[eerie music]
[howling]
Come in!
JOE HILL: A dozen teenagers
had been butchered
in this old and spooky house.
Let's split up and look around.
I suggest that we
ponder this a bit
longer before running off.
Are you coming?
No.
JOE HILL: That's the classic.
Ooh, somebody fired the maid.
Yeah, somebody did.
The whole family maid was k*lled
along with the rest of them.
JOE HILL: We've never
been able to escape
it, the tropes and
the clichés that we've
seen a thousand times.
No one knows what
happened to her.
They never found his body.
They found him
naked on the beach,
holding the chopped-off
head of another camper.
JOE HILL: They get better
with time, not worse.
The caller is in the house.
The calls are coming
from the house.
JOE HILL: So I think we kinda
want some of those clichés.
We want that familiarity.
Every February 14th,
Harry comes back to town
just for someone to k*ll.
[screams]
- [screams]
k*ll!
JOE HILL: It enhances rather
than reduces the fun when we
see the characters
doing the things
that people do in horror films.
Is anybody out there?
BREA GRANT: Horror fans
are more educated on tropes
than the average film viewer.
[distorted audio]
BREA GRANT: I think that we
come in with a knowledge base.
We know what a harbinger is.
You're all doomed.
BREA GRANT: We know
what a final girl is.
[screams]
BREA GRANT: Our favorite
thing is when someone takes
those rules and surprises us.
What are the most common
horror tropes and clichés?
You know, they all relate to
things that we may have felt
when we were two, three, four
[screams]
about what the
things that we were
scared of or that unsettled us.
[thunder]
ALEX WINTER: So
that's what always
becomes a trope because
it has such a pull on us.
[screams]
Hello?
Darry, don't even
think about it.
Darry!
I told you I heard someone.
DAVE SCHILLING: One of the most
important tropes of any horror
movie is the protagonist doing
something completely illogical.
You know the part
in scary movies
where somebody does
something really stupid
and everybody hates them for it?
This is it.
You can't have a horror
movie if your character
does the right thing.
[screams]
They have to make the
either brave or stupid
decision to stick around.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
1980s, we always
had the trope of
the girl running up
the stairs when she
should have been
running out the front door.
[screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: The
k*ller is chasing me.
And so oh, my God, I'm
running up the stairs.
And now I'm trapped upstairs and
can't go anywhere from there.
[glass shatters]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: And so that
became a trope in itself.
For a long time, you know, most
of a decade of slasher films.
We were fine with that.
We were just like, mm, yeah, she
should have run out the door.
And there was something
fun about knowing that.
Paul?
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: But that
reached a point where it became
more irritating than anything.
[sinister music]
[screams]
[door shut]
MORGANA IGNIS: Some of the
more nonsensical tropes that
will absolutely lead to better
scenes and a better story
are things like, let's split up,
Everybody out in pairs.
Look everywhere you can think
of, even the empty cabins.
MORGANA IGNIS: A terrible
idea in a real scenario.
In a film, leads you to
a bunch of other scenes
in which you get to enjoy
these characters on their own.
You have the opportunity to
see how each character will act
when they make the really stupid
decision to separate and decide
to go their separate ways that
the k*ller can focus on picking
them off individually.
The absolute worst choice
that they could possibly make
is the one that leads
to the best story.
Here Cheryl, why don't you
go down and check, make sure?
Scotty, I'm not
going down there.
OK.
OK, you cowards.
I'll go.
JOE HILL: Horror fans
will watch a movie
and say, if I was in this film,
I would never have done that.
And that's why I'd live.
Fans are always critiquing
the choices of the characters
in the movie
I know someone's out there.
JOE HILL: as if things would
be different if it was them.
[grunting]
[screams]
This is delusion.
It always makes me think
of the Mike Tyson quote
that everyone has a plan until
they get punched in the nose.
[crash]
[screams]
JOE HILL: Everyone has
a plan until Ghostface
sticks a butcher knife
through their chest.
[screams]
[groaning]
JOE HILL: You may
think that you're
smarter than the characters
in a horror film.
But if you were
in that situation,
you would inevitably
find yourself
making the same dumb
choices because they're
basic human choices.
I'm gonna go I'm gonna
go check this place out.
TYSON: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Just one damn minute.
There's a psycho
k*ller on the loose,
and you want to go traipsing
around this gigantic mansion?
Have you ever actually
seen the Stab movies?
So at some point in
every subgenre cycle,
the tropes will become cliché.
We will get sick of seeing that
same slasher done over and over
and over again.
And at that point, it will
usually become a horror comedy.
[phone ringing]
Hello?
Uh-uh.
See, if that was me, I
would be outta there.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: We will
have somebody poke fun of it
or call attention
to it like a scream.
GHOSTFACE (ON PHONE):
Hello, Sidney.
[screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: And
that falls at the end
of the prior slasher cycle.
And suddenly, we're
now all aware of it.
HEIDI HONEYCUTT: The Scream
franchise parodies horror
movies
- Watch out.
[door creaking]
- Behind you, kid!
Randy!
SIDNEY: [screams]
HEIDI HONEYCUTT: But it
also gives you what you
want in those horror movies.
And it also tells you
what you're watching
while you're watching it.
Now I'mma tell
you what it is, OK?
It's a dumbass white movie
about some dumbass white girls
getting their white
asses cut the f*ck up.
HEIDI HONEYCUTT: And as
the Scream series goes on,
each subsequent
sequel does that more
and more and more and more
[screams] What the
hell are you doing?
Being Gale Weathers.
What the hell are you doing?
GALE: I am Gale Weathers
HEIDI HONEYCUTT: until
you get to like 2022, 2023.
MAN (ON PHONE): What's
your favorite scary movie?
Um, not that one.
[screams]
HEIDI HONEYCUTT: And you
have the Scream movies that
are basically about
the Scream movies
and about people that watch the
Scream movies and horror fans.
I told you, I don't
know these movies.
[stutters] Ask me about
something I do know.
Ask me about It Follows.
Ask me about Hereditary.
Ask me about The Witch.
But it's also a Scream movie,
but it's also a slasher film.
[screams]
I don't know where they
can take it from there.
You got stabbed a billion times,
got dumped by your famous wife,
and crawled into a bottle.
I think it's safe to say
you're on the suspect list.
Well, maybe you're the
k*ller because that cut deep.
CHAD VILLELLA: With the two
new Screams that we have done,
I think we've had that same
type of ability to look back
since the original
Scream came out
and be like, the Scream
came out 25 years ago.
What has changed in the
state of horror since then?
Where are we as
a world audience?
We've had nine
Ghostface K*llers so far.
Nine?
But I thought in the movies
Forget about the movies.
The movies don't matter.
We are able to play
with a little bit
of the tropes and the clichés
and the state of horror
as it is right now.
One of the most proud sequences
that I have been a part of
is the sequence
where we k*lled Dylan
Minnette's character which
is named after Wes Craven.
And that is playing
on the tropes of,
you know, if you open a door,
you better be careful when you
close it because then,
you know, Ghostface
will be standing right behind
that ready to k*ll you.
I think we had no less than
seven doors that he opens
and closes before we
actually get to the moment
where he sees an open door.
Mom?
CHAD VILLELLA: And then choosing
to just simply close the door
and then have Ghostface
be in the room with you
[locks door]
[screams]
CHAD VILLELLA: and
getting into that death
against the door which now we
end up playing on another trope
which is instead
of a jump scare,
we're now into this slow push
of the knife through the neck.
And we just stay on
that shot for a while.
We played on so
many tropes on this,
and this is all stuff that came
before us that we could just
subvert expectations, do
something new with, think how
audiences think
this is going to go,
and then go in a different
direction with it.
We have to finish the movie.
Who gives a f*ck about movies?
[screams]
WOMAN (ON PHONE):
Sometimes when a person
acts wild and crazy, well,
wild and crazy things
happen to them.
They do.
Horny teenagers must die.
Nobody who is having premarital
sex should be suffered to live.
This is like the
abstinence education
of conspiracy theories.
punished.
[screams]
KATE SIEGEL: Like, we
want all of our teenagers
to be afraid to have
sex in the back of cars.
It's just an outrageous
puritanical American concept
that makes me furious.
[screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
So it's thought
that the horny
teenagers must die
thing came out of the 1980s.
Hey.
Robin Hood to the rescue!
Woo-hoo.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: But
we were definitely
seeing that back in the 1970s.
Even in the '60s
Prove you love me.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: teens
have always been horny.
It's just part of human nature.
[screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
And so in the '70s,
we started kind of pegging
them off and really
kind of using them
as cannon fodder
in a lot of horror films.
DANA GOULD: It's a very
Christian cultural belief
And you don't have to be
Christian to know it or feel
it that if you're having
too good of a time,
you're gonna get
RODNEY BARNES: Movies
like The Omen and The Fury
and, uh, Changeling
and The Exorcist
were adults for the most part.
And because adults were at
the center of the narrative,
it felt more important.
But by the time you
throw kids into it,
they're not supposed
to know what to do,
which in the beginning is cool.
But then after a while,
it's like, OK, I get it.
[grunting]
[moaning]
RODNEY BARNES:
They're easy to k*ll.
TOM HOLLAND: Whatever is
successful that's out there
also puts a pressure on you.
And that happened
with Psycho II.
Richard Franklin
and I were afraid we
weren't violent enough.
And that's why we
put in the two kids
making love in the basement.
What's that?
What?
That sound in the next room.
[sighs] You're just stoned.
TOM HOLLAND: That's that
have sex and die thing
that have become a cliché or
was on its way to being a cliché
then.
[nails scraping]
Quit.
Quit now.
Quit?
Why would I wanna quit?
Camp Crystal Lake is jinxed.
BEN SHER: Friday the 13th was
the first independent slasher
film that got a major wide
release by a big studio.
Made a gargantuan
amount of money
and took the genre in
some of the directions
that we now think of as clichés.
(SINGING) Hallelujah.
BEN SHER: In particular, the
idea that if you have sex,
you're going to get k*lled.
We weren't doing anything.
We were just messing around.
[screams]
In Friday the
13th, Pamela Voorhees
overtly says the
counselors were making
love when my son drowned.
They weren't paying
attention to him.
And now I have to k*ll them.
Well, people liked it because
teenagers like watching
teenagers have sex.
They like watching
teenagers get m*rder*d.
It's fun.
It's exciting.
So it just kind of it
was a successful trope.
They repeated it in part
two, part 3, part 4, part 5.
Nobody ever got sick of it.
EMILY MARSH: But it kind of
became like an endearing thing,
like an endearing trope.
It's just like, oh,
those horny teens.
Like, they're gonna
be the next to go.
But it wasn't like you were
actually sitting there being
like, yes, they deserve to die.
That's right.
Boo on you.
PATRICK WILLEMS: You can
deliver these same tropes
and same clichés
where we don't even
really react because
it just seems lazy,
like they're not even trying.
They're, like, running
through a checklist
like, here's all the
stuff that we have to do.
[screams]
PATRICK WILLEMS: And then
there are ways you can have
fun with it like, yeah, sure.
You're going to have
a guy with a mask
k*ll a bunch of horny teenagers.
[screams]
PATRICK WILLEMS: But you can
have a lot of fun with like,
who are those horny teenagers?
You look at the fourth
Friday the 13th,
and it's like one of
them is Crispin Glover
God, I'm horny.
PATRICK WILLEMS: who is
delivering such a deeply
strange performance.
Hey, Ted.
Where's where's that, uh
that corkscrew, that fancy
corkscrew for the wine bottle?
Ted?
PATRICK WILLEMS: And
in one scene, dances.
And does a dance that no human
being has ever done before.
And that brings so
much life to the movie
because just casting this guy
is such an unexpected choice.
I think you are incredible.
[chuckles]
There is something odd
going on in my building.
KATE SIEGEL: Oh,
sinister conspiracies.
Wouldn't it be amazing if
the people in charge of us
were smart enough to be
able to ever keep a secret?
Wouldn't that be great?
Wouldn't it be amazing if there
were these old families that
were really running everything
behind closed doors as opposed
to inbreeding themselves
into a stupor?
It's one of my favorites
because it's probably not
true in real life,
but it adds such
a beautiful flavor to a movie.
WOMAN: He isn't my husband.
It's someone who looks like him.
He's an impostor.
ALEX WINTER: Those are
some of my favorite movies
because they really
connect horror
to social concerns in a very
grounded and impactful way.
(ON ELIZABETH'S MIND) Today
everything seemed the same,
but it wasn't.
It was a nightmare.
People are changing.
They're becoming less human.
It's happening all around us.
[shrieking]
ALEX WINTER: Phil Kaufman's
remake of Body Snatchers
and The Thing are two of my
very favorite horror movies
ever for that reason is they
really get into paranoia.
Trust is a tough thing
to come by these days.
Who's that?
ALEX WINTER: And the other and
not knowing whether even you
are not what you
think you are, much
less your best friend or
the person next to you
and this notion of paranoia.
[g*nsh*t]
KATE SIEGEL: And people
get that social anxiety
in a new community, and
they feel like they're
on the outside of things.
And it can feel
to the individual
like everybody is in a cult
or everyone's a satanist
because there's a vocabulary
that you're not used to
and things like that.
[non-english chanting]
KATE SIEGEL: And so horror like
Midsommar and take that idea
and blow it up into
this full balloon
with the tension at the end
till you're just waiting
for everything to explode.
There is always
something going on.
You have to look
closer, all right?
What about this guy?
DAVE SCHILLING: Paranoia is
a crucial element of horror,
not knowing where the threat is.
If you know where the threat
is coming from, it's not scary.
It's a lack of knowing.
So something like Hot Fuzz
that's really about who
is in on this conspiracy, who is
part of the, the k*lling spree.
And you find out it's
most of the town.
PATRICK WILLEMS:
Hot Fuzz is dripping
so much on like The Wicker Man.
- Are you the landlord here?
- Hi. I'm Alder MacGreagor.
And you must be the
policeman from the mainland?
Police officer.
Yes.
I'm Nicholas Angel.
PATRICK WILLEMS: And,
you know, creepy movies
about small English villages
POLICE OFFICER: I think you
all ought to know that I
am here on official business.
PATRICK WILLEMS:
and the ultimate
reveal that it leans into
this folk horror direction
where there's this
conspiracy of all
the normal people in the town.
They're all working together
with this sinister plan.
Rosemary's Baby is like
the other perfect example
[sighs] I was just
talking about you.
Favorably, I hope.
PATRICK WILLEMS:
where you have
this group of seemingly normal
people like your neighbors.
And I, I think it's really good
when it's like older people who
seem really innocent like they
could be your grandparents
or whatever.
We're your friends, Rosemary.
There's nothing to be
afraid of, Rosemary, honest.
And truly there isn't.
PATRICK WILLEMS: And then
they are actually involved
in something really evil.
Ro
Help me!
DAVE SCHILLING: When anyone can
be bad and morality is unclear,
then you are truly terrified.
This is no dream.
This is really happening.
DAVE SCHILLING: You're truly
terrified because anything
could happen to you.
No one can be trusted.
[sobs] Oh, God.
FRANK: We got a $36,000
motor home here.
We don't need any restaurants.
We don't need any showers.
We got our own.
We don't need
anything from anybody.
We are self-contained, babe.
My favorite
the-townsfolk-are-in-on-it
movie is Race with the Devil,
where we see Peter Fonda
and Warren Oates are being
I think they're on
their way to a ski trip.
On the way, they happen to
see a satanic sacrifice.
(WHISPERS) They've seen us.
They witnessed something
that they shouldn't witness.
No joke.
No bullshit.
m*rder.
And from then
on, they're marked,
and they're just on
the run and being
chased by like a collective
of crazy satanists.
[screams]
BEN SHER: Peter
Fonda at that time
kind of represented
Americana in some way.
In Easy Rider, he
was the manifestation
of the counterculture.
And he gets k*lled
by the squares.
In Race with the Devil,
it's the mid-70s,
and he's kind of
become the culture.
FRANK: I'll tell you, you're
about the straightest guy
I ever met in my life.
Hell, you're drunk, Frank.
BEN SHER: You
know, he's married.
He owns a business.
He and his friends like drinking
martinis in their $30,000
trailer.
[barking]
Whack, whack.
BEN SHER: And now the crazy
hippies are out to get him.
WOMAN: Oh, this looks nice.
BEN SHER: In the scariest
scene in the movie,
they stop at a trailer park
that they think is safe.
Do you feel like a swim?
[sighs] Yeah.
- Good idea.
Let's do
BEN SHER: She puts
on her bathing suit.
She goes to the pool.
She's like, I need to relax.
I need to get some, some
cool water on this hot day.
And everybody at the
pool just stares at her.
[chuckling]
BEN SHER: [chuckles]
She's like, OK,
this is even bigger
than we thought.
And it's everywhere.
ALEX WINTER: It's
like if Deliverance
was satanist, right?
[chuckles]
ALEX WINTER: And so the
movie is funny and absurd.
But it's also genuinely
scary because it's
just the world of the other.
[screams]
[g*nsh*t]
[tires screeching]
[crash sounds]
So I think this notion of
not knowing who to trust
or feeling like you're
the only person who
is sane in a world
that is insane,
it's just great
fodder for horror.
JOE HILL: One staple
of horror films
is the book that should never
be opened because to read
it would be to
drive yourself mad
and unleash evil in the world.
[grunting]
JOE HILL: Presumably,
the book in question
is something by Dean Koontz.
This ties into a lot of
mythology and folklore.
This book is designed
to raise the devil.
MORGANA IGNIS: The
idea that you're
coming across an old
page or poem or something
from a forgotten time,
a forgotten faith,
a forgotten cult, or
religion of some sort
that holds all this power
that people of this time
are not ready for.
Can you lift it?
KURT SAYENGA: HP
Lovecraft used to write
about the Necronomicon
Could I see that
before you put it away?
KURT SAYENGA: the book
that's going to give you
all the unholy demon
knowledge you need
to make people bend to
your will, and reality bend
to your will.
Shut up.
[thunder]
Go!
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: And then, of
course, we have the Evil Dead.
Oh, God.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
where you literally
have a copy of the Necronomicon
sitting in the basement.
Look at this.
[non-english chanting]
HOWARD S. BERGER: You
have like the magic book
being uncovered and then
recited and raising all hell.
Everyone seems to
believe that started
with Sam Raimi's the Evil Dead.
Certainly pulls it off with
respect and maximum amperage.
But what I remember was a
film called Equinox from 1970.
Wow.
This is some piece
of literature.
Seems to be a very
veritable Bible of evil.
[cackling]
TED GEOGHEGAN: The
Necronomicon itself
pops up in countless movies.
It even is its own movie.
There's an amazing film from the
'90s called Necronomicon, Book
of the Dead in which
the titular Necronomicon
is featured in every story.
The secrets of the
Necronomicon do not come cheap.
This is going to
cost you your life.
TED GEOGHEGAN: Also, one of
my absolute favorite films
of all time, Lamberto
Bava's Demons,
also features a cursed book
that is found inside the tomb
of Nostradamus
Nostradamus?
Sounds like a rock group to me.
MAN: Yeah, Top of
the Pops in 1500.
WOMAN: Well, what's it say?
It's in Latin.
I can't figure it out.
Yes, I can.
TED GEOGHEGAN: that
when read aloud
causes demons to rise
up from the ground
and also from out of a theater
screen to attack everyone.
Son of a b*tch.
sh*t.
[groaning]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: We
see it all the time
in kids movies as well.
Even when I was
a kid, I remember
watching The Care Bears Movie.
It's about a cursed book.
Who are you?
How do you know my name?
I am a spirit, Nicholas.
Your friend
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: It's a scary
a*s cursed book in it too.
Make them stop laughing.
Make them stop.
Only you can do that.
Here.
Teach them a lesson.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: But it's this
idea of knowledge is power,
but it can also be your
downfall, that there's
this potential to
read something that
is so detrimental to your
psyche that it can somehow
curse you or take you down.
There's no turning back.
Ha ha.
[laughs]
SAM ZIMMERMAN: And even
beyond cursed books, to me,
it's cursed media as well.
Like, I'll watch a cursed VHS
the first recording
WOMAN: [screams]
SAM ZIMMERMAN: a vinyl
that will k*ll you.
But I think in a larger scope,
what is the power of art,
and can things cross a
threshold into reality
from when you read them and/or
when you listen to them?
How goes it?
What the hell do you
think you're doing?
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
I'm from Appalachia,
and, uh, I remember
seeing murderous rednecks
when I was a kid
and thinking like,
is that supposed to be us?
Lewis, don't play
games with these people.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: And then you realize,
yeah, that is supposed to be us.
Um, it came out of 1970s.
We had this huge redneck
expl*si*n in the 1970s.
[squealing]
MAN: Squeal louder.
Louder.
[chuckles]
[flute sounds]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: And after
Deliverance, It's the idea
of their kind of the villains.
Then they get chain saws.
WOMAN: [screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: Then
they become cannibals.
I'll eat the brains
of your kids' kids.
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: Then
it's all hillfolk,
and they're isolated
and clearly inbred.
And oh, boy.
Somehow I both loved watching
and also felt the pain
of these movies simultaneously.
So yeah, that, that is
still a trope that we see.
I remember being in college
and watching Wrong Turn
and realizing that that
was supposed to take place
really close to my hometown.
And then suddenly
being like, oh, gosh.
Is this what the rest of
the world thinks about?
[screams]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY:
Oh, I don't care.
It's fun. Look at them.
It's fun. Wrong Turn's fun.
[screaming]
[laughing]
JOE HILL: I say this as a proud
member of the coastal elite
myself, the, the terror of
chain saw-wielding rednecks
is really the terror
of coastal elites
who are in a panic at
the thought of being
somewhere without Wi-Fi.
It is fascinating
that there are so
many movies about cannibalistic
human skin-wearing hillbillies
when actually, you
know, I think probably
serial K*llers wildly
prefer the city 'cause
there's a deeper victim pool.
WOMAN: Deep in the heart of
Texas, it's 12:00 midnight.
Ain't nothing going on.
[chainsaw whirring]
[screaming]
Run!
Run for your lives!
[screams]
JEFFREY REDDICK: The movie
when anybody asked me
if there was a movie
that they haven't seen
that they should see,
I'm like, you should
see Tucker & Dale versus Evil.
It takes a city people being
menaced by hillbilly trope
and turns it on its head.
And so I'm from
Eastern Kentucky.
I'm a hillbilly, so
that movie really
spoke to me on so many levels.
CHAD: We are in hillbilly
country now, boys.
Squeal like a pig.
[shouts]
BREA GRANT: College
kids in the car.
They're going to
this lake house.
They're having a great time.
They're all like a
little dumb, you know?
[jeering]
I'm in a car full of morons.
BREA GRANT: The first thing they
see is Tucker and Dale who are
these sort of hillbilly hicks
who you think you're like,
oh, could they
possibly be dangerous?
Did you see the way
those guys looked at us?
BREA GRANT: And you slowly
realize that not only are
Tucker and Dale not dangerous.
Dale, do we need anything else.
Pickled eggs.
Six-pounder.
BREA GRANT: They're very sweet, and
they really support each other.
Friends forever.
Best friends forever.
BREA GRANT: And they're
just really good guys.
And one has a crush on
one of the college girls.
But, of course, she'll
never talk to him.
Are you out of
your mind, Tucker?
These are college girls, OK?
They grew up with
vacation homes and guys
like me fixing their toilets.
You gotta have some
faith in yourself, man.
Oh, good.
Look, your friends are here.
Hey!
BREA GRANT: And the
college kids end
up being the evil of the movie.
They're the people
who are attacking them
and also accidentally
k*lling themselves
many times along the way.
[screams]
BREA GRANT: They were
very accident-prone,
those college kids.
[chuckles]
DEWAYNE PERKINS: Something that
Tucker and Dale versus Evil
did well was that they
showed that the point
of views of people greatly
vary based on fear.
It's about personal bias.
No.
No, no, no.
No, please.
Don't, don't, don't,
don't, don't cry.
DEWAYNE PERKINS: A lot of
the perspective of horror
are specific, and it
does create tropes.
So when you just subvert those
Oh.
It's the pancakes.
You hate pancake I'm
I'll go make you something else.
DEWAYNE PERKINS: You're
subverting what the person
thinks is going to happen.
And I think that shift is
what creates the comedy.
Officer, do we look
like a couple, uh,
psycho K*llers to you?
Well, it's hard to say.
Looks can be deceiving.
Oh, don't, don't.
[screams]
I'm telling you, Pete.
This is bullshit.
This really sucks.
Just do it.
Fix it, man.
Those c**ts aren't
gonna wait all night.
Oh, f*ck.
This is a mess.
CHAD VILLELLA: The one that
drives me the most crazy
is the car not starting.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on.
Damn you.
Come on.
Come on.
Like, what, what
else can we do there?
This car ain't going nowhere.
KATE SIEGEL: The number of
times I've gotten into my car
and it just doesn't
start is like three,
but I feel like in every
single Friday the 13th movie
[vocalizing]
KATE SIEGEL: and every single
low-hanging fruit horror,
something terrible is
gonna happen to your car.
Oh, great.
A flat tire.
KATE SIEGEL: And I think maybe
that's because it's another one
of those things that's so
familiar to our day-to-day
consciousness
- f*ck.
KATE SIEGEL: because we
live in a car-based society.
JOE HILL: Some of the stuff
around our automobiles
and the way they're
used are still
employed in really exciting
fresh ways in horror films.
The old cliché about, you
know, the car won't start,
that's faded away, but,
but now all the cars
have backup cameras in them.
So you can see
what's behind you.
[crash]
And that is put to ingenious use
in the Joe Lynch film Suitable
Flesh, where the demon-possessed
villain is behind the car
and Heather Graham
is, you know, backing
over him and going forward
and backing over him again.
And we can see it all playing
out on the backup camera.
[grunting]
CHAD VILLELLA: We played
with the car trope,
to be honest, in Ready or Not
when we did the OnStar beat.
JUSTIN (ON PHONE): Good evening.
This is Justin.
Your call may be monitored for
People are trying to k*ll me.
Can you please help me?
CHAD VILLELLA: When Grace is, like,
in a car, driving away, calling for help
JUSTIN (ON PHONE): For
Can you call the police, please?
JUSTIN (ON PHONE): Yes, I'd be
happy to help you with that.
CHAD VILLELLA: And
she's like, I need
to get away from this family.
And then the voice from the
OnStar comes on and says
JUSTIN (ON PHONE):
Ma'am, it says here
that the car was
reported stolen.
I'm sorry, but I
have to shut it down.
No, what?
No, what the f*ck!
Are you f*cking kidding me?
CHAD VILLELLA: And using that
technology against the means
of escape, I think that's
kind of like a fun way of just
playing with those tropes.
JUSTIN (ON PHONE):
Is there anything
else I can help you with?
Yeah, you can go
f*ck yourself, Justin.
NATHANIEL THOMPSON:
The old dark house
is something that
we've really had
as long as film has existed.
I mean, Georges
Mélies was doing it.
It's always been there.
So in a way, it's like
it was a trope even
from the minute the first camera
was rolling practically in,
in France.
What's fun is seeing how it's
kind of evolved over the years
and how we've sort of
adapted the old dark house
into meaning something
different every single time.
MRS. GERT HAMMOND:
Welcome to Prairie
Blossom, the name my husband
and I chose for the estate.
KATE SIEGEL: The creepy house
is something that everybody can
identify with that
shows up over and over
and over again, I think,
for a variety of reasons.
Talking about the psyche, the
house represents the person.
If you're dreaming
about your house,
you're dreaming about yourself.
And the idea that somebody
breaking into your identity
and causing havoc, I think,
really touches something
in the root of human fear.
[claps]
REBEKAH MCKENDRY: So James
Whale's Old Dark House, 1932,
this is a Pre-Code film.
And it is making fun of
"old dark house" movies
before these are
even really a thing.
WOMAN: Knock again.
Louder.
I should've thought that was
loud enough to wake the dead.
BEN SHER: On a hideously dark
and stormy night, a group
of travelers who
represent a mix of
the British social hierarchy
I thought you were never
gonna open that door.
Why hah!
BEN SHER: and
encounter, [chuckles] uh,
a seamy side of life
I am wanted by the police.
MAN: [sinister laughs]
[screams]
BEN SHER: that
most of them never
would have imagined existed.
Can you conceive of anybody
living in a house like this
if they didn't have to?
Brazen, lolling creatures
in silks and satins.
They fill the
house with laughter
and sin, laughter and sin.
DAVID DASTMALCHIAN:
These characters that are
stuck in this horror together
SIR RODERICK FEMM: Madness came.
We are all touched with
it a little, you see?
[glass shatters]
DAVID DASTMALCHIAN: are
so weird and curious
and from another time.
And yet I can see
myself in there
when I watch that
movie 'cause I,
I watched it during
the pandemic, right?
Right in the heart of one
of my darkest moments.
And I remember watching
this film and just going,
oh, my God, Will
was such a genius.
Those lights, they
gave me quite a start.
I suppose it's the storm.
On the contrary, we make
our own electric lights here,
and we are not very good at it.
Pray, don't be alarmed if
they go out altogether.
JOE HILL: James Whale had mostly
lost his ability to take horror
movies seriously very early on.
My sister was on the point
of arranging these flowers.
JOE HILL: He had
seen all the tricks
[wind]
and understood
how they worked.
And he couldn't help but want
to turn them on their heads.
That's kind of
fascinating right there
that, you know, as
early as the 1930s,
we already understood
that horror films often
have a very basic template.
Did you hear that?
I did hear something.
JOE HILL: And it's possible to
point out, to point a finger
at now this thing is happening.
Now that thing is happening.
And you've seen this before, and
you know how it's gonna end
The light's gone out.
I suppose they'll
stay out this time.
Now we shall be miserable
all the evening.
JOE HILL: which I think is
kinda fun because it brings
the audience in on the scare.
[screams]
SAM ZIMMERMAN: I don't
think the creepy house
will ever go out of
fashion because houses
are inherently creepy.
And then also,
there's everything
that you and your family
sort of manifest in a house.
[glass shatters]
How many creepy house movies
are just as much about kind
of family tragedy or family
dysfunction or violent acts?
You're the one
that wanted a house.
This is it, so just shut up.
You b*stard.
[grunting]
[screams]
DAVE SCHILLING: In Halloween,
the house is not creepy per se,
but the inherent terror
comes from the fact
that a monster is
coming into your house.
Michael Myers is
coming into the house.
Halloween is about
the desecration
of the American home.
[screams]
If we're thinking about the
haunted house as kind of like
the classical American motif
that encapsulates the horror
of the country's creation, Texas
Chainsaw m*ssacre resituates
that from a house that's
haunted by ghosts of the past
to a house that's starving
and that is a cannibalistic
slaughterhouse in
order to comment
on the by-products of
American capitalism
and industrialization.
And then you can have
very modern buildings evoke
something completely different.
Like in Creepshow, they're
creeping up on you,
he's in this super high tech
kind of reimagined high rise
kind of building.
And, and there's something
inherently creepy
about that, too,
about something that
feels so separate from human
beings and from nature.
You'll never get in here.
Never.
MAN: So it's like, what is
an "old dark house" movie?
It changes meaning
over the years.
[screaming]
It's a cliché, but
it keeps adapting.
It's kinda like a virus, you
know, in the horror film.
It changes shape
over and over again.
It keeps popping up, so that's
why it's still with us today.
WOMAN: No matter
what you do, it won't
stop and can't be stopped.
JOE HILL: The old cliché,
you see someone in a panic,
sprinting away, and the k*ller
is walking slowly behind them.
And yet nevertheless, he catches
up to them three cuts later
and buries a hatchet in
the back of your head.
This was a thing present
in horror films going
all the way back to the mummy.
The joke about the
mummy was, oh, no.
Here comes the mummy.
We all better walk
a little faster.
There's still something
about us running
and the k*ller walking that
remains a terrifying image even
if when you think about
it, you're like, yeah,
they're gonna get away.
[piano notes]
STEVE NILES: It would
be really silly to see
Mike Myers running full speed.
[chuckles] It's better
that he's just lumbering.
It's, it's scarier.
It's just scarier that
somebody puts zero effort
into stalking you
[chuckles] and they
actually wind up catching you.
[JOHN CARPENTER, "HALLOWEEN
THEME"]
JENN WEXLER: Michael Myers
is a metaphor for death.
And you can't outrun death.
[g*nshots]
JENN WEXLER: I
think that it also
speaks to this
supernatural energy
that a lot of
these K*llers have.
Stop.
He's dead.
- No, he's not.
Look at him.
He's still breathing.
Get away from him.
He stopped breathing.
DR. SAMUEL: No!
JENN WEXLER: Even if a character
is not explicitly supernatural,
the fact that he's able to
catch up with the victim
no matter what gives him a
sense of being bigger than life,
having some supernatural powers
that no matter what you do you
won't be able to fight against.
AXELLE CAROLYN: There's
a really good joke
about it in Behind the Mask, The
Rise of Leslie Vernon in a way
that's super smart because
it's this guy training
to be a slasher k*ller.
LESLIE: You have no idea how
much cardio I have to do.
It's ridiculous.
You won't be able to run
like a freaking gazelle
without getting winded.
Plus, there's that
whole thing of making
it look like you're walking.
Everybody else is
running their asses off.
And I've got to stay with them.
AXELLE CAROLYN: And he has
to master all those tricks.
Copperfield, Houdini, sleight
of hand, escape tactics
She thinks she saw me.
Maybe not.
She's not sure.
I just wanna get her
little paranoid, you know?
Just I wanted
to see that there
might be some trouble coming.
AXELLE CAROLYN: That's
such a good movie
to look at if you want to
deconstruct the slasher.
MAN: You got your red
herring all worked out?
I think so.
I think so.
She spends a lot of
time at the library,
so I was gonna do it there.
AXELLE CAROLYN: Because it
takes every single one of those
tropes and then it
makes fun of it.
Oh, my God.
WOMAN: [moaning]
LESLIE: Rule number
one, nobody gets away.
WOMAN: [screams]
You messed that
one up and not only
is it a complete breakdown.
It's really embarrassing.
SAM ZIMMERMAN: In the beginning
of the '80s and the late
'70s was really the
beginning of horror
movies centered on like
youth doing things in groups.
LINDA: Hey, Scotty.
What's this place like anyway?
Well, the guy that's renting
it says it's an old place.
A little run-down, but it's
right up in the mountains.
SAM ZIMMERMAN: I don't think
you really had that a bunch
previously, so it wouldn't
be a bunch of people
like renting a house together
Cheerful.
Yeah.
It has a nice homey feeling.
SAM ZIMMERMAN: until
kind of slasher cinema
and Evil Dead and
movies about like teens
and twentysomethings
going off and doing
things together on short trips.
Bobby Joe, where are you, girl?
DANA GOULD: These
kind of movies are
Ten Little Indians, you know?
One by one they get k*lled.
[screaming]
And it's always a group of
friends as opposed to a family
because if it's a family,
it's intergenerational.
You have a husband and wife.
You have children.
Nobody wants to see the
children get k*lled.
It just makes it harder to tell the story,
so a bunch of friends. Great.
I can k*ll all of them.
[screams]
[chuckles] Nobody cares.
I've never said it so simply,
but it was quite liberating.
BREA GRANT: Cabin in
the Woods comes out,
and I think all of
us got scared that we
would never be able to
make a horror movie again.
[shouts]
[screams]
BREA GRANT: [chuckles] because
it was sort of the horror movie
to end all horror movies.
[thuds]
[sighs] What the hell was that?
BREA GRANT: It used
all of the tropes.
You have these very
quintessential teenagers.
You have the jock, the nerd,
the hot babe, the virgin.
And they all are going
out to this cabin woods.
And you keep cutting
back and forth
to this sort of corporate
headquarters underground.
And they're making bets,
and they're, you know,
doing work jokes.
And you don't
exactly know what's
going on until you
realize that they're
orchestrating all of it.
MAN: She's airballed.
We need the Japanese
crew to get it done.
BREA GRANT: And they're
orchestrating these things
all over the world, in fact.
And they have to do it because
it's keeping these massive gods
underground appeased.
But that is sort of irrelevant.
It is more about them
making the horror movie,
them coming up with like
who is gonna be the bad guy
and then sort of
orchestrating this like,
oh, we're gonna put
stuff in her hair bleach
to make her dumber because
now she's a blonde.
The hair dye.
Dumb blonde.
Very artistic.
BREA GRANT: We're going to
pump certain chemicals in
to make them horny.
MAN: Engaging pheromone mists.
BREA GRANT: We're gonna
do all sorts of stuff
to make them live out
this horror movie fantasy.
[screams]
BREA GRANT: What the
horror fans really
responded to was the whiteboard
full of options of things
that could k*ll them.
congratulations
go to Maintenance!
[cheering]
BREA GRANT: Everything
from like mermen
to, you know, murdering hicks
That's not fair.
I had zombies too.
Yes, you did.
Yes, you had zombies.
But this is zombie redneck
t*rture family, see?
They're entirely
separate species.
I'm sure most horror
fans did this like me.
There's always next year.
BREA GRANT: When I
watched it at home,
I paused it so I could read
everything on the whiteboard
because someone
took a lot of time
to come up with
all of those tropes
and put them neatly
on a whiteboard.
And I appreciate that as a fan.
[shrieking]
[glass shatters]
KATE SIEGEL: The final girl
I love the final girl.
One of the reasons I love horror
is because very early on you
had strong female role models.
This was a genre
where women could
survive and fight and fight
back and fight ugly and win.
And I think that is
empowering on every level.
Playing a final girl is one of
the greatest joys of my life.
LEA ANDERSON: The final girl
is terminology that was coined
by Carol Clover in her book
Men, Women, and Chainsaws, which
was reviewing the horror films
of the '70s, the slashers,
in particular, and sort of
attempting to create taxonomies
and categories for the
tropes, for the sort of beats
in the storytelling that
appear again and again
and again and again in
all kinds of slashers.
And the final girl was
one of the major ones.
[whisper]
[g*nshots]
JENN WEXLER: The final
girl is classically
the smart girl of the group.
It's tragic.
You never go out.
Guys think I'm too smart.
I don't.
I think you're a wacko.
Now you're seeing
men behind bushes.
And her wits allow her to
survive, to escape the k*ller
and ultimately take him down,
while her friends who are more
the party girls, the
girls who are having sex,
they usually succumb
to the k*ller.
Tommy, hurry up!
Tommy, please!
LEA ANDERSON: The final girls
of the '70s were always White.
Do as I say!
- The boogeyman
Hurry!
[screams]
LEA ANDERSON: They
were always thin
Wait, little girl.
LEA ANDERSON: and they
were always virgins.
What that really
reflects is the same kind
of standards for true
womanhood that were
inscribed in the 19th century.
Um, I guess I'll see you
tomorrow in school, huh?
Sure, great.
OK, bye.
What type of femininity
do you perform in order
to be taken seriously
and be considered
of value and worth saving?
These are the qualities
that allow you to survive.
PINHEAD: No.
Don't do that.
Go to hell!
JENN WEXLER: When I was a
young teenager discovering
horror movies, I hated school.
Where's your pass?
Screw your pass.
JENN WEXLER: I
didn't wanna go back,
and I would look
to horror movies.
And I would see the final girl,
and all her friends are dead.
And, uh, she has to
take down the k*ller.
And she does all that.
And I was like, if she
can do that, I can survive
another day of high school.
So thank you final
girl for that.
LEA ANDERSON: Once it
hit the mainstream,
it got appropriated and sort
of turned into something else.
So now the final girl
is kind of considered
this feminist figure.
But the original
final girls weren't
all that feminist in nature.
A lot of them got saved by men.
That was like part of the trope.
LILA: [screams]
It took me a while to
realize like the entire concept
of the final girl is
a little messed up.
And really, what we should be
striving for is the collective,
is for the female
characters to work together
to bring down the k*ller.
And it doesn't have to be, you
know, you against your friends.
It's either you or your
friend who are gonna die,
so you better be the smart one.
You guys can both be smart.
You guys can work together
to bring him down.
You are a Black character
in a horror movie.
Prove that you can stay alive.
Name one Black character
that survived a horror movie.
You must answer
correctly, or you die.
TANANARIVE DUE: I like
tropes to a degree,
but tropes, while they can
be comfortable and familiar
and perfectly harmless and
even fun, have an underbelly.
They really do, I think,
reveal societal feelings
about entire populations.
If you k*ll off the
only representative
of an entire population
and you do it casually
and you do it for a jump scare
[screams]
TANANARIVE DUE: Or you do
it so you shall be avenged.
I'm so sorry you
were m*rder*d, Thomas.
I miss you.
I miss you too.
You know, why
are you doing that?
Could you add maybe
another Black character
to offset that balance?
Yo, Freddy!
Where are you hiding,
you burnt-face p*ssy?
Hey, we should find
the others first.
ROLAND: You think you're hot
sh*t with a little mute kid,
don't you?
Well, let me see you
come get a piece of me.
DEWAYNE PERKINS: Often, I
feel like that solo Black
character is usually the
masculine man who's like, oh,
I can do it.
[crash]
Take that, m*therf*cker!
And then they die.
[grunting]
DEWAYNE PERKINS: That
creates more fear,
I think, for the rest
of the characters
because that's the power.
That's the strength, Like,
that is what's represented
through that person.
But then that doesn't allow
for like authentic responses.
Trick or treat, m*therf*cker.
I know a lot of men
who, um, get scared.
Uh, and I think not allowing
those characters to like
feel human creates that
trope 'cause you're like,
oh, this doesn't feel real.
I'm very cautious as a writer
of that, just knowing the world
that we live in and kinda
having an expectation
of how audiences are going to
receive what they're seeing.
LEA ANDERSON: The
Blackening is really cool
because it is looking at
the horror genre as a whole,
but it's fully reframing
it through a Black lens.
Yo, when did we become
the kind of people that
walk into dark-a*s basements?
Hey, stop it!
Boo!
[laughs]
LEA ANDERSON: A
group of friends,
they're going to
celebrate Juneteenth
at this cabin in the woods.
Is it just me, or is this
giving Texas Chainsaw m*ssacre?
ALLISON: I don't know.
I never seen that film.
White people scare me.
And there they find this game.
What's this?
Oh, hell no.
LEA ANDERSON: And the
game has all kinds
of like r*cist imagery.
LISA: I will spare your lives
if you sacrifice the person
you deem the blackest to me.
The blackest?
You have two minutes to decide.
There's this idea of like what
is Black and what is not Black.
And to take that conversation
and flip it on its head
Every single time one of
y'all make a joke, it's always,
oh, Allison, you White this.
Allison, you White that.
to force people
to claim and like
grab on to the parts
of themselves that
they feel are the Whitest
I'm g*y.
[all groaning]
You always using that
- No, no.
And just like my h*m*
family member says,
gayness is just whiteness
wrapped up in a bunch of dicks.
And today I agree.
Was just a very
funny way to show
the diversity of Blackness.
I voted for Trump
[gasps]
- What?
What?
twice.
DEWAYNE PERKINS: We
all do a lot of things
that don't necessarily fit
in a box of what is Black.
TRACEY SALISBURY: It really
is Black people turning
these horror tropes
upside down that for all
these years with White
people, these make no sense.
I'mma say it.
Don't, don't say this dumb sh*t.
We (GAGS)
Allison.
We (GAGS)
Oh, my God.
We have to split up.
Oh!
DEWAYNE PERKINS:
Something I find
funny is when people
try very hard to not
be like stereotypes.
King.
- King?
Yeah, King!
'cause you the one with
the g*n and you gangsta.
I'm an ex-gansta, all right?
I changed my life.
But then there's parts of
stereotypes that are just true
and having that
balance and being like,
no, I don't wanna
be a stereotype.
But also, I this
part of me is pretty
stereotypical and
showing that like, yeah,
this person has changed.
There's growth.
But at the end of the
day, yeah, he got a g*n.
Bruh, I knew you had a g*n.
Wow, that's profiling.
How come you
didn't use it before?
On what? The TV, n*gga?
Move out the way.
Because life is scary.
He a Black man.
[g*nshots]
TRACEY SALISBURY: One of
the cool things of this
is Black films are playing
with White horror film tropes,
and they're creating new
Black horror film tropes.
Wait.
How do we know we can trust him?
No offense.
I'm one of the good one.
- Oh, that does not help.
They all say that.
So it's gonna be fun to see
how those get turned around
in other ways when it
comes together as one mix
as, you know, films become more
diverse and more opportunities.
So what do we do now?
Call the cops?
[laughter]
LEA ANDERSON: Because
society changes,
the tropes change with us.
The way that we employ
them is always reflective
of our present concerns,
what new monsters
might emerge when we revisit and
renegotiate the classic tropes.
[grunting]
[shout]
[screams]
[woman's voice]
My car, go up into
the mountains.
MAN: No man could
take six of them.
I'm telling you,
this isn't a man.
WOMAN: I've got some
lights up ahead.
There's probably a farmhouse
up there, so I'll go and check.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
[screams]
MAN: Shut up, you b*tch hog.
WOMAN: [screams]
MAN: The book speaks of a
spiritual presence, thing
of evil that roams the
forests and the dark powers
of man's domain.
MAN: Honey, give this
place a chance, OK?
WOMAN: Well, I hope these
people aren't too weird.
[screaming]
These things were made by
the US Army Corps of Engineers.
[coughing]
[music playing]
Well, what do we do?
Why don't we just wait
here for a little while?
See what happens.
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01x01 - Tropes and Clichés
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Embark on a thrilling journey through the genre's best with insights from the masterminds behind your favorite scares.
Embark on a thrilling journey through the genre's best with insights from the masterminds behind your favorite scares.