horror tropes
Frightening genre staples
Horror tropes are recurring narrative devices, character types, and plot elements that appear throughout the horror genre.
The haunted house, the final girl who survives the slasher, the monster revealed in the third act, the car that won't start during escape—these are horror tropes.
The term can be neutral or dismissive: The movie relies on tired horror tropes suggests lazy filmmaking, while It cleverly subverts horror tropes indicates genre awareness.
Fans and critics catalog these conventions to discuss how horror works and how individual works play with audience expectations.
- demonMalevolent supernatural being
- fear of the unknownDread of unfamiliar things
- revenge plotPlan to retaliate deliberately
- dark secretConcealed shameful knowledge
- shadowy figuresIndistinct forms in darkness
vampire · zombie · mad scientist · final girl · doppelganger · blood splatter · urban legend · witch · shapeshifter · evil twin · murder mystery · unreliable narrator · claustrophobia · werewolf · haunted house · occultist · jump scare · poltergeist
- Gothic horrorghost story, haunted houses, Dracula, vampires, Frankenstein
- media violenceviolent imagery, content warnings, age restrictions, parental controls, V-chip