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Horrorfest Tropes **SPOILERS**

As previously mentioned, I was eagerly awaiting the fourth year of the After Dark Horrorfest, an annual festival showcasing eight independent horror films.  I enjoyed it — a lot — as I expected.  But I thought I would write this post, which elaborates on:

Horror movies are one of the most trope-drenched genres of art that exist.  There is nothing inherently wrong about this — impressionist symphonic music is too, for instance — but one will sometimes watch an entire film for one key moment in which conventions are upended.  And, of course, recognition requires that one is familiar with the conventions in the first place.

Horror films were an Immersion Project for me, and one that I stuck with after the year.  I’m a huge fanboy now.  But I think it would be funny to tabulate the occurrence of tropes in these films.  There are probably both false positives and false negatives in the list, but I expect their occurrence is less than 10% — which we’ll find out if another fanboy critiques my list.

The films are:

D: Dread
H: Hidden
LM: Lake Mungo
KT: Kill Theory
TF: The Final
TG: The Graves
TR: The Reeds
Z: Zombies of Mass Destruction

Film D H LM KT TF TG TR Z
Young white people in peril ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
— With exactly one young character beloning to a racial minority ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Blood as makeup ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
— That causes serious continuity problems due to insufficient storyboarding ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Changing characters’ eyes, in a fashion that would have been difficult before cheap CGI ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Establishing at the start of the film that there is no mobile phone reception ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Rock music ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
— Rap music
Excessive drinking ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Gore ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
— Excessive gore ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
—— Really fucking excessive gore ✔ ✔ ✔
——— That will be worse if there’s an unrated cut ✔ ✔ ✔
Murder of a good guy by a supposed good guy ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Stock character identity communicated to audience by makeup and/or wardrobe ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Eye trauma ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Supernatural events and/or agents ✔ ✔ ✔
A killer with sadistic proclivities ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Character impaled ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Don’t trust someone with a drawl ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Assault with an unusual weapon ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
— That is unusual because it is actually a gardening tool ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Contemplative characters tend to survive longer ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Torture ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Locking a window or a glass door is supposed to provide protection ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Human caught in an animal trap ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Main characters who are outcasts ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Gratuitous boobage ✔ ✔ ✔
A horror veteran as a ringer ✔ ✔ ✔
Moody lighting ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Big spooky house ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
A sting consisting of someone leaping in front of a car ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Menace conveyed by someone wearing a hood ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
The horror is not over at the end of the film ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Tries way too hard ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Actually scary ✔

So, eight films, all these tropes, and $100 later, will I go to next year’s festival?  Hellz yeah.

I want to write longer reviews of these, but I’d like input on the reviews’ format.  More inside.

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:50:52 +0000
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2 Responses to “Horrorfest Tropes **SPOILERS**”

  1. Joshua (Site Owner) Says:
    February 4th, 2010 at 18h00

    I’d like input as to whether the reviews belong in comments to this post, all in one big post, or as separate posts.  Also, to what degree should they be specific and/or spoiler-y?

  2. Bob Mike Says:
    February 5th, 2010 at 08h33

    Separate posts, cut for spoilers.

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