Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

The Horror Genre: It Is Not Just About The Scares

One of my all time favorite pieces from the horror medium has to be the TV show American Horror Story: Murder House. Created all the way back in 2011 by both Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy, the entire twelve episode first season of the series focuses on a struggling family living inside a house full of eighty years worth of ghosts. Episode by episode, the living residents of the house, the Harmon family, become more and more aware of their situation, with bad housing investments as well as ongoing conflicts stopping them from leaving. Ironically, the better they adapt to the supernatural inside their house, the more developed they become, recovering from past tensions after learning from the ghost's mistakes in life. By the end, the Harmon family from their unusual situation grow closer to each other, with each character conflict being slowly resolved. Murder House is primarily about family and the importance of not letting those close bonds erode away from past mistakes.

Now you may be confused as to why I claim Murder House is more about family versus the scares seemingly promised by the title. Although there are plenty of memorable scares out there in the twelve episode season, they are to me not the most important element of the show. Instead, I credit the character development and story as the highlights of the show. The reason for this is simple; the best horror stories are not about just the scares. Attention to detail must be given to its plot line in order for the genre to work, much like other types of fictional stories. Without the plot and the characters inside of them, the scares in a horror story do not work. It is a complete misconception that the horror genre is just about freaking out the audience in twisted, insane ways. There is more to the blue print of this genre than just a simple jump scare.

Edgar Allen Poe, the arguable king of horror, proves this in the many stories he wrote throughout his short life. In "The Black Cat", Edgar Allen Poe's purpose in writing the story is to show the main character's slow decline into insanity, all fueled by a nasty drinking habit. After murdering the family cat, the main character becomes completely disconnected from the world when he falsely believes the cat to have returned in the form of another cat to haunt him. This thought slowly drives him insane, leading him to later murder his wife and then easily get caught by the police after he became too distracted to realize he trapped the cat in the location where the body was hidden. His ultimate death sentence is because of his own undoing, not the supernatural hauntings of a vengeful cat. Then there is another classic of his, "The Telltale Heart", where the major focus of the story is the main character's guilt over killing an innocent old man. The continuous heart beat he hears in his mind as the police search the house is symbolism of this guilt, which the character alone experiences as he struggles to confess to the crime. When the heartbeat finally drives him insane, it is then that he feels there is nothing left to lose and he cracks under the pressure. Both stories are character driven and use the genre's known scares as only ascetic.

This is why I feel most modern horror stories fail miserably. Instead of focusing on the situation or the characters, all the story is about is freaking the audience out. These scares as a result become very predictable and the ascetic of the horror itself are lost through predictability. That is why The Walking Dead TV show currently is entering a decline, while the comics the show were originally based on has stayed strong. While the TV show focuses only on the unsettling atmosphere of the zombie apocalypse, the comics focuses a lot more on character development and only uses the situation to create challenges the characters must overcome to grow. It is a complete misconception to say the horror genre is only about scaring people. In reality, it is about creating a unique type of plot line that has a charming ascetic that still like other genres needs its characters and story to truly be great. Knowing this is the difference between creating a great horror story people will remember versus one that will be forgotten after reading only the first chapter.

With this knowledge comes another task; balancing out the array of story killing clichés out there. The best way to beat this problem is through learning from past examples, where a cliché ruined an otherwise great story. Through these instances, we learn how to avert the plot killing issue and become better writers as a result for the creative ways we avert it. That is the primary reason why I wrote this editorial. I want people to read this entire piece, learning from the past mistakes of other stories to avoid falling into a cliché. All I want is to help inspiring horror writers out there with the advice I learned over the years from strict schooling and my own slew of writing. It is not to gain a following or win writer of the year like in other editorials. (Although those two things happening would be nice if I end up truly fulfilling my mission in the editorial.)

Without further delay, let us go over fifty of the worst horror clichés that seriously deserve to burn in a fire. Be warned, I am holding nothing back!