Summary

• Horror movie character tropes are double-edged, some comfort while others suffocate quality, seen in classics like The Cabin in the Woods.
• Religious horror movies often feature the character trope of The Believer, those committing terrifying acts due to deep faith in something.
• Sacrifice is an important horror movie character trope, where characters may give up their lives for the greater good, sometimes successfully.

While every genre has recognizable clichés, the horror genre is especially filled with well-worn aspects, including some classic horror movie character tropes. The concept of a trope in and of itself isn't necessarily negative. Character tropes help divulge information about a character to an audience quickly, working to curb the problems that arise from lengthy exposition. However, horror movies have gained a number of predictable tropes that can suffocate the quality of the overall film and have become so prevalent that movies like The Cabin in the Woods have dedicated an entire premise to satirizing them.

Even the best horror movies of all time can feature these familiar tropes, some of them finding interesting ways to present these concepts while others help to establish the tropes in the first place. Horror movie tropes are a double-edged sword. There can be offensive and harmful tropes that get overused in the genre, but there are other tropes that feel comforting and fun to revisit in a variety of different stories. The most frequent horror movie character clichés show the good and bad ways they have been used over the years.

1 The Believer

Notable Examples: The Commune (Midsommar), Lord Summerisle (The Wicker Man)

The Believer is a horror movie character trope that has come back in style in recent years. This comes mostly from religious horror movies where the characters are often committing terrifying acts because of something they believe in deeply.

These actually go back to the early days of cinema, as the Universal Horror movie The Black Cat (1934) has Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi team up for a movie about a cult who believes they have to sacrifice someone for higher power.

This is how these characters often act.

Other more recent examples include the Ari Aster movies Hereditary and Midsommar, which both involved people suffering terrible deaths thanks to religious cults who prey on them. The Wicker Man is also a perfect example, as Lord Summerisle is a believer who has such charisma that he is able to lead his entire island of cultists to sacrifice victims every year to the pagan god they worship to ensure a successful harvest.

2 The Minion

Notable Examples: Renfield (Dracula), Julia Cotton (Hellraiser), Fritz (Frankenstein)

The Minion is a horror movie trope that is often important because the villains can't always do what they need to do on their own. The two most famous Minions in any horror movie came from the Universal Horror movies of the 1930s. The first was Renfield from the vampire movie Dracula. When Dracula is unable to care for himself, he uses Renfield to bring him what he needs to keep him powerful, and he often abuses his Minion as gratitude. Fritz was the hunchback Minion in Frankenstein, although later versions changed his name to Igor.

In Aliens, the robot Ash is a Minion for the overarching villainous organization Weyland–Yutani, and he puts their goals ahead of the entire crew's lives

There are also some good examples in later horror movies where the villains needed help to either get to this plane of existence, kill people they couldn't normally reach, or ensure their plans were set into motion. In Aliens, the robot Ash is a Minion for the overarching villainous organization Weyland–Yutani, and he puts their goals ahead of the entire crew's lives. In It, Pennywise enlists bully Henry Bowers to help bring him the Losers.

3 The Corrupted

Notable Examples: Artie (Christine), Larry Talbot (The Wolf Man), Jack Torrance (The Shining)

Often, horror movies will take a good person and then do something that corrupts them, turning them evil. This will result in a hero becoming a villain, or in some cases, a hero's friend turning bad and becoming a new antagonist.

The most famous example of this comes in the adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. In this movie, a father takes his wife and young son to a hotel in Colorado to care for it during the winter. While there, the hotel influences him and turns him into a source of evil, trying to kill his family.

There are other instances where the story is a tragedy about a person who finds something corrupting them and they are unable to withstand it. Artie in Christine soon learns that his car is killing people and it eventually corrupts him and places him behind the wheel to aid. In the classic Wolf Man, Larry Talbot is bitten by a werewolf and becomes one himself. He wants desperately to end his own life because he can't live with the corruption living inside of him.

4 The Sacrifice

Notable Examples: Ripley (Alien 3), Lee (A Quiet Place), Karras (The Exorcist)

One of the most important horror movie character tropes is that of the Sacrifice. This character is someone who will sacrifice their own life to help save others. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but when a person gives up their own life for the greater good, they are often seen as one of the most important heroes in a horror movie.

There are also examples where a hero learns they have to die to stop the evil, and that is perfectly shown by Ripley's sacrifice in Alien 3 and Father Karras's sacrifice in The Exorcist. There are also cases where someone dies to save those they love, which is often the best sacrifice in any horror movie.

A great recent example was when Lee gave up his own life in A Quiet Place to the aliens, so his kids could get to safety. Sometimes it doesn't work like when Billy decided to make an honorable sacrifice by taking on the alien in Predator. While it was a huge moment, he died quickly and the Predator still reached his friends and started killing them as well.

5 The Guide

Notable Examples: Randy (Scream), Father Merrin (The Exorcist), Dr. Loomis (Halloween)

The Guide is an interesting horror trope because it can take many different forms. This is the mentor in many movies, and it is someone who knows more than the heroes and can help lead them to the truth about something or help them overcome their struggles to defeat the great evil.

Sometimes they end up dying after they give the hero the information they need and, in other instances, they will just disappear after serving their purpose. Others, like Dr. Loomis from Halloween, also tries to act as a protector at the same time.

A fun example comes in Scream. Randy knows more about horror movie tropes than almost anyone, and he is able to figure out what the characters need to do to survive based on his extensive movie knowledge. Hannibal Lecter is the most famous example of The Guide. In Silence of the Lambs, he is in prison when Clarice Starling comes to him for help. He guides her to the villain eventually, but not without messing with her mind first.

6 The Entity

Notable Examples: Pennywise (It), Death (Final Destination), The Entity (It Follows)

Where some horror movie villains might be the typical muscle-bound monster, a masked murderer, or a deranged psychopath, there's a special kind of fun to be had with an evil supernatural entity, demon, or spirit. Instead of using machetes and butcher knives to dispatch victims, these entities can haunt and psychologically torture the characters before subjecting them to the brutal end.

Creatures like Pennywise from IT, the Babadook from The Babadook, and the Lipstick-Face Demon from the Insidious franchise are all perfect examples of these horror movie character tropes.

The Entity in It Follows is another more modern take on the trope that is all the scarier before the audience never gets to see its true form. The Entity trope goes back to the start of horror cinema, with a perfect example in the silent-era movie Faust, where a man makes a pact with the Devil himself.

7 The Harbinger

Notable Examples: Jud Crandall (Pet Sematary), Crazy Ralph (Friday The 13th), Jezelle (Jeepers Creepers)

Before the real horror sets in, many horror movies set the stage with a warning for the characters of the danger that might lie ahead. The Harbinger can take a variety of forms in the story, from an old man to a grieving woman to another survivor, who warns the group of soon-to-be victims.

Despite these characters attempting to make life easier on the characters, they are always, of course, ignored. On rare occasions, they even the body count as another victim. "Crazy Ralph" from Friday the 13th and its sequel is the perfect example of these horror movie stereotypes as well as Jud Crandall from Pet Sematary. Jordan Peele found a fresh way to approach the cliché with the comedic character of Rod in Get Out being much different from the typical gravelly serious harbingers.

8 The Pawn

Notable Examples: Eric (Evil Dead), Alex (Wishmaster), Evelyn (The Mummy)

The pawn is a rather complex individual and one that ignites the story in a big way. Simply put, these horror movie character tropes are unwittingly responsible for the carnage that befalls the rest of the victims.

They're the ones that open the box that shouldn't be open, mess with a demonic board game, disturb the abandoned summer camp, or in the case of Leatherface, be the stooge used by the true movie's villains. Either way, someone's getting used for evil intent.

Eric from the Evil Dead reboot was the one who kicked off the Deadites' reign, Alex unleashed the evil djinn in Wishmaster, and Evelyn read from the Book of the Dead in The Mummy. As these examples show, curiosity is usually the cause of these ill-advised decisions. This is seen in very early horror movies as well, as Jonathan Harker sets off Dracula on his quest for forbidden love in Dracula (1931) and Ralph Norton, who releases Imhotep in The Mummy (1932)

9 The Scholar

Notable Examples: Seth Brundle (The Fly), Dr. Frankenstein (Frankenstein), Mindy (Scream)

One of the more underused yet easily recognizable horror movie character tropes is The Scholar. The Scholar is a character whose intelligence plays into the horror plot whether as a cause of the terrible things going on or, in more positive cases, a solution to them. They can be a scientist trying to stop an evil monster, a researcher looking to raise the dead or even just a simple victim.

The most iconic example is Dr. Frankenstein.

It's not always a good idea to be an intellectual in a horror movie, but sometimes being smart can save one's life — or shorten it depending on the story. Examples of The Scholar include Seth Brundle from The Fly whose quest for knowledge turned him into a monster and Mindy Meeks-Martin from the new Scream movies whose "rules" help keep the heroes alive. However, the most iconic example is Dr. Frankenstein.

10 The Hunter

Notable Examples: Dr. Loomis (Halloween), Quint (Jaws), Ripley (Aliens)

One of the more interesting horror movie stereotypes is the concept of The Hunter. These are usually characters who have encountered the evil at the center of the story before and are now dedicating their lives to bringing down the film's villain. Characters like Dr. Loomis from the Halloween franchise (or Laurie in the recent trilogy), Ellen Ripley from Aliens, and the original Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula have represented the determined hunter trope.

These characters might be the ones to come in and save the day, give the final girl a chance to escape or fight back, or they just might be outmatched by the killer and end up a victim themselves. Even the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film saw original final girl Sally return as The Hunter. Another example is Quint, who falls into this category as he has dedicated his life to hunting sharks, only to become the final person killed by the shark in Jaws.