Horror Tropes

Abandoned and/or Haunted Place

A family moves into the abandoned house that has just come on the market only to find that the house isn’t as white as the realtor painted it. A couple is caught in a storm and enter the first shelter they see… an abandoned castle. It could be a hospital, city, town, planet or castle.

Back from The Grave

A group of kids died in a bus crash in the eighties. This year another group of kids have gone camping there and guess what…the kids are baaack. Whatever creatures that will come back from the grave may be intelligent, extremely seductive or have magical powers.

Child? Look Again

Children have always been afraid of monsters. What if the monster is the kid? Possessed, bacj from the grave, disturbed…knock yourself out. This is perhaps the most disturbing type of horror because by nature children are thought to be innocent and sweet.

Haunted by Myself

The character is placed in a situation where their ability to think is impaired and they start to imagine things. Basically everything goes on in their minds.

Indestructible Villain

Can be the result of an experiment gone wrong or just sheer will to destroy that is keeping this guy/thing alive. Shoot him, his skin is like leather. Stab him, the knife will probably break. You think you blew him up with your cleverly placed grenade? Sorry dude just invented the first bomb proof vest. The priest’s cross is just another piece of wood to him. You just have to find a way to kill him now…

Invasion of the Machines

The future is full of robots who humans think they can’t live without, they need them to eat, work, think, breathe. A screw goes loose and there goes man’s best metallic friend. Now if only you hadn’t made them so perfect.

Nightmares

Dreams aren’t really what they seem at least not for Sammy Smappy. His dreams are real when he’s in them its like the world just goes south. Or maybe if he dreams it,  it will probably come true tomorrow. What’s a boy got to do except develop a serious case of insomnia. This of course has the potential to drive the poor guy insane and create some horrors of his own.

Playing with Dark Forces

You’re seduced by the Ouija board your grandmother told you not to touch or that coat that has just been lying in your dead neighbor’s closet (you little orb). Suddenly the jacket makes you feel indestructible and you’re doing things you never thought you could do, the Ouija board is predicting what’s going to happen very well. What you don’t know is that the coat isn’t as cute as you think (just as your best friend has been telling you). You’re playing with fire.

Possessed

Mr. Dead so and so, the local serial killer who was executed, just can’t keep in the grave and since he doesn’t have a body of his own he’s taking hostages. And you’re next in line

Sheltered

A world is created where evil rules, the streets are littered with zombies, vampires, ghosts etc. Humans are powerless within this world. The only safe place is the bubble where our hero/heroine is, till one day they step away from home…

Someone’s Bonkers

Will usually include a psychopath, religious freaks or an escaped convict out for revenge. In horror the ‘crazy’ person can think logically (according to him). Another instance of using the crazy person would be using him not as the villain, but rather as a source of warning to those who are going to get ‘axed’.

Strange Creatures

The hero/heroine is surrounded by strange evil creatures (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, banshees, Dr. Jekyll types, who are trying to change or kill him/her.

The Stranger in the Group

Usually some new kid/adult will appear in a group at school, on tour or in the neighborhood. She is just the perfect stepford wife; bakes delicious cookies for the neighbors, do their grocery runs for them and host superb parties. But you have no idea of the string of murders she left behind in the last neighborhood she went a’cookieing in.