A different take – This movie takes a different approach to something, sometimes even changing the tone of the whole movie into something unexpected.

Aliens – One or more aliens are involved.

Animal death – At least one animal dies in this movie.

Anthology – An anthology of short films.

Babysitter – Someone’s babysitting someone, posssibly with bad results.

Bad parents – There is some bad parenting in this movie.

Bad place – It could be a house, it could be the woods – but something about this place corrupts and/or kills.

Bechdel test – This movie passes the Bechdel test –  it has at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man.

Bugs – Bugs show up in a significant way at some point.

Camping – Characters are camping, and it probably doesn’t go well.

Cannibalism – Eating people happens, or is implied.

Child death – A child or children die.

Chocolatier’s choice – My personal favourites and/or recommendations.

Claustrophobia – Someone gets trapped or has to work their way through a very tight space.

Clowns – At least one clown shows up.

Comedy – This movie is intentionally funny.

Creature feature – The menace is a creature of some sort, probably an oversized one.

Creepy child – A disturbing child makes an appearance.

Creepy doll – A disturbing doll makes an appearance.

Curse – Someone, or something, is or gets cursed.

Dark and stormy night – There’s some conveniently timed rain.

Demon – One or more demons are involved.

Disabled character – One or more characters have a disability.

Drowning – Someone drowns, potentially to death.

Final girl – There’s one girl left standing by the end of the movie.

Fire – There’s a fire, and someone may die.

Franchise – This movie is part of a franchise.

Ghost – One or more ghosts are involved.

Haunted – This place is haunted.

Icon of Horror – A character who’s a big deal in the horror genre.

Holiday – This movie takes place during a major holiday.

Jump scare – There’s at least one jump scare.

Keep it in the family – The family that slays together, stays together. This family is evil, or at the least, covers up for someone who is.

Let’s take a shortcut – Someone thinks taking a shortcut is a good idea.

Masked killer – Someone is running around in a mask and killing people.

Merciless – No matter what you do to appease this killer, they will not stop.

Mutants – One or more mutants are involved.

Non-supernatural twist – There’s a mundane explanation for what’s been going down.

Old ones – One or more old ones are involved.

Ours are different – The monsters in this movie differ from the classic take.

Parental issues – One or more characters have serious mommy/daddy issues.

Parent death – A parent dies.

People are monsters – The killer isn’t some supernatural creature……just a person.

Phone call – There’s a phone call that leads to some very bad things

Pop culture reference – This movie has been referenced in books, comics, tv shows or other movies in a significant way. You might know quite a lot about this movie already before ever seeing it.

Rape – Rape happens, is implied, or is brought up.

Read the book – This was based on a book.

Read the comic – This was based on a comic.

Religious themes – Religion is involved in some way.

Rot away – Someone is literally rotting away.

Seclusion – The majority of the movie takes place in an isolated location.

Self-harm – Someone self-harms.

Sex is bad – if someone has sex, they’re probably going to die.

Shakey-cam – Use of shakey-cam.

Starvation – Starvation comes up, someone might die from it.

Stephen King – This is based on one of Stephen King’s works.

Suicide – Someone commits suicide.

Teenagers – This movie is full of teenagers. Usually as victims.

Watch the show – This was based on or inspired a tv show.

What’s real? – Something might be hallucinated, or imagined, and you might never know just what is real.

You shouldn’t have touched that – Someone touched something they should have left alone.

Zombies – One or more zombies are involved.