Blogtober Day 20: Things About Horror That Don't Make Sense

Horror has a lot of tropes, and like any trope, how effective or "good" it is, depends on how well its implemented. Some tropes though, they make no sense. I read it, or I watch it happen, and I wonder why this trope exists. Or I convince myself this must take place in an alternate dimension where no one has common sense. Today, I'd like to talk about some things in horror that just don't make sense.

Why Would You Buy This House?

This shows up a lot in movies or books that involved haunted houses. A new family moves into the house and weird things start happening. And, they don't notice. Or they find a way to justify how all of the freaky, supernatural stuff isn't ghosts or demons or the like. Now, that's a staple of the genre, and I love a good haunted house.

What annoys me are the people who know the house's history and move in anyway. They know some lady drowned all of her kids in this house, or that a man sacrificed his entire family to Satan, but they move in anyway, because it has a lovely kitchen backsplash or something. And they don't move away, although occasionally, this aspect is explained in the text/film.

The Buddy-System is for Kindergarten

Now, I know, this one pops up a lot. Why would you split up to search the house? Why wouldn't everyone stick together as they try to escape the chainsaw-wielding maniac? Slasher movies can't be slashers if no one's getting slashed, and that happens easiest when people split up. What I don't understand is when this trend is called out, in the film, show or movie, but they do it anyway. A character specifically mentions how splitting up, in a horror movie, is a bad idea, but it ends up happening anyway.

It's the Book Written on Human Skin

First of all, how did someone even make a book out of human skin? Second, why would anyone go anywhere near it? How did you not notice the "ink" is actually blood. It's one thing for a cursed doll to be behind every death, its another when the whole plot could be avoided by staying away from the item clearly created by a serial kill and/or Satan worshipper.

The Tone-Deaf Depiction of Mental Illness

I'm just going to come out and say it. Why are people with mental illness always the bad guys? You can have a homicidal murderer without needing to make them schizophrenic, or bipolar, or have dissociative identity disorder. The villain can be the villain without needing to give a reason "why" to make the reader or audience feel better. Even if that explanation is a must, mental illness isn't always the answer. You do realize the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violent crimes rather than the perpetrators, right?

Those are a few things about horror that don't make any sense to me. What aspects of horror don't make sense to you?