Contains mild spoilers.
Your Sunday night movie Till Death stars Megan Fox as a married woman who finds herself in a very horrific situation. There's bound to be lots of gore and scares. To gear you up for the movie, we're looking at horror movie cliches that we love.
The jump scare
The good old jump scare has been done for decades and never gets old. It usually comes when you least expect it, after a long period of silence, and then BAM! The music gets louder and your heart starts throbbing: you've just been jump scared. Often the jump scare is a false alarm, and the protagonist is not in danger at that very moment. It's sometimes just a pet running across the room, a neighbour ringing the doorbell, or a delivery man mistaken for the actual killer. Rest assured (or should that be unassured), this does not mean our protagonist is safe because we all know that the real deal comes shortly after the jump scare!
The hallucination
Nothing is ever as it seems...or is it? Sometimes a character will hallucinate a whole scene, before being brought back to reality. The hallucination scene often has the unthinkable happening, and in a horror movie, it's often the scariest part. But don't be fooled, danger is always lurking close by.
The dream/nightmare
Now, this is slightly different from the hallucination scene. In the dream scene, our character usually wakes up sweating and palpitating after a bad dream. Sometimes the dreams are clues that the character can piece together. Sometimes a movie ends with a dream sequence, leaving the audience wondering whether it was really a dream. Remember the iconic ending of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer when Julie is pulled underneath the bed by the fisherman? Fans up to this day still wonder whether it was just a dream.
"I'll check the basement"
Horror movie characters never seem to learn, do they? Often someone has to venture down into a dark, eerie basement or up into a creepy attic filled with grandma's dolls, to investigate. Note that jump scares and hallucinations often follow these scenes. How many creepy photos and dolls do these people wanna see? But we must admit, we live for moments like these and every horror movie manages to put a different spin on it.
The creepy character staring at you
The twins from The Shining, we're looking at you! Whether it's the creepy neighbour across the road or someone the character catches glimpses of while riding on the subway, these death stares always freak out the audience. These scenes keep us guessing. Who could the person be? What are they up to? How do they tie into the storyline?
The creepy phone call
The most iconic phone call scene in the history of scary movies has to be the opening scene in Scream between Drew Barrymore's character Casey and Ghostface. Many movies make use of the creepy phone call scene, not forgetting the silent hang-up call, leaving the audience to wonder just what or who is on the other end.
What's your favourite horror movie cliché? Get ready for more scares with the thriller Till Death, airing on Sunday 1 May at 21:05 on M-Net 101. You can find us on @mnetmovies on Twitter and @MNet on Facebook or @mnettv on Instagram.