Horror is a genre I dislike both in movies and video games. It is not because I am scared of them, it’s because of the fact that most of them, if not all, are willing to sacrifice plot logic and continuity just to elicit an emotional response that is fright.

What am I talking about? Here are some examples:

Being chased by a monster, the protagonist gets inside her car and tries to make it start. But even after trying many times, the engine just chokes and refuses to start. Slowly the monster makes his way towards the car and eventually reaches the driver’s door. The camera then pans back to the protagonist as she curses and continues to try. Just before the monster gets to her, the car immediately starts and then she drives away.

This has been done lots of times on horror movies that it has become quite a cliche. Here’s another example that boggles the mind.

A serial killer is on the loose and it’s out to get the protagonist. Being careful, she locks all the doors. Every entrance conceivable  is covered to a point that it is impassable. But even with all the measures that the protagonist took, the serial killer just suddenly appears behind her without so much of an explanation of how it managed to.

Of course this would be possible if the serial killer possessed the power to go through walls, but there are scenes when you will see that same killer banging on a door to get inside a room.

Here’s another thought: Why don’t they just kill the protagonist and get things over with!?

A particular protagonist starts to lose her mind when a demon starts haunting her wherever she goes. She tries to fight back but the demon is always unmoved. The demon knocks her out, inflicts pain upon her both physically and mentally, but the torture continues.

This usually goes on for the whole duration of the movie. If the demon wanted to kill the protagonist, or in her case, drag her to hell, why not just do it at the very beginning as soon as they meet. Hurry! Her back’s turned towards you, kill her now and save us the time from wasting another hour of the same thing over and over!

You may argue that since such movies involves the paranormal, anything could happen that is beyond logic. That may be true, but I believe that these paranormal beings may also have their own limitations, their own restrictions. In short, if ever such things exist in the real world, I bet that they won’t be anything like what you see in movies.

If by bending reality, and having plotholes is the current state of the horror genre and it will continue to grow as it is. Then there’s no future for it. Now that’s frightening.

Hates stupid movies ~ Pol