1. No Phone Reception
In any circumstance when things start to get tense and a character pulls out their phone to call for help 99% of the time they will either have no reception or no battery life. Nearly every horror film post-2000 has had to explain why the victims could not simply call the police about a savage-serial killer thats on the loose.
2. The Killer Never Dies
No matter how many times you shoot or stab the killer they ALWAYS seem to come back (mostly for a crap sequel) Take Michael Myers for instance in the 'Halloween' series, he has been shot, hit by a car and even set on fire but this has never phased him about coming back for sequel after sequel.
3. Nobody Can Run Without Falling Over
In about any chase scene the victim will be a good 10-20 meters away when they will just fall over a seemingly invisible object!! *Face Palm* Okay may be they really did trip and fall on something, lets just hope they get up quickly...but no they always have to spend ages crawling and squirming around on the floor not even attempting to get up.
4. Splitting Up The Group
"Hey lets all stick together as it looks like the killer is targeting individuals" - said nobody in any horror movie EVER! When anyone has a plan to defeat the killer, monster, zombie or whatever the hell is tormenting and killing a group of people the first plan of action is always to split up the group.
This is majorly over used in horror films and occurs when a character is standing in front of a mirrored bathroom cabinet, they shut the cabinet door and it reveals someone standing behind them. In some circumstances there is not even anyone behind them and you jump just because of the music falsely building up tension.
5. The Bathroom Mirror Scare
This is majorly over used in horror films and occurs when a character is standing in front of a mirrored bathroom cabinet, they shut the cabinet door and it reveals someone standing behind them. In some circumstances there is not even anyone behind them and you jump just because of the music falsely building up tension.
6. Not Turning The Lights On
It seems that no one in a horror film knows how a light switch works, they will come downstairs in the middle of the night possibly to check out a strange noise or just to get a drink of water and will not turn any of the lights on when they do it! This just sets up the scene to be 'scary' without addressing the fact that wandering down stairs in the pitch dark to investigate a strange noise is just simply idiotic.
7. Incompetent PolicemenA policeman's role is to protect and prevent anything bad happening like having a crazed serial killer murdering and torturing people however in any serious situation policemen in horror films seem to be not worth the trouble and usually end up being killed off or just generally dismissing any concerns distressed teenagers seem to have.
8. Virgins Always Win
In particularly teen horror films if anyone has sex or there is a big breasted slut in the group, chances are they are gonna die one way or another. The main heroine of the group is typically a more of a goodie two shoes (but who of course is still extremely attractive).
9. Cars Not Starting & Key Fumbling If the victim is luckily enough to find a car with the keys nine times out of ten they will be shaking so much they wont be able to get the keys in the lock or they will get in the car and it just simply wont start until the killer is right by the door.
10. Nobody Ever Takes Road Trips To The City
In nearly every horror movie nobody wants to take a road trip to a town or city, it is always to a remote area of some kind, either to a woods, desert or rural camping spot (dont forget this setting will obviously have no phone reception).
