Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#34: Minorities Dying First

  For those in the PC (politically correct) culture, the particular horror cliché I am about to talk is fully and rightfully going to piss all of you off.  With the horror genre, there seems to be a unfortunate subtle racism in some stories, especially when it comes to the titular slasher movie formula.  When it comes to some older installments of slasher movies, and some more recent films, the token character always seems to be the first one axed off by the killer.  It is always for a stupid reason, be it wandering alone in the woods or walking uninformed of the dilemma straight into the killer's arms.  Almost never does the character get the chance to try defending themselves of the danger and they just become the first member of a very huge kill counter.  Then, everyone strangely seems to forget about the character existing altogether and the plot just continues to go on.

  The route of the wrongful killing of minority characters is in the culture of the time periods these stories were created in.  Throughout history, there has always been a group of persecuted individuals, be it due to some conflict going on during the time or a contagious fear of the unknown.  To point the blame away from themselves, the blame throughout history has always been pointed at somebody else.  This move created an almost universal hate towards the group in question and the toxicity of this ideology would as a result hit all aspects of the persecuting culture in question.  Unfortunately, this would mean that popular culture at these time periods would be effected too, thus creating tropes like the ones in horror where a minority group is killed off first to make the people in question being persecuted look weak in comparison to the rest of the cast.

  The group most effected by this cultural hate as of late tends to be the African American community, who became centers of this problem due to the side effect centuries of slavery has had on our culture.  Due to not everyone accepting the idea of the emancipation of slavery at the end of the Civil War, a new toxic ideology started to take hold.  Those who opposed emancipation created a toxic universal mindset that the African American community was inferior to all other races, feasting the awful flames of racism and a battle for equality that would spread into the modern day.  Hence, the cliché of token characters getting killed first in a lot of horror media became widespread with particularly the African American community, creating a big problem in modern horror that has made the entire genre look bad.

  Being someone who had to deal with hate at a young age due to having a disability, this particular trope in the horror genre tends to hit me harder than it might for most people.  I can relate to being belittled due to the autism I was born with, having to fight some very tough battles to get the education I needed and trying to fit in with others who didn't see the world as I did.  This belittlement was extremely painful, even now as I have gained so much more acceptance from others as I have gotten older and learned to use my disability as not a crutch, but as a different way to view the world
and use the observations I see to help others.  This mindset could possibly be the reason why I am so dedicated to writing as a whole, and created this editorial in the first place.  So whenever I see this cliché anywhere in the horror genre, it tends to hit close to home.  I remember the dark days when I was treated so differently by the rest of my peers for being born with a unique mind structure, and just end up feeling bad.

  Thankfully when it comes to more modern day media, the cliché of killing the token character first has seemingly started to fade away.  Now a lot of horror writers are seeing the flaws of the past, and are rectifying it with new stories in the medium that are more inclusive than ever.  The character of Dick Hallorann in The Shining novel got to serve as not only the prime mentor figure to Danny Torrance in his youth, but also ended up being one of the prime forces as to why Wendy and her son were able to escape The Overlook Hotel.  Movies with complex minority characters like Get Out are finally getting created, and bringing a whole new light to the horror genre as a whole.  Even better yet, the slasher movie formula is starting to be reinvented in movies such as Happy Deathday, and not rely at all on killing the token character first anymore.  Times are changing and fixing the ills of the past with it.

  However, that does not mean the problem is resolved.  The problem of racism in media is still popping up from time to time, and will continue to do so unless writers start to make a change with their work.  Create something that all audiences can find comfort in, casting a true sense of equality.  Remedy the tensions of the past and give audiences a new perspective of the world as a whole.  With all of us working together, we can truly make a lasting impact.