askchapo

Spoliers for Haute Tension below. Light spoilers maybe for Cabin in the Woods, Candyman, and Terrifier

I think for like classic slashers, probably the racist or sexist trope where the PoC, promiscuous girl, or "dumb blond" dies first. Like, I get that the whole cast is just murder fodder but it was always rare to see the one of the black guys or "bimbos" be the final girl or boy. It was usually the unlikely "mousy girl" though. A caveat would be like in Cabin in the Woods where the stoner kid survives until the end.

But other than that, I'm a really big horror movie fan and sort of learned to lean into the tropes you see often. To me, they are just story devices to help set the scene.

My meta trope(if you will) issues are when fans whine that a horror movie is "too political" like with the Candyman sequel/soft reboot by Jordan Peele. I saw a lot of people bitching that is was gonna be all "white people bad" and I was like, y'all watched the original right? Same complaints about his remake of People Under the Stairs, and I guess him in general. I love Peele because he puts bigotry in your face though. If you are having a hard time with it, maybe look into a mirror(lol Candyman).

Another is when people try to find deeper meaning in plot shallow movies or completely miss the deeper meaning of movies they view at surface level. Two examples that always come up: Terrifier is just suposed to be a silly slasher that hearkens back to the 80s but I saw a lot of people complain that is didn't have a deeper meaning they could find(lore not withstanding). It's literally just a classic horror and a practical effects tech demo. Shut your brain off and go for the ride. The second is the plot twist in Haute Tension. It seems people really feel like they were cheated when the unreliable narrator plot twist is revealed. Or they flat out don't even catch it. The short haired girl is the one telling the story the ENTIRE FUCKING TIME and she had like Dissociative Identity Disorder or some other personality disorder. It's the same trope that is in Fight Club and Mr. Robot but people don't seem to feel cheated when they watch those.

I love everything from B-budget to "high art" horror so I probably disagree with some takes here. I also don't like a lot of classics as much as others. I think The Shining is boring and although I like The Thing, I hate how much hype it gets. Maybe it's just the echo chamber that is reddit but goddamn they have a hard-on for that film.