Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#1: The Virgin Always Survives

The idea of the "pure" main character has always been quite a bothersome trope for me personally.  These characters are people who are so wholly innocent, they could not even hurt a fly by accident.  Because of this "purity", the character in question is able to beat all obstacles in their way with seemingly no effort whatsoever.  It can even be a power at times, even correcting the irredeemable antagonist's rotten heart.  To me, these "pure" characters are a classic example of the Mary Sue or Gary Sue trope.  They are flat characters that remain static throughout the course of the story, never once having an instance of diversity when presented with each unique situation.

  That is why it has always been a issue for me when in horror related media, the character who almost always survives in the end is the virgin.  This character because they chose not to do intercourse are sparred by the killer, which makes no sense considering most horror genre killers lack any type of empathy.  No sadistic killer is suddenly going to drop everything they are doing when they realize a certain character is a virgin.  It is not at all realistic in terms of the situation the characters are presented with!  Added on to this insulting trope is the idea that all forms of sex are depicted as evil.  While I could go on for an entire book about the debate as to whether or not sexual intercourse should be allowed in modern media, I am just going to make it brief by saying it depends on the material.  If the action is perfectly in character with the two committing it, then as long as the person going into the story knows the material is for a more mature audience and they have been educated on the topic, sex is fine.  Besides that, the action is a completely natural reaction to being romantically committed to someone, which if done right could actually add a sense of realism into the story.  The cliché that only the virgin should be sparred by the killer is a truly rotten one that has not aged well from the sex sensitive seventies and eighties.

  In fact most people by the time they have turned twenty-five have probably had a sexual experience at least once.  This is the same with probably most fictional characters as well.  Take Veronica Sawyer from the Heathers musical adaptation, who in the first quarter of the play breaks her virginity.  Despite this though, she still is able to stop her ex-boyfriend JD from blowing up Westerburg High School in a climatic fight scene.  That one action earlier in the musical did not define her entire existence for the story.  Instead, most people could completely forget about what happened due to it not being too important to the plot.  The scene only served to show Veronica's desperation further at potentially becoming a permanent social outcast because of Heather Chandler and wanting to be noticed while she still was able to.  Despite "Heathers" being a dark comedy more than an example of the horror genre, it speaks volumes from that one character action not following Veronica like a lost dog to the finale.

  To make the aforementioned story element in most horror tales worse, this cliché gave birth to another equally insulting trope.  Due to intercourse apparently being the enemy in most horror stories, the madly in love couple is usually the first to go when the killer starts their reign of terror.  Just as outdated as only letting the virgin survive the conflict, killing off two people whose only crime was making out in the middle of the foreboding woods really does not make sense.  In reality, if a couple were to be attacked by some type of sadistic killer, most likely they would actually be more likely to survive the conflict.  With two people fighting back instead of one, they could work together to disarm the killer of any weapons.  Once the killer is restrained, they could easily call the cops before any more harm could potentially be inflicted.  Also realistically working in the couple's favor is their undying loyalty for one another that would make fighting back a higher priority.  When you are in love, it is not just about your own needs anymore.  It is additionally about the needs of your partner, who wants to help you as much as you want to help them. Although there can be exceptions to this generalization, nine times out of ten the couple would probably be the hardest to kill, especially if one of the two were to get injured or even die.  If you do not believe me, just look at the characterization of Garnet from the TV show Steven Universe, whose entire character motivation is love.

  Love and even just simple intercourse is not a crime.  When it comes time for the killer in your horror story to reach their most climatic fight, how about subverting expectations by letting the person who had sex actually be the one to take the killer down.  When choosing the first characters for your killer to target, how about leaving the loving couple alone and choosing a victim that would shock the audience.  With the horror medium evolving over the years to a more modernistic approach, maybe it is best to let old clichés such as this one fade away into nothingness.  The purity of a character is not judged by whether or not they had intercourse.  It should be instead based on their actions as a character.  After all, a fleshed out character makes for an entirely better experience for the audience.