What tropes/clichés are you fed up with in films?

[Phyrebrat]

I haven't watched that one yet. Not to derail the thread, but how much connection does it have to the story? I enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House, but its connections to the source material were tangential at best.

I suppose that's not a trope, per se, but one thing I am tired of is "adaptations" that don't actually adapt the source story. Flanagan did it again with The Haunting of Bly Manor, which was an adaption of Turn of the Screw, except it really wasn't.

The film A Haunting in Venice is another one. It's based on Agatha Christie's novel Hallowe'en Party but bears almost no resemblance except someone dies at the Halloween party.

I'm not saying that makes these films and shows bad. On the contrary, I've actually had a good time with most of them. They just have little to nothing to do with the stories they're adapting, so I'm left wondering what the point is. Tell the story you want to tell. That's fine. But don't borrow another title just for the sake of name recognition, which is how it comes across a lot of times.

This is like you have read my mind. I agree totally with your comments on Flanagan. I can’t forgive what he did to the best opening in horror literature with the ending of Hill House.

Bly Manor I gave up on 3 episodes in.

Usher, however is more compelling and tight; using each story as a loose theme for the episode. The Masque episode (2) was phenomenal and the ending was quite upsetting. Even for a jaded old b**** like me.

 

[ZroSkeerd]

Bly Manor I gave up on 3 episodes in.

Unfortunately giving up on a show isn't an option in my house. I married a woman who can watch 12 seasons of a TV show in 8 hours . When we start a series, we finish it whether it's good or not.

I appreciate the recommendation for Fall of the House of Usher. I'll definitely go ahead and check it out.

 

[KGeo777]

I watched a 1960 film and they did a nice jump scare where a guy is planning to shoot himself at his desk due to blackmail. He leaves a suicide note and puts the gun to his head and then the phone rings just as he is about to do it--and he gets startled. It's his wife asking why he isn't home so he gives up on the plan.

On the issue of plausibility and size--I think it comes down to performance and filmmaking skill. It is the job of the filmmakers to make you believe someone five feet tall can be intimidating. It worked with Terminator 2 (although she was surprising orderlies--not fighting Navy seals). But any implausible idea can probably be acceptable if it is presented in a way that works.
That's the challenge.

 

[JunkMonkey]

My go-to violator, though, is Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. There's a post-coitus scene where the guy has gone downstairs to get a beer, and the girl is left in the room by herself. She hears weird noises and gets freaked out, looking around for the source. Then all of a sudden a cat jumps into the frame with a loud musical sting. We've never seen this cat before. We will never see this cat again. It's the first and only time we have even the slightest inkling that there's a cat that lives in this house. It's ridiculous.

I think my most ridiculous horror movie moment was in a POS (which I think was called Death Bed) where someone in their own home at night hears noises in the middle of the night, gets out of bed goes exploring their own house in the dark with a handheld torch (flash-light not a flambeau). There was no mention of a power cut - the bedside electric alarm clock was still working. The only reason they went exploring their own house in the dark with a handheld torch was because there was no other way to get footage of someone using a handheld torch to cut into the trailer.

 

[ZroSkeerd]

I think my most ridiculous horror movie moment was in a POS (which I think was called Death Bed) where someone in their own home at night hears noises in the middle of the night, gets out of bed goes exploring their own house in the dark with a handheld torch (flash-light not a flambeau). There was no mention of a power cut - the bedside electric alarm clock was still working. The only reason they went exploring their own house in the dark with a handheld torch was because there was no other way to get footage of someone using a handheld torch to cut into the trailer.

Yes! This is exactly the type of cheap, ridiculous, my-ten-year-old-could-scare-me-better trick that I'm talking about.

I'm convinced the meetings about scenes like this end with someone saying something like, "Yeah, but people will jump," or, "Yeah, but it'll look cool."

 

[paranoid marvin]

I spoken to (younger) people who have been to modern horror films; the ones with all the cheap shocks. And it's the shocks that entertain them. Almost like a cinematic ghost train or roller coaster. Put a cult classic like Wicker Man in front of them, and they'd probably switch off.

Movie makers obviously realise this, and that's why so many Hollywood horrors are cheap shocks.

And there's nothing wrong with that. If movie goers are entertained with cheap shocks, and they leave the cinema suitably happy/scared then good luck to them.

As Phyrebat mentioned there are alternatives, and of course a wealth of horror classics to be rewatched. I'm sure I'm due a repeat viewing of 'Children of the Corn' by now...

 

[AE35Unit]

Whooshy laser beams sounds, especially in space. Light doesn't make a noise

 

[Swank]

Hearing characters' thoughts. Those don't make noise.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I'm sure I'm due a repeat viewing of 'Children of the Corn' by now...

And The Fog

 

[AE35Unit]

Hearing characters' thoughts. Those don't make noise.

They do in the character's head ..

 

[Swank]

They do in the character's head ..

Just like the guns do in the character's spaceship.

 

[AE35Unit]

Just like the guns do in the character's spaceship.

Inside the ship maybe...although not if they're lasers

 

[Swank]

Inside the ship maybe...although not if they're lasers

They aren't lasers in SW, and the machine that handles the power for a laser can make noise.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Sand: I don’t like it; it gets everywhere…

 

[SilentRoamer]

They aren't lasers in SW, and the machine that handles the power for a laser can make noise.

Wouldn't that be a large build up of noise, then silence soon after when the laser is fired. Would be very cinematic actually.

 

[AE35Unit]

They aren't lasers in SW, and the machine that handles the power for a laser can make noise.

But not like how it is in real life, its exaggerated. But I can live with that. But out in space, no. No sounds please

 

[JunkMonkey]

But not like how it is in real life, its exaggerated. But I can live with that. But out in space, no. No sounds please

I'm curious. In non SF films - war films or thrillers say, Do you have trouble with the sound of explosions in the distance arriving at the same time as the sight of the explosion's fireball? In reality the sound would lag a long time behind. And those further away would lag longer than those close to, yet in movie after movie big bangs' sight and sound synchronise on screen perfectly.

There are no orchestras in space either so no stirring music or threatening minor chords to foreshadow the bad guys' arrival.

Technically you're right but it would make for very uninteresting watching.

 

[KGeo777]

As Phyrebat mentioned there are alternatives, and of course a wealth of horror classics to be rewatched. I'm sure I'm due a repeat viewing of 'Children of the Corn' by now...

I rewatched My Bloody Valentine--which often gets mentioned as among the best slasher films (granted, that's a low hill to climb). One interesting feature of it is that there is a male protagonist and it doesn't have the woman needing to save herself.
In fact, there's no issue from what I could see with her being courted by two guys. I don't think the virgin trope is mentioned at all. The male character (a poor man's Ian McShane) has some baggage due to him having tried to leave the town and failing. Even that is a subversion of the common theme where the small town dreamer has to leave to find him or herself.

 

[Swank]

But not like how it is in real life, its exaggerated. But I can live with that. But out in space, no. No sounds please

There are no sounds in space, and the camera view of a space story doesn't have a microphone in space, either. The sounds represent what can be heard in various spaceships at different times from the POV of the people in them.

What you will not see is Han Solo say, "Did you hear that Tie fighter? It must be where we can't see it." The characters only react to what they can hear within their own vessels, despite the fact that the audience is being treated to the audio visual equivalent of Third Person Omniscient. Everyone that gets wrapped up in "hearing" in space needs to start complaining about all the teleportation that happens via editing that allows us to see inside one ship, then outside, then inside a different one. Where are the physics objections to camera teleportation editing?

Don't even get me started on the non-linear passage of time in film.

 

[AllanR]

I'm curious. In non SF films - war films or thrillers say, Do you have trouble with the sound of explosions in the distance arriving at the same time as the sight of the explosion's fireball

Does that happen often? Aren't the microphone and camera close enough to one another to not have this happen?
When I was an extra in a western (one that was rather loose with facts), when they fired the cannons, they had someone with a timer to set off the explosions to simulate the travel time of the cannon ball.