Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#50: Horror Stories Have to Be Formulaic

  Through the entirety of this entire horror clichés editorial, I have constantly expressed in the cracks of each part the formulaic nature of most narratives in the genre.  I expressed the formulaic nature of hauntings, in which the main character always gets tortured by a benevolent spirit before finding logic and escaping.  I ranted about the stupidity of main characters time and time again in slasher killer stories, who are basically just asking to be killed from their poor decision making.  I explained the lack of complexity in the characterization of basic horror monsters, complained about zombie apocalypse stories lacking any hope for the cast, gagged over gore festivals in the narrative, and uttered compliant after compliant about formulaic jump scares in most horror media. In every single part of this editorial, I mentioned at least once something about the formulaic nature of the horror genre.

In all forty-nine previous parts of this editorial, I reviewed many of the well known types of horror story plot structures out there, either to express my point further or by complete accident. With this in mind, you can all see clearly with the evidence I have gathered throughout this book that the biggest cliché of all in this editorial is the horror narrative itself. They all walk a similar path to each other, with the only distinguishing trait between each of them being the iconic horror characters or the tone of the story. It is a repetitive mess that has given horror the bad name outsiders give it for being a cheap source of entertainment.

But the horror genre does not have to continue being this way. As I expressed throughly in each previous part, there are small ways you can change a typical horror story into something unique. The punishments of the antagonist based on the circumstances of the crime do not have to all be entirely the same, with some sort of chance for redemption available for those who have the mindset to change their ways.  Cats do not have to be depicted as malevolent creatures, nor do witches have to be wicked in horror fiction.  Just because someone is depicted as a virgin does not mean they have to automatically survive the story, and just because someone is in love does not mean they must be killed.  Blood does not need to be present in order to make a story scary, and the dark tone itself can do the job perfectly fine on its own.  Mental illness and insanity do not have to be the basis of every single horror story to make it good.  The formulaic nature of the horror genre can be changed with just one simple alteration to what the audience normally expects out of the overall story.

  It is this innovative mindset I have about the horror genre that inspired me to write this editorial in the first place.  Like with the fantasy genre, the horror genre can be made greater through subversions of audience expectations that make for memorable stories no one will soon forget.  Creativity itself can turn a formulaic plot line into something truly original.  With this in mind, any type of horror story can be saved from repetitiveness if given great effort.

  After all, it is creativity in the horror genre that attached me to one of my favorite TV shows of all time, American Horror Story, especially in its first season.  Through this first season, the typical murder house is turned into a story about family and forgiveness for the darkest of deeds committed by ourselves once in a while.  By the end of the season, the characters are not merely now a part of the murder house's display of victims.  The cast have become beacons for hope even in death, much happier in their untraditional setting now than they were when alive.  American Horror Story: Murder House is a strong horror narrative with the right amount of well balanced scares and hope dispensed for the characters.

  It is up to the creative writers of modern times to reinvent the horror genre into something truly amazing.  We can learn from the greater stories of the past to weave new stories for this generation that are hard to forget.  Repetitiveness does not have to exist because of the nasty habit of some writers to repeat plot lines in the horror genre time and time again.  Through innovation, writers can create something outstandingly new.

  So, what are you guys waiting for!  Let us work together to craft a new chapter for the horror genre through the lessons we have learned inside this editorial.