations that are overly dirty. For instance, in life Fluorescent lights are usually used in your garage or over your laundry machines. Now, it's been done to death.
6. Shooting scenes with any kind of action in them (killing, running, dying, chase scenes, cars / planes, any fast-moving action) like it's fucking Vietnam combat photography. Shaky camera, nothing shot with the camera being clear or locked-down. Oh, except for how clearly you can see the images of people's ankles and shoes as they run. 28 Days Later did this well, Dog Soldiers also did it. Now,
everyone is doing it! Cloverfield, The Mist, Fear Itself: The Sacrifice, you name it.
7. Mtv music video editing: James Wan and Darren Lynn Bousman - stand up. The Saw series, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Fear Itself: New Year's Day. Cameras spinning around a person or object but not completing the spin, WHITE FLASH into closeups with the camera shaking on purpose, not like the cameraman's even running but just shaking the camera while shooting anything, more white flashes! Then, speeding up the photography to exaggerate the already silly shaking of the camera and chopping the cuts to and away from the main object. Saw II is the King of this. Tobe Hooper also overused the camera-cranking technique in Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead, although some of it did work, he just kept doing it over and over again. Horror of course relies partially on photography but it's not purely a photography-major's medium! You can't improve mediocre action or events with silly camera tricks.
8. Male killers with long hair - it's clearly patterned after pro-wrestlers! Oh, and
any horror that's patterned after pro-wrestling! "Jason" in Freddy Vs. Jason and the Friday the 13th remake, "Michael Myers" in the Halloween remake, the entire Wrestlemaniac movie - what a fucking disaster! Oh, and scenes where for whatever inane reason, one of the potential victims feels to need to "fight" the killer in a martial arts or sport-fighting style - Halloween: Resurrection. The fear of competition in a sporting event is not the same as the fear for human survival! Filmmakers today don't seem to understand that very well. Neither do some of the fans (check out the clueless idiots over at
www.thehorrordebate.com for proof, "Rowdy J" over there brings up pro-wrestling in every fucking "review").
9. Teenage / college age characters getting
"fucked up" - dope smoking, binge drinking, partying in trendy manners. Freddy Vs. Jason, Blair Witch Project, Shredder, Cabin Fever, countless others. Also, all trendy stereotypes and guys with surfer-hip drawls or white guys using what they assume are "black" accents. Shredder, I'm lookin' at you! Both are just Breckin Meyer from Clueless. It worked in Clueless- 14 years ago, because they were making fun of this kind of character. "Teen movies" decided they liked these guys and started putting them in everything! Just because these dildos are friends of the directors doesn't mean I give a fuck about them.
10. Redneck guys and trailer-trashy old women characters. They're never used well in horror today. Almost every horror movie, for instance, that uses a haggy older woman is always contrasting them to somebody younger. Masters of Horror: Valerie on the Stairs is a big offender on this level. We understand what it's supposed to mean, but the movie can't even be bothered to set up a contrast more depthful than: Here=Old Person, Over Here=Young Person. Or a moment when the older person chokes a mouthful of smoke at the other person, making the young'un cough as under their breath as they can. Tobe Hooper (The Funhouse) and Disney pioneered this (Cruella DeVille, Madam Medusa, Ursula, Madam Mim, The Queen of Hearts) and used it for an actual purpose. Now- Rob Zombie is obsessed with this kind of woman, which means there's one in every redneck horror film. Which has become a stupid trend unto itself. As for the guys, well- Crazy Ralph (circa, 1979-1980) is King, there'll never be a better ugly crazy redneck type.
11. CGI that looks like CGI. Enough said, I trust. Unless it's used in a weirdly comic way.
12. Horror films that are half-action movie or half-video game! Or just have scenes that are patterned after video games = Midnight Meat Train. Also- Resident Evil, Underworld, Doomsday, Uwe Boll's catastrophes, the Blade films, the Matrix films, Silent Hill. Doesn't anyone remember the 1990's and tech-horror / thrillers (Strange Days, Virtuosity, Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, Class of 1999, T2: Judgment Day, Brainscan). It was overdone then and it's overdone now.
13. Ghost Horror. I can't stress this enough - it's all been done before. Anything you can do with a ghost has been done. A zillion times over. Especially movies involving families. Nobody knows how to make these movies entertaining. Or funny. And the concept of people even believing in ghosts is fucking hilarious. This goes for TV as well. I'm so goddamn sick of those "Paranormal Investigation" phonies! And talking to people who actually fucking believe they're for real. Camera crews going in allegedly haunted houses, lit by bright emerald-green or dusty-grayish blue light as they check for cold spots and... TALK to the ghosts. What the flying fuck? You've
got to be kidding my ass!
14. Politically-influenced horror that don't seem to have an opinion. You see this a lot with younger filmmakers. I wonder why...
Or they don't have the balls to back up their convictions. Or they dilute the formula until you don't know what they're trying to say. And all Eli Roth does is just bring up the 70's and the stuff we already know about Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left. The only filmmaker I've noticed that did this perfectly was Rob Schmidt, who made the crappy Wrong Turn, but went on to make the immaculately-focused Masters of Horror: Right to Die. King-pussy might be Richard Kelly, the guy behind Southland Tales and Donnie Darko. How can you put images of Ronald Reagan in your film and not be saying something?? American Psycho knew exactly what to do with their Ronald Reagan. Floundering around, wallowing in the sewers of 80's excess. The New Millennium is a brand new decade of excess and the filmmakers are clueless as how to comment on that! Rob Schmidt - do more political horror! Even if it's a bit late. John Carpenter also fucked Pro-Life up real bad!
15. Remakes we don't fucking need. Enough said, I trust.
Or they don't have the balls to back up their convictions. Or they dilute the formula until you don't know what they're trying to say. And all Eli Roth does is just bring up the 70's and the stuff we already know about Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left. The only filmmaker I've noticed that did this perfectly was Rob Schmidt, who made the crappy Wrong Turn, but went on to make the immaculately-focused Masters of Horror: Right to Die. King-pussy might be Richard Kelly, the guy behind Southland Tales and Donnie Darko. How can you put images of Ronald Reagan in your film and not be saying something?? American Psycho knew exactly what to do with their Ronald Reagan. Floundering around, wallowing in the sewers of 80's excess. The New Millennium is a brand new decade of excess and the filmmakers are clueless as how to comment on that! Rob Schmidt - do more political horror! Even if it's a bit late. John Carpenter also fucked Pro-Life up real bad!
