Ranking Horror Movie Tropes | Tier List 

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My favorite bad trope is when the person sees the killer, recognizing them, and instead of calling them by their name, they call them "you" to hide the person's identity from the audience.

Hospitals in horror movies that are completely deserted at night, or under construction with creepy plastic hanging everywhere

The BIGGEST cliche I hate that I am shocked isn’t here: the killer always hovers where you’re hiding. Most of the time, they don’t actually know the protagonist is hiding there but the stop right in front of them and pause for tension. It’s not tense, it’s sooooo overused and annoying.

The worst part of dream fakeout is that it's almost always the scariest part of the movie, so it being fake just feels like such an insult.

Hey Cody, I felt like you should have included "sudden sequel death syndrome." It's that trope where characters who survived the previous movie suddenly dies in the next one. This trope always grinds my gears.

I love the black guy Joel from scream 2 who just walks out of the movie the first time that trope is mentioned

I also think the cat jumpscare was done really well in Alien, because its reason for hissing led to the real scare, adding to the buildup, it wasn’t hissing at Brett, but the Xenomorph, and Brett realizes it, just too late.

Zombie Bites. 1. The people who hide that they've been bitten. It's done too much. 2. Inconsistencies in how long it takes to turn. It's so annoying when it takes a short time for side characters, but they look ill & practically dead the whole time leading up to turning, and then you have a main character who takes forever to turn and never once looks ill, until they suddenly turn. Just be consistent!

For years now, I've just called those great big kitchen knives "Michael Myers knives." Signature weapons are an absolute MUST if you want to create an iconic horror villain!

A very used trope is when one character has a very important piece information, calls the protagonist and says "I know who did it. But I can't tell you here. Let's meet at the lighthouse of the death at midnight". And, of course, the protagonist goes and finds him dead. Just say it at the phone, fucker! Or meet in a mall at 17:30, not in the darkest and farthest place in a very late hour.

I don't mind incompetent cops if it fits the themes of the story, but them being competent makes things scarier.

So what you’re saying you’re a vampire ? Need to be invited in lol 😂

OMG, I feel that not being able to enter someone's house without knocking, including relatives like you said.

"Based on a true story" is literally created for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be a satire on government lies and media misrepresentation. Then people played it straight for Amityville Horror, and thanks to that movie, we are stuck with that terrible trope.

One thing I love about final girls is how much variety you have for them. You got virgins, sexually active ones, military-trained ones, weak girls who gain inner strength, party planners, etc. and it's not like they are all just the virgin goody-two shoes that people say they are.

Yeah the “cop hastily running into an incredibly dangerous situation without any backup or alerting any dispatcher” cliche really f’ing grinds my gears. No cop would do that, and backup is at most 15 minutes away (and that would be in a remote location. City it would be 2-4 minutes).

Hiding under the bed always makes me laugh. I’d have to shove suitcases, boxes, shoes to the side and still would have my ass hanging out

Perhaps Jacob's Ladder is one example where it was all a dream worked. Or was it all in his head? Or the hallucinations of a dying man?

So, the "Pet Warnings" made me think of when I was in college. I had a dog and was living in a house with two other roommates. One night I was all alone because both roommates were staying at their respective boyfriend's apartments. Now, my dog was always my shadow. She almost never left my side; so, it was weird when she walked out of my bedroom randomly. I went to see what she was doing because she had not come back after a few minutes and she was standing at the foot of the stairs with the hair on her back standing up, and growling that low, guttural, growl, and just staring at the top of the stairs. I immediately grabbed her, grabbed my cell phone, and went outside on the side porch. I called my boyfriend at the time while looking at the stairs just waiting for someone to come walking down them. My boyfriend (who thought I was overreacting - that didn't last too much longer) came over and looked all around the house and found nothing. Did I feel silly...hell no. I would rather have trusted my dog than have been sorry. I still think about what that could have been. She never acted that way ever again in her 12+ years. ALWAYS. TRUST. YOUR. PETS.

Also, this could be combined with the following: "Double Tap", "I Dropped the Weapon", or "Nobody Carrying", but there are SO MANY horror movies where someone willingly throws the perfectly good weapon they have away after they have injured, slowed down, or even knocked out the baddie that is after them. They toss the weapon and run away. Also, to combine with something else on your list, when they "run away" they usually just hide somewhere, or stop and look back. If you are not going to kill them...JUST KEEP RUNNING!!! Great tier list!

The tripping thing is annoying but it's actually pretty realistic. When your adrenaline is pumping, especially from pure fear, you turn into Bambi. There's a million videos of people doing this too and it's hilarious.

The key one... i feel like the bigger sin is the person at the door, trying every key on their keychain trying to unlock it, or their car. Like, do you not know which key opens your house and/or car? But people being in cars and the person in the passenger seat is like "Well, start it and let's go!" And the driver is like, "I lost the keys..." and then they see them in the beam of the headlights lmao. Or when they have to get keys or something off the killer, and instead of just killing them, they slowly try to get the keys out their pocket or hand. Like in Scream 2, the cop car scene... like instead of trying to straddle the killer to get out the window, just find something to bash his brains in then get out at your leisure. You know it's a human that can easily die. Its insane.

Someone send this to Hollywood so they could pump out good quality horror films.

The "children drawing creepy things" is a cliché that I had to go through in real life. I was once an art teacher in a summer camp and there was a kid that was always drawing weird things and strange messages like "this is who I am and this is who I want to be" pointing to a drawing of a black and red monster. He used to put them on the walls of the classroom and asked me to leave them there. It got to a point where I considered talking with my boss about that, I was worried that maybe he was going through some things at home. I was also renting a room at a big 19th century creeky house because with the pandemy there was nothing else available, so there was only me and the old woman who rented the rooms living in this enormous old house with dolls, African masks, a room that was burned in a fire, old black and white photographs that a previous owner bought at a second hand store, an old basement that was sealed with wooden planks many years ago and many other horror films clichés.

I'm so happy that you mentioned the black guy never dying first, because it's a joke I'm sick of people getting wrong.

Jump scares are fine in movies, but they need to be used correctly and help heighten the tension instead of deflating it.

What I liked about how Scream handled the running up the stairs thing is that they explained WHY Sidney made that decision. She tried to go out the front door but the chain lock was on it and that was the only other place she could go in a split seconds notice, LOL! That's why I love Scream. Even if they're making fun of a cliche, they find a way to make sense out of why the character would make that decision.

Nobody does tier lists like you Cody. You take it to a whole other level and I appreciate your dedication.

The worst example IMO of the “keep running” one is Sarah Mitchell Gellar character in “I know what you did last summer,” she was so close to escaping🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

you are easily the best horror youtuber out there. always doing different and interesting takes/rankings/series and just an overall different idea and feel to the videos. keep up the awesome work man

Click had a good “it was all a dream” ending 😂

The end of "Newhart" when he wakes up to his original TV wife, revealing the entire show was a dream, was always well done. Not horror, granted, but still good.

Newhart TV show ending : it was all a dream. Newhart wakes up from a dream and he's in bed with his previous tv wife from the original The Newhart Show as if Newhart was all just a dream.

One of the only RU-vidrs when I see a 30 plus minute video and get excited rather than nauseated by the run time, keep up the good work! 🙌

I will this about the Dark Basement trope, the best use of that trope is without a doubt Barbarian where Justin Long doesn't even care if it dark or creepy, He just wants that square footage. also, that scene was the hardest I have ever laughed at a horror movie 🤣🤣🤣🤣

As an elementary school teacher I can tell you that the creepy drawing thing is pretty accurate. A lot of kids express trauma through drawings. I had a kid where I found a drawing on his notebook of an angry screaming face and he gave it pointy teeth, later we found out his parents had a very mutually abusive relationship and fought in front of the kids a lot. He was a first grader and had a younger brother and he always felt like he had to protect him so when his parents would fight he’d stand in front of his brother so he would see them fight. So the drawing was the way his parents looked to him when they fought.

The only movie that actually nails the "it was all a dream" trope is Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. But since it is from David Lynch, it is not a movie for everyone.

When bringing up horror tropes always makes me think of the Good Choices commercial from Geico 😂😂 Great tier list as usual.

I’m such a fan of these tier list. Keep em coming Cody!!

I think the ending of Dead of Night (1945) worked for me, with how the protagonist has an eerie feeling of deja vu and slowly realizes he has dreamt about the inn and the people in it. Only to wake up at the end with a sense of dread, and go on to repeat the day. The cyclicity worked for me, like he was trapped in purgatory/hell. Maybe not exactly "it was all a dream" but a nice spin on it. That movie had a lot of tropes, but I would assume it was innovative at the time, so I loved every single trope in it.

This is such an interesting idea for a tier list ranking Cody! Super excited to watch & see what shows up!

I can’t imagine the editing process of one of these mammoth tier list videos. Nonetheless, that doesn’t make these videos any less entertaining and impressive!

Can always rely on Cody to drop a huge video when I dont feel well to try to relax. You're the best.

Absolutely love this kind of content Cody! Thanks for all the great videos

Hey Cody! This was a great idea for a video here! I love your stuff and you're one of my go-to guys when it comes to hearing opinions about horror movies. You're a great critic and I am sure you know more horror movie tropes than I do. I have only been watching horror movies for three years.

Lmao “not going down there, I definitely hear something breathing”

I love how out of pocket these tier lists are. It’s refreshing

This is such a great idea for a tier list and enjoyed a lot of your takes. Great job, Cody.

Let's split up is not actually that common in horror films as I thought. Either they are oblivious to the killer, or they stick together. I cannot think of one example where people know they are in danger, and they split up aside from Scooby Doo.

Just saw Last Stop in Yuma County. Loved it, thanks for the rec!

I live and breathe for videos like this. Keep em comin!

I wouldn't consider Jacobs Ladders ending to all be a dream, but that is probably the best example I can think of that mostly works.

What’s crazy is George Romero usually had the black guy as the lead or ending survivor. You said the night of the living dead already, but also dawn of the dead (78), day of the dead, night of the living dead remake, dawn of the dead remake, and land of the dead the black guy is the main zombie.

I don't like killer teleports, with the exception of Michael Myers, because the shape feels like he moves in and out of reality, so it is very fitting to the supernatural aspect of his character. Jason should just run.

Red herring is my favorite. I just love when a movie tries to fool you into thinking someone is one way, then ends up being completely different.

The best library exposition is in Se7en! Morgan Freeman researching in the library 👌🏻

I love this channel just due to all the original video ideas you have

Growing up, I said 'CRAN' instead of crayon too. Don't feel bad lol.

A perfect video to start my shift at work, doing the tier list along with these videos is always super fun. Once you explained the double tap category I immediately went "ohhh" because I thought you meant when you actively make sure the killer is dead DEAD. Like in "Sick" when the girls go crazy making sure the killers are dead by bashing they shit in. The useless husband and parents trope is so crazy to me because if you first instinct isn't to protect your spouse/kids you deserve anything awful that happens to you.

I understand 💯% about the "one last scare." I'm with you on that one, fully. They did sort of explain in the beginning of I Still Know that that shower scene at the end of the first one was a dream sequence, but I also understand that could be classified as lazy writing. Great tier list!

I love your ranking videos

Normally put dropping the keys under let it die. But then I thought about it, as much as I drop my keys in real life, I’m putting it in the tolerate because it’s very realistic, whether you’re in situation or not.

This video was so so entertaining! I watched every second! Love your humor!

Nice. Was really pleased when I saw this vid. Always enjoy the content, and I got smashed up and left with broken bones and bruised ribs and lungs in a motorbike crash a couple of days ago, and a nice long vid like this is just what I need while I'm resting up recovering. Cheers

The family pet needlessly being killed. That is my HATED trope, and it’s one that will either make me knock points off or stop watching a movie all together. It’s never in service to the story, it doesn’t have a reason to be there. It’s just there to be carelessly mean and to ‘try and scare’ us. That doesn’t scare the audience, it pisses us off.

Saw used a Creepy Doll well.

Been waiting for this one, Cody. About to watch. I expect some GOOD rants!

My man you’re never gonna run out of tier list ranking ideas I can tell for sure 😮

I’m going to back you up on the T&A ranking and provide you some cover from a female perspective. One example I’ve heard women complain about as far as an “unnecessary” semi-naked scene is at the end of (my favorite horror movie) Alien when Ripley strips down. Aside from the fact that I wish she had been wearing big girl panties, the thought of vulnerable exposed flesh up against pointy teeth, claws, knives, etc., increases the anxiety 10-fold. Everyone feels at their most vulnerable when naked, so it completely makes sense in a horror setting. Once the alien’s hand pops out, I can’t breathe again until she gets that space suit on. It’s like - “OK, now I’m prepared to tackle this bullshit. Bring it on!” Obviously, that’s not always the director’s INTENTION, and it’s about throwing a bone to the guys (pun intended). But regardless, it’s incredibly effective at increasing the terror. BTW, it’s adorable/hilarious when you go out of your way to be extra diplomatic around certain issues (gender, race, etc.). And I definitely know WHY (hostile accusatory comments in 3…2…1…), but I think you do a terrific job with it. I always agree with you on that stuff and appreciate your efforts to be respectful to everyone. ❤️

Cody your ideas are top tier, such a fun idea and I filled out my own tier list...there's a lot of tropes out there that need to die...but the good thing about horror is that even those tropes can still work...creative writers and directors always find some way to make them work somehow. Great job.

OK cody this is buy far the most interesting video of yours by a mile and I love all your video's but I could watch this over and over again to break down each category on this list, well done sir 👏

It isn't quite "it was all a dream" but American Psycho ending with not really knowing how much of what we saw was or wasn't just in his head is a pretty good ending in my opinion

Chefs kiss , kosher video, Cody. Love nerding out to these 🤘🏻

Love your tier lists

Just wanted to drop by and say I am enjoying the video. Something about your videos is calming for me. Thank you 🙏

Great video and concept

Cody you gotta do ranking the BEST horror movie character decisions next :D. Love your content!!

Best dream fake out episode of anything for me is a top 5 episode of Futurama, The Sting. There is very little way to speak on why without spoiling the entire episode, but just know that even going into that episode with the knowledge that there’s a dream fake out doesn’t diminish its quality, so do check it out, it’s an amazing episode of an amazing TV show in its best era.

Here is my defense of some of the lazy bullshit. I agree with all your "Let it Die" tropes with one very notable exception which I'll explain below. Caricature cast can work if the movie is a comedy or satirical horror like Scary Movie, Cabin in the Woods, Tucker vs. Dale etc. Crazy religion could also include movies about satanic cults such as The Believers. Doesn't necessarily have to be critical of any mainstream religion. Found footage can be the same as old footage exposition if the film itself doesn't fall into that subgenre Red Herrings can be fun if there are multiple killers. Based on a true story is played out, but I don't mind crime thrillers that take their inspiration from true stories. I do consider Silence of the Lambs a horror movie which used real life archetypes for the villains. Trauma reignited just like the nobody believes trope can create a lot of sympathy for the main character. I also think its resonant because people who look back on horrifying experiences in their own lives will wish they paid more attention to early signs or their gut instincts. Anyway, congratulations on perhaps your most ambitious ranking yet. It was fun all the way through.

My least favorite trope is seeing animals, usually a beloved pet, get killed. I hate seeing animals die in films.

as someone who doesnt love T+A in horror i fully respect you for owning you like it because youre a typical man. thank you so much for not trying to make an excuse or pretend its important to the narrative. you like it because you like it and even though i disagree i respect the honesty so much. i subbed immediately

I really want you to do more of this ! It’s freaking awesome

I've been watching your content for years. Thank you so much for your simple honesty about T + A! LOL

YOOO i love your ranking videos!

Oh man can’t wait for this one

I don't mind dumb characters, but you need to establish that a character is actually dumb. If they are established to be a normal intelligence there is no excuse that they make constant dumb decisions.

47:55 I don’t know if this counts since it technically wasn’t in the mirror but I like the scene in Candyman when Helen was in the medicine cabinet and you think he’s gonna appear in the mirror but his hook just rips through the actual cabinet.

9:09 I'm the same way 😅 my best friend tells me every time "dude just walk in you're like my brother" and I'm just like......nah imma knock and let you know I'm here

every scream movie the killer takes off mask and loses all strength speed , durability

This might be the best tier list yet. Great idea. Tropes and horror tropes in particular, are something we horror fans can debate for years. Great video.

The ‘Black Guy Always Dies’ segment had me rolling haha. I think one of the only times I’ve ever actually noticed it since the 90s was Rob Zombies Halloween 2 with Octavia Spencer’s character. Doesn’t bother me at all, but I think it’s worth pointing out an example of it being used unironically post-Scream. Also, an it’s all a dream ending that was awesome was the original Jacobs Ladder. Maybe stretching the definition of ‘dream’ a bit, but it is all a final nightmare that he’s having on his death bed. That was an awesome ending.

In I Know What You Did Last Summer, it was explained in the sequel that Julie had been having nightmares of Ben Willis still coming after her. The opening scene was her in a church confession booth confessing what happened in the first movie and it was Ben Willis she was talking to. So... that actually falls into the "it was all a dream" trope LOL! So, I assume it was the same at the end of the sequel. Just another dream.

My favorite good jumpscare is the lawnmower kill from Sinister

Fallen is an excellent example of a possession film that has a original style in the portrayal of that demon

Rodger in Night of the Demons(1988) walks out to the end.

The call is coming from inside the house works well for older movies.

It is the vampirism (not politeness) in Cody that prevents him from entering a family member’s home without permission.

You're the Best Cody! Loving These Tier Lists Man! 🤘🤟🤟

Great video Cody . Thanks man