Loading...
Loading...

Traditional big wireless carriers love to find sneaky ways to keep your money.
Years of high bills and bogus fees stack up big time in the long run.
That's why when Mint Mobile offered to let one of us on team dead meat try them out,
Zorin stayed switched over to Mint Mobile and he loves it.
He says the digital transfer was super easy, it's half the price of his previous carrier,
and with it all paid for for the year, there's no monthly charges to worry about.
Stop paying way too much for wireless just because that's how it's always been.
Mint Mobile exists purely to fix that. They offer premium wireless plans starting at 15 bucks a month.
All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's
largest 5G network. Keep your phone and number, activate eSIM,
and minutes and start saving immediately.
If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you.
Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash dead meat. That's mintmobile.com slash dead meat.
Up front payment of $45 for three months,
five gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month.
New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available.
Taxes and fees extra, see Mint Mobile for details.
New spring arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now.
Get ready to save big with up to 60% off Ragnbonne,
Martha Jacobs, free people, and more.
How did I not know Rack as a deed?
Because there's always something new.
Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more.
Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free.
Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack.
Score more with the college branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash.
Got paid back? With the Venmo debit card, you can infinitely access your balance and spend on
what you want, like game day snacks, gear, tickets, and more. The more you do, the more cash back you
can earn. Plus, there's no monthly fear minimum balance. Sign up now at Venmo.com slash college
card. The Venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank NA, select schools available,
Venmo Stash Terms, and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms. Max $100 cash back per month.
What do you think? I think we're dead meat. Real dead meat.
Go ahead and lift. If I have a final request, it's dead meat. Welcome to the Dead Meat Podcast,
your horse, safe haven. I'm Chelsea. I'm James and Brussels over there laughing.
It's Molly. She's so happy. She loves podcast days. Yeah. We're married and we like to get
scared together and do March Madness brackets. That's not the music for March Madness. No,
that was like brutalist. That was almost. I know what you were trying to do. It's a statue of liberty
upside down. I don't think you can do the March Madness music. We'll get sued. I think you will
get sued. That's probably the very copyrighted thing. Anyway, it's March Madness where it doesn't
really have anything to do with sports. It's just a bracket. I'm wearing a Michigan shirt. I
don't even know fucking Michigan still in it. They are number one seed in the favorite. Oh, really?
Oh, go blue. Favorite for many. I should go change. Too late. Too late. Too late. Good for us.
Yeah. Good for us. I did not know that until this minute because I don't really follow sports.
We just all went to school there. Anyway, it's good school. We got a bracket this year.
Last year we did, I believe, worst friend. Worst best friends?
We've done worst friend and worst boyfriend slash husband. And then we've also done your class
that kind of who would be who in a fight. This year, we're not going to do a bracket with people
in it. I'm changed it up a little bit. We're going to get abstract. We're moving into year 10
of dead meat, year nine of the podcast. We figured your brains are big into this point, big enough for
abstract concepts. Abstract concepts. So this year, we're going to do the worst or most overused,
or basically the horror cliches that we are the most tired of or that we like the least.
Oh, so, okay. So the winner will be the horror trope that we like the least. That's the worst.
Yes. This is a battle. This is a race to the bottom. Got it. Yes. As so many things are these days.
Worst, horror cliches. And I've assembled a list of, I think it's a good balance of ones that I
personally dislike, ones that I like, but I know other people dislike. I've tried to be fair.
Fair and balanced. I've tried to be real fox news about it. I loved that TV tropes was helpful.
Researcher Bella was extremely awful. She had a whole list of tropes ready to go along with
examples of movies that these happen in. And I kind of went off on my own researching journey.
And basically just picked examples from my own brain that I remember discussing on the podcast.
Because some of these hard to search can't really search when it's an abstract thing. Like,
person, what do you say? It was like person saying hello into the, I had to get rid of that one.
Okay. Because you cannot Google search sucks now. It's sure. As we have said,
many times on this podcast, I don't think if I had started it now, I think the early research
episodes would have totally floundered. Wow. Because Google search is just such ass now. Like,
I was trying to search for the specific trope of like someone walking into a room and saying,
hello, you know, and everyone hates that. It's silly. And all that comes up now, and maybe this
is less a Google search thing and more just an everyone using the internet thing and trying to farm
likes. All that comes up is the same meme copy pasted on Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, where it's
when the girl in the horror movie walks into a room and says, hello, like she expects the killer
to be in the kitchen. Like, hey, I'm here. You want a sandwich? It's the same like that specifically.
Yes. It is that over and over and over and over again. There are, I can't find, you can find
any examples unless you wade through five pages of that being reposted with like three of the
crying emojis. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It sucks, man. Anyway, I had to get rid of that one. So that's
not on here. Okay. But we have a lot of other real winners here. It could be. Did you seed them?
Yes, I did. Okay. I seeded them properly this year. At least as properly as I could, it's
really subjective. No, subjective, but I tried to seed them where I think I picked ones where
there are ones that people pretty universally complain about or ones that I pretty consistently
saw pop up on like worst horror movie tropes lists over and over again and towards the bottom are
ones that like personally, I just think are annoyed. Okay. Well, let's get let's get started.
Let's get into it because I know like the early rounds at least always take forever because we got
to discuss. Yes. And it gets faster as it goes along. It is a sweet 16. Not a full 32 because that
would take forever. Have we ever done a full 32? No, God. Oh, yeah. Okay. That would take way too.
32 matches 64 contestants. Yes. Yes. Oh, why sweet 16 is when it's eight matches. Yes. So
terminology. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Our first match up are number one seed. And I think this is everyone's least favorite or
at least the one that people I think are the most tired of. Tripping on nothing. Huh?
Tripping on nothing. No. Okay. I'll give you one more guess. Gressels, you have a guess? I don't
for number one overall seed. I want to say cell phone not working, but I don't think it's that.
It's got to be not double tapping the killer. All right. I'm out. Our number one seed, in my opinion,
the crazy person. No one believes. Oh, that's a good one. Okay. Yes. Now does this mean? Crazy
and quotes there. Okay. That was my next question. Is this like the gas station harbinger or is this
the lead character? This is the yes. This is the lead character. One believes them. Yeah. Or it takes
forever for everyone else to get on board. Yeah. Let me see. We've got good examples of this.
So like like the twilight zone plane. That's a good example. That's adrenaline on the wings. Sure.
That's shattered. Terror at 30,000 feet. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think just all
of final destinations. A good example of this. I don't know if I would count this because that series
kind of falls apart if everyone believes the person. Yeah. No, I think this this would be more
so where it's like it's it's reasonable to believe. I don't know. It's tough because a lot of the times
the thing being said and not believed wouldn't I wouldn't believe it, you know, in a real world.
You'd be the horror movie. I'd be the horror movie. If I was saying look, our house is haunted.
There's a demon in it. And you would be like honey. It's like I'm getting you 50 150. I mean,
I wouldn't go that far. But you're like, okay, what did you eat before you went to bed?
You have a sleep paralysis team. Yeah. You know, trying to find the the reasonable explanation.
Right. Bella has Marty from cabin in the woods as an example. Okay. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah,
because especially in the beginning when he's like, guys, everything's off like this guy's a scholar
and he's acting like an idiot. That one's tough because they're being drugged. Right. And he is
specifically immune to the effects of the drug. Thanks to the weed that he smokes. It's kind of a
play. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great play as so much in that movie is. Kevin in the woods is a hard one
because it I saw it used as an example, not just in Bella's research, but on like TV tropes and
stuff as an example for a lot of these tropes, but it's a weird one because it's it's acknowledging
it and giving a more rational explanation for why it's occurring. Yeah, it's like commenting on it.
Same with scary movie, where it's a play on a lot of these things. So it doesn't count. I would
argue if it's narratively serving the same purpose that counts, even if the reason it's happening
is kind of meta. If it's narratively serving the same purpose, like at the end of the day, he is
the person that no one is listening to. I mean, what about like orphan with the mom? Yes,
yes, that's a perfect example that there's something wrong with Esther. That's a perfect example.
Are there other examples that we have here? No, those are the examples that I have. Yeah, I feel
it's a great example. Yeah, I mean, the only thing that I think could break it is if we focus on
how most of the time there's a reason for them not to be believed because like even in orphan,
she has a history with alcoholism and so it's like they use that to cast out on her and you know,
it's obviously the whole point of it is the back and forth of like, should you believe them or not?
Rosemary's baby. Yes. I think fundamentally a lot of horror movies just kind of fall apart
without this trope and become a lot less interesting. So okay, and it's going up against
not calling a creature what it is. And on TV tropes, this is listed as not using the z-word. So,
for example, in 28 days later, that series they call them the infected deadites instead of zombies.
Although, I guess, deadites are kind of on the zest. Deadites are possessed by a candorian demon.
In the movie The Hunger, the David Bowie, Susan Sarandon film, they never use the term vampire.
Okay. In leprechaun, foreign space, he's never called the vampire as we discuss on our we hate
movies. Yeah, what is it? He's like the creature. Yeah, they kind of assume he's an alien. And the
alien, yeah, I think they just call him an alien. Yeah. Oh, weirdly, night of the living dead 68 kind of
counts retroactively, but it's weird because zombies back then in the late 60s meant something
completely different. There's a Haitian. Yes, they were mind-controlled. Yes, ghouls. Yeah,
and they're living dead. They're called ghouls because zombies back then were associated with like
voodoo and it was you were you were the subject of mind control by someone else. The original
Romero trilogy, the word zombie is only used once in dawn of the dead by Ken Faray. He's like,
there's gonna be a thousand zombies in here. Yes, and wreck it's a virus and not zombies as well.
So mostly zombies. Zombies, yeah, that's why the trope itself is called not easy. Yeah. But vampires,
I think, is a second place is like the runner up firm. Okay. Which of those two do you think
is worse? I don't find either of these two particularly bothers. Not bothered by either of them,
honestly. Yeah. Yeah. But I think like, especially with the examples we're using here,
with the zombie ones, with the like those, you know, there is a difference between an infected
zoomer or whatever. I don't know. The rage-filled virus or like, there's a difference,
and I think that that counts for something. So I guess the person not being believed is the worst
trope. Yeah. I'll vote for that one too, just based on the kind of vocal opposition against it,
even though I do think it really has its place. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious as to what it'll face next
because I could see us getting rid of it. I think so too. Next up, we have the trope of everyone
splitting up. Oh, that's a rough one. Yeah. Because there's often not a good reason to do it. There's
barely ever a good reason for this. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, to the point where that is parodied and
screen scary movie, it's one that universally drives people crazy because why would you do that?
Yeah. Because this one is much harder to justify because what are the benefits of splitting up,
covering more ground, I guess? So it has to be a non-dangerous situation where the trade-off is
worth it. But in most cases, I would say people have already died in these films. And so we're
going to split up for whatever reason and lessen our chance of surviving as a group, you know,
safety and numbers. It really is hard to justify. What examples do we got here?
Funnily enough, Captain of the Woods is an example, but it's a meta thing where the
drugs get them to think they should split up. Yeah. Because their instinct is to stick together,
but they are forced to split apart. Marty's the only one who is confused by this scary movie.
Two makes fun of this. And the thing, this happens the thing. It is kind of weird. They would all
split up. That's like the worst one to do. It kind of is the worst situation to do that in when
the whole mechanic of the alien is it can take over people and copy them. Why would you not all
stick together at all times? Yeah. But if you do that, you don't really have a movie.
True. Yeah. If you're all just walking around as a clump of people back-to-back knives out,
it was like Abad's horror movie from community where he's like, no, Britain, I will just stand
there back-to-back throughout the whole night and stay alert. I mean, this is a very frustrating
one to watch because it's the type that really gets you yelling at the screen of like, why would you
do that? Yeah. Well, it's funny because I always, when I think of, we should all split up. I just
always think of Scooby-Doo as you do. That's every single episode is, let's split up. Yeah. And I
wonder if that's almost where that logic kind of comes from. They split up in bodies, bodies, bodies,
right? I think that's because they're playing that game. Oh, right. Yeah. That one's motivated by
the- Which is a clever way to make that happen. It's not motivated by- It's searching for something.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because the murder, murder happens after they all split up. Yeah. See,
that one's justified. A rare, a rare occasion of that. Yeah. So what's that going up against?
This is okay. People are going to be mad at me for this one. This is one I put on here because I
personally don't like it. And I think people are going to have a problem with it. The killer head tilt.
Oh, okay. It happens a lot. I hate the killer head tilt. In all occasions? Not all occasions.
Halloween did it. And that's great. We reached like Michael Myers. That's, that's real scary.
Pins Bob on the wall. That's the little head tilt. Yes. And he does the head tilt. He admires his
artwork. It's great. What about- Can I interest you in a little bit of Jason Takes Man Hat? And when
Jason swims to the shore turns around, he's a giant billboard with a hockey masked fellow on it
and does a little head tilt as in, oh, hey, that's kind of like me. Well, that's different because
that's the, hey, that kind of looks like me. Okay. But that's- That's not what I'm talking about. I'm
talking about the killer kill someone and it's supposed to be scary that he does the head tilt.
Okay. It's not scary to me because to me, it's just what we're referencing Halloween. It's tough
because Halloween is the one. It did it. It did it. And it, and it, and it, and it's in character for
Michael. Right. To do it. To me, it, it just always, it just always feels like it's an homage to
Halloween, which to be fair, one of my examples is scream. And it, in that case, it could be an
homage. Oh, but those faces always fucking tilt in his head. That's true. Yeah. Well, that's the
problem, I think, with the, with the silent masked killer. Yeah. Is- You gotta have them express
things somehow. Yeah, it's because if you, if you're going for the strong silent type, like a Jason
or a Michael, or I even have hush here, like the hush, the killer does the head tilt. Mm-hmm.
And, and your, your character is not super animated. It only leaves you with so much. Yeah.
And I think it's why you end up in scream. Because scream also, Ghostface has to be able to be
anybody. And it, it leaves you with like only so many for lack of a better word animations
that Ghostface can do. So you've got your head tilt. You've got the wipe, the, the blood off the
knife. You got flossing. Yeah, he can floss. He can hit the gritty. Like, but you can't have so many,
you can't have too many things he does where it looks different. And you're like, oh, I think I
might know who that is. Sure. It has to be generic enough. I don't know. I wrote here that I'm
realizing my, my issue with the, the head tilt and just the kind of generic, almost template of
this strong silent killer is why I love leather face so much. Yeah, because I was going to say
leather face doesn't do this. Because leather face is also a big, masked killer who doesn't really
talk, but he'll make noise though. He does make noise. Like, he, he, he verbalizes, but he,
isn't, he's, you know, he vocalizes. Yeah, he vocalizes, but he's, he's grouped in with the same
like big boy killers, but he's so animated. And he's got so much personality. Yeah, and he wears
his emotion so outwardly. And he gets to do so much that he doesn't rely on the same two,
three kind of stock gestures. I don't know. People may be, I don't know, I think,
a disagreement here, but I agree that like I don't want to see silent killers tilt their heads
too much because it's, it's overdone a lot. But splitting up is just, I think the more
egregious thing that'll make, you know, you know, that will take someone out of a movie more
than a head tilt. A head tilt might be like a eye roll or a groan. People splitting up,
risks falling into the territory of like this movie's bad because the writing's bad and the
characters aren't acting like real people would. I think that's fair. I think it's more maybe inside
baseball being annoyed by the head tilt versus a more general audience. If you're seeing something
opening weekend and the characters say to split up audible groans in the theater. Absolutely.
For sure. All right. Let's split up is moving on to the next round. Next up, we've got the mirror
jump scare. Ah, usually in a bathroom cabinet mirror. It's always the bathroom cabinet because
they like have it open. Yeah. And then when you close it, there's someone behind you. I always think
of a bathroom cabinet. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty much always that. I think it's that in American
werewolf where he sees his friend pop up behind him. Let me look at my other examples. I love
the way Radio Silence plays against it and scream five with Dylan Manette's character. There's
that whole long sequence of them being like because it's also like the fridge door. You know,
it's it's basically the same scare where you have the fridge door open and then if you close it,
there's a killer right there. And they do all those scares setting it up and then not having
the scare happen. And then right as you start to get your guard down, they hit you with it.
What's interesting is for as often as I found examples of mirror jump scares and horror movies,
there are just as many examples of fake outs like in scream five. Yeah. There are so many
fake outs. I think because the mirror scare is so ubiquitous, there are so many horror movies
that do the fake out because that setup just is so anxiety inducing. And it's just part of the
language now. You know, everyone, no matter how many horror movies you watch, you just know at
this point that if someone's looking at a bathroom mirror, you are expecting the scare to happen. So
at this point, it's almost yeah, like you say, the cliche is to not have the scare. Yeah.
Good examples of the mirror scare. Black Swan is like all mirror scares. She's looking
into lots of mirrors. There's actually one that's not a bathroom one in psycho. The original psycho,
when the sister is looking around the house at the end and she turns around and she sees
herself in the mirror and gets scared. Yeah, so yeah. Jason loves a good mirror scare. There's like a
I feel like a bunch of Friday movies where he's creeping up on people in mirrors. It chapter two,
it grown up Henry Bowers attacks Eddie in the bathroom. Oh yeah, it stabs him in the face. Yep.
Nightmare on Elm Street in Freddy's dead Tracy is in the bathroom. She looks up and when she looks
up, she sees in the reflection that the room's changed in her old home where her abusive father
is waiting for her. And in Freddy versus Jason in Mark's Nightmare, he's getting pills.
So you'll help him stay awake and he closes the cabinet and brother in the tub, right? His
reflections replace my Freddy. Oh, okay. Yeah, happens twice in orphan. We got orphan again.
First time Kate visits the medicine cabinet. It's always it kind of it's always a medicine cabinet.
She closes the door to find nothing, but then the second time she goes to the medicine cabinet
and she closes the door. It's a peter scar scar. No, sorry. I always made it. Sars. Sars.
Sars got a thank you. Yeah, it's a peter. Sars guard jump scare. He's standing behind her.
It's her husband to clarify. It's not just like actor Peter Sars guard as himself in her house.
Paranormal activity three when the two sisters bring the camera into the bathroom to do bloody
marry. There's a jump scare where the sister turns on the flashlight and she screams to scare the
younger sister and then they run out of the bathroom and they don't notice the there's like a silhouette
in the mirror. Yeah. So it's like not even quite a jump scare, but it's just like a scare using the
mirror. Yeah. Yeah, which is really fun. So mirrors a lot of I mean, Oculus is like a whole damn
movie about the mirror. Holder guys three. Lot of mirrors in that. That one scared me so much as a
kid that and I've probably told this before. I had a mirror on my closet door in my bedroom as a
kid and then after pulled three guys three, I got so scared that I like kicked the closet door
until the mirror broke and fell. Mirrors are running scary. There's scary. They've been
scaring humans since we invented them. I feel I feel like our own reflections have scared us.
I mean, candy man. Yeah, entirely around a mirror. Yeah, but I guess like for this specifically,
it's like not just mirrors and horror. No, it's like the setup of nothing's behind me and then
something changes. Something's behind me. Got it. This is going up against the creepy gas station
attendance. Wow, the harbinger, our old friend. The harbinger, which I don't think I think the
era of the creepy gas that's long past, right? As far as occupationally. Yeah, I feel like I feel like
he kind of withered away in the 2000s. Once we got the era of quote unquote elevated horror,
I think the gas station attendant kind of saw the end of his heyday. You know, Google Maps
played a role. Yeah, because you're like pulling over to get directions. I think that character
trope has simply changed occupation, like I said. I just associated it with like a wrong,
like wrong turn style kind of movie. There's wrong, but I mean, even even going back to crazy
Ralph. Yeah, he's like a harbinger because what specifically did you write on? Is it gas station
specifically? Yes, gas station. Okay, so it's a chainsaw mask. Yeah, Texas chainsaw masker.
Yeah, like you said, wrong turn. It happened. Does crazy Ralph work at the gas station?
No, he's not employable. That's what I'm saying is I don't think he's a gas station attendant.
No, but he's still a harbinger. Okay. Yeah. So there's a difference. That's why. That's why
I asked because harbinger of doom. Again, occupationally, he shows up in a lot of different ways
still to this day. Okay, so we need to make a decision here. Is this creepy gas station attendant
or re broadening this to be harbinger? Because sometimes creepy gas station attendant is even a
harbinger. Well, like in Tucker and Dale. Yeah, I mean, that's a parody. Yeah, yeah, but they might
just be like in on it, maybe as opposed to a Texas chainsaw. Yeah, as opposed to like someone
trying to warn the protagonists about what's happening or and again, as always with these
cabin in the woods has a great play on it with the cabin in the woods is on here. Is that his name?
I don't know, I don't know his name, but yeah, so the only person to take his job seriously.
Yeah, cuz fucking Bradley Whitford's like like mocking him on the phone. I've got the hills
have eyes on here too. Oh, yeah, cuz that guy, he tells the family like don't go out there,
like just turn around, get out of here and that guy gets killed too. Yeah, I guess it's up to you.
What do you want to do? Keep it specifically to gas station or broaden it out.
You know what, I'm gonna say let's broaden it to give it a fighting chance against mirror jumps
scare because let's let's make it a little bit more because I'm trying to think of like some of
the more recent iterations of the harbinger does look he's staying feeling get out.
Or no, maybe not because he's already at the location and he's like a victim to yeah,
this is usually someone who's removed who like knows something that's going on.
Um, kind of, I don't know, like, uh, you know, James Urbaniac and Grind,
it's a great example that everyone is seeing. It's a great example.
Yeah, fuck, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I know that I reference them
plenty of kill counts, uh, whenever they pop up, just regardless of their occupation.
In any case, I think I'm gonna go with mirror jumpscare as the worst. Yeah, because it's,
as we said, becomes so cliche that it's also a cliche to not do it.
So you're kind of putting a corner with like, do you feel manipulated by it if it shows up a little
bit like if someone goes into the bathroom and is at a cabinet or you just like,
how do you do it? You see it coming, you know, and it has to be done really well in order to
pay off with everyone expecting it. So I feel like it's the more difficult one to,
because Harbinger, listen, you need that in the story sometimes. You need that
exposition and it can be like a good opportunity for a character actor or like someone
to have fun with that role. Mirror jump scare is just like, okay, we know what's happening.
Okay. Yeah. I know that we have been coming to consensus on these so far.
Gressel is our tiebreaker if we can't. Gressel is the tiebreaker. If we can't figure it out.
I'm with you on this one though. I think that you can see the brush strokes with the mirror
jump scare. And the Harbinger is just like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like,
a hero's journey stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's just the, it's just part of the language.
Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could think of a good example of a more modern Harbinger of doom.
Yeah. I reference him all the time and kill counts, but my brain's not working.
Okay. Next up, this is one of my least favorite tropes of all time. I fucking hate this.
We need to retire it ASAP. Shining. What? Shining. No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not on
here. The shining act swings not on here. No, it's not on here, but it should be on here.
It should definitely be on. Number one over. Yes. That's very specific to the, I don't know if I
would call that a trope necessarily referencing the shining. Someone someone's behind a door.
Their face is up against it. And then in the foreground of a blade of some sort gets through it.
Yeah. And if, if they do the camera movement following the axe, oh, from the other side,
I'm getting, that's when I'm getting extra pissed. And then of course, it is, it is way over the top
when you then have the shot of the person sticking your face in the hole. I hate it. I hate it so
much. We, like, stop it. Fucking stop it. There was a year where I swear to God, like four movies
did it. Chelsea's just Michael Jordan. Stop it. Get it. Stop it. Get some help. I, okay, I'm glad
it's not on here because I'll just be sitting here getting pissed. I'm gonna, yeah, okay.
No, this is another one that I hate and should be made illegal.
Creepy crayon drawings. Oh, you do hate this. I hate creepy crayon drawings. They are never
scary ever. Creepy kid drawings. I just, I don't like, there's only a couple times where I've
ever found them scary. I just think it just always looks like an adult drawing. Like kids drawings
look so specific. And I feel like creepy kid drawings look like people have made them who have
fine motor control that is way beyond the development of like a five year old or however old the
character is supposed to be. And it's just like not scary to me. The only times I've found it creepy
are like the ring because it's not, um, I think in that movie, it's not like stick figure drawings.
I hate when it's like, mommy, I drew this of us and it's like stick figure of like the mom
getting stabbed or whatever. No, it's like stick figure family and then like tall,
monster next to them. And they're like, who's that? My friend. My friend feeble glues.
Oh, yeah. It's like that. I hate that shit. I think in the ring, it's just like black like circles.
I'm like, that's creepy. It's just other examples of times where it doesn't work. Let me see. Yeah,
sorry. I'm just rambling with my own examples because I genuinely hate it so fucking much.
Children of the corn, the ring, insidious. There's a lot of that in mama.
Okay. Yeah. I just, it's just never scary to me. Yeah. But you're so right. The, the like,
who's this in the picture? Oh, it's my friend. Yeah. He doesn't like you. It's just not, I don't know.
Okay. Creepy crayon drawings are going up against this is, this is a trope that I kind of
am defining on my own. This is not like a TV trope's page. This is not something that was on
Bella's list. This is something I just kind of like came up with that I think should be its own
trope. And that is saggy boobs are scary. Oh, well, old naked women are scary. It's a more
specific subset of old women are scary. Like old tall. This is specifically long pendulous boobs.
So mama X, X, uh, wreck. I believe wreck. Yeah. For sure. It chapter two. It chapter two. Yep.
The shining. Oh, yeah. Yes. One of the originals. The visit. Nana's walking around naked at night.
Oh, yeah. Wait. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. She's, I mean, at least for the back.
From the back. She's looking pretty good. Yeah. Barbarian. Barbarian for sure. Yep.
Arguably the substance at the end. We've got a big long saggy boob. And, and I think in some
cases, it fits like with substance. Oh, the substance and X. X is my favorite of that trilogy because
of the way that it discusses women's bodies and aging and the fear of aging and sex and no,
I love X. Again, a lot of these tropes. You're not saying it's bad. No, no, no, no. It's,
I have like such a complicated relationship with a lot of these because for most of these tropes,
I have very good movies listed as examples. And there's going to be movies that use these well
and movies that don't use these well or use these in a way that feels flippin or, you know,
not well thought out or maybe just surface level. Yeah, like easy. Yeah, easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What else do I have? Oh, the witch. We see her really briefly, but when the, we kind of see
that shot of the where she's like grinding up the baby and she's rubbing it on herself.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I forget if we see her boobs, but maybe we see some side boob, I forget.
But that's my, my newly defined, that's my contribution to,
that's a good one. Humanity that happens a lot. Saggy boobs are scary,
stamp it, put it on TV tropes. So there it is. I just, it's a visual that I, and I think we
talked about it in, we might have talked about it in our Barbarian episode and I forget what
else, but I think I mentioned like starting to get sick of it because it's starting to become
a visual that I'm tired of. Yeah. Because it's starting to feel like it's an easy shock of
value thing versus something that holds kind of visual weight and feels genuinely interesting
to me and feels like it's saying something. I don't know. So what's worse? Saggy boobs or children's
drawings? Children's drawings. Really? Yeah. The saggy boobs thing, I think, at least we're horrors
at now. When I look at this list of movies, most of them still, whether it's Barbarian, even if I
did say like, look, I'm getting tired of this. Barbarians still, we're saying something.
St thematically. Yeah. We're saying. Doesn't smile also. The first smile at the end when it turns
into her mom and she's running at her. Oh, does it? That might be doing it too. Yeah. So it's,
it might be imagery that I'm getting tired of, but it's there for a thematic. I don't know.
Some of these cases. Yes. And in the cases where it is are really good movies. Yes. It just
annoys me fucking less than the shitty stick figures. All right. I'll go. I'll go shitty kid drawings.
Yeah. Those are pretty equal to me, but I agree with your reasoning. Yeah. And in most cases,
if there's like makeup or anything done, like the substance, that's how you boob was like a
cool effects piece. Oh, sure. There's more artistry. I'm drawing to kids drawing. Okay.
I just have a list of kill counts here to help try to spark any memories of these specific tropes
in films that I've covered. So if you see me looking down at my phone, that's what I'm doing.
Next up, we've got a classic. This is another one that I think people pretty universally hate
or are sick of. Do you want to take another guess? No. Any other guesses? No.
It's the cat jump scare class. It's the cat coming out of fucking nowhere for some reason, which
may be jumping onto a trash can. Yeah. In a window. Yeah. Real real recent example of this on
a kill count with stepfather two. Very cheap scene with, um, uh, from Texas Chainsaw
mask or two. What's her name? Stretch. Oh, Caroline Williams.
Caroline Williams in a scene that they had to reshoot. Uh, yeah, horrible. When I saw it,
I just was like, oh, this is bad. It's just, it's the worst kind of jump scare. It's the kind
that people say, think of when they say they hate jump scares. Yes. Because they're cheap. And
there's no, it's not like a good reason in universe for it to occur other than to scare a person
watching the movie of it. I would say arguably when people think of jump scares. This is what they
think of. Yeah. Is the cat. Yeah. I think it's this or the mirror. Yeah. Yeah. But like even with the
mirror, it's often a killer behind the person or when it's not the killer, it's usually a person
who is very anxious or scared about the things going around. So they're on edge and so they
close the mirror and we've all been there. You know, we'll turn around and you'll be in the room
and I didn't know and I'll get scared. So like, even that has more of an in-universe justification
for it occurring as opposed to, oh, the director threw a cat at the actor because we needed a little
scare for the audience in particular, the movie watching audience in this moment.
Is it true that in Friday the 13th, part two, you can see the technician throwing a cat through
the window? Uh, I don't know. That's what it says. Through what window? Would that be Alice's
window in the beginning? Uh, I don't have the specific scene listed, but I think I saw this on
TV tropes and I was like, I have never heard this before. I mean, I've covered those movies a lot
and I don't remember that little fun fact. I would not be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised.
I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised at all. This is another one where a lot of the
of my examples here, I have got like a handful of of movies. The cat jump scare. It's got a whole
fucking list. We got Alien. You got a Jonesy jump scare. That one I don't mind as much because
Jonesy's kind of an established character. Yeah, it's not some random cat in an alley, huh? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. Amityville Horror, we've got a random ass cat that shows up, darkness falls,
there's a cat that jumps onto the hood of a car. Oh, yeah. I remember complaining about that one
when we talked about that. Yeah. Demon Knight. There's Jerry Lynn has a cat that shows up a couple
times and scares people. Yeah, Friday the 13th few, I think like most of the movies have a random cat
scare, which usually is then followed by a Jason scare. It's like a double, you know, it's a fake
out. Halloween 2, there's a security guard. I'm guessing at the hospital. Oh, yeah, it's at the
hospital. He gets scared by a cat. And then he he sighs and relief. And then of course, Michael
shows up. Yeah, it's there's a lot. What's this going up against? This is going up against a one
that I also very much dislike. I just know like cat jump scare is a heavy hitter. It is. But I'm
going to make an argument for this next one because it's one where I'm like, listen, I know we all
hate the cat jump scare. But I'm going to argue that this other one is just not scary. And maybe we
can we can pump the brakes on it a little bit. And that's messages written in blood on the wall.
Oh, man, this is why you're asking about how razor 2. I was asking about how razor 2 because I
couldn't remember which razor movie this happens in. I knew it was 2. Yeah, I'm in hell help me,
which is that's pretty scary. So that one is a scary. I'll give you that. That one's a
fucking scary one because that message is scary. And the implication of it's fucking scary. That's
a good one. And I'm that's what I'm saying. I mean, how razor 2 is a good movie. I'm just saying
I like I said before it. There's list. There's there's good examples of these and there's bad
examples of these. That's a very good example. You've got your next you got your next written on
the wall. I just rewatch triangle. Oh, there's blood message. Blood message. It's like meet me in
the theater or whatever. Aren't you glad I didn't turn on the light from urban legend? That's a good
one. Aren't what's your favorite scary movie from screen 4? The Trick or Treat Brian Cox segment.
There's like blood writing all over the wall from Sam. And the boy there's like a blood message
that I think leads her to discover that the boy's a guy loving it. Whoa, spoiler. Spoilers for
the boy. It's a hot guy in the wall. Um, I just like aesthetically, I'm just never like oh,
scared of a blood message. I get it because it does feel like a very easy way to try to establish
that. Like isn't that scary? Like your killers are fucking with you. Yeah. So messed up psychologically
that they'll they're so fucked up. They'll write this message in blood. Yeah, they'll take the
time. I was gonna say they'll take their sweet fucking time to make it look good. And it's all
always the same fun. The free font that we have downloaded for our videos. Yeah, I don't know
on I think cat jump scare. Yeah, it's just so cheesy. As I was reading these examples, I was like
fuck I used like all pretty kick ass examples. Yeah, these can be cool. I don't know of any
cat jump scares or like nice dude. That's true. Yeah, we love Jones. Sure, but is it like nice
dude or is it like I'll love that one slide. Yeah, fair. It's also tough when a movie's that old
where it's like yeah, it wasn't as yeah, yeah, yeah, trite back then.
This week's episode is sponsored by Brooklyn bedding. James and I were long overdue for a new
mattress and we were so happy to have Brooklyn bedding appear in our lives. A mattress is
genuinely an important purchase and we have noticed such a difference in the time we've had our
new one. We got the Spartan model which promotes active recovery during sleep and I've already noticed
less tossing and turning in the night along with feeling nice and cool. I sleep really warm and I
have to have the air conditioning on most nights to get any sleep. It's an absolute curse. Brooklyn
bedding uses glaciotex covers, copper infused foams and thermos regulation coated foams to keep
you cool and comfortable all night long. And maybe you're the complete opposite of me. You're a
stomach sleeper and you need a really soft mattress. They offer mattresses for everybody,
every sleep style, even in hard-defined sizes. Fellow California kings, they've got you covered.
Go to Brooklynbedding.com and use our promo code DeadMeat.et checkout to get 30% off-site wide.
This offer is not available anywhere else. That's Brooklynbedding.com and promo code DeadMeat
for 30% off-site wide. Support our show and let them know we send you after checkout.
Brooklynbedding.com promo code DeadMeat. This week's episode is sponsored by NutraFull.
We see more pictures and videos of ourselves than ever and there's so much pressure to look perfect.
We used to just feel the pressure for perfect hair from shampoo commercials but now it's
every time we open our phones. And I'm on camera all the time. I changed the tiniest thing and
you guys notice it. NutraFull is the number one dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement
brand and it helps prevent hair thinning, shedding, and other hair issues. Over the long run,
you can even start to see improved hair growth and more visible thickness. I have the NutraFull
Women's formula and along with generally taking better care of my hair and trying to fry it less
with heat tools, I'm so excited to see my long-term changes. And it's not just for women.
NutraFull men's supplements are peer-reviewed, 100% drug-free NSF content certified,
and clinically proven to improve hair growth, all without impacting sexual performance.
Skip the shortcuts and see thicker and stronger hair in three to six months with NutraFull.
For a limited time, NutraFull is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription
and free shipping when you go to NutraFull.com and enter the promo code Dead Meat.
Find out why NutraFull is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at NutraFull.com
spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com promo code Dead Meat. That's NutraFull.com promo code Dead Meat.
Next up, this was one when I posted about this a few people guessed this would be on here
losing or fumbling keys. Whether it's car keys, keys to get out of a basement, whatever,
just fumbling your key. All of a sudden, characters got butter fingers and it's losing keys.
Or, you know, they're going through the ring of keys. They've got the right one. They drop it.
Yeah, this one's pretty bad. Yeah.
Because just think about your everyday life. How often are you dropping? Granted in a situation
where there's higher stress, maybe you're more likely to kind of lose a hand-eye motor coordination.
Yeah. But, yeah, this one just feels real cheap. I mean, for me, and I don't know if it's coming up
at all, the randomly locked door is one of my hated ones, but someone's running away from a killer
and gets to a door and like, oh, it just happens to be locked. It's locked, yeah. And it's like,
or if you're running a youth fall and trip over nothing, it's like all these are just the most
blatant examples of, oh, we need to make a suspenseful, slow someone down. Yeah,
it's a perfect little, like, script miracle to trap your character for long enough.
I will say pretty recently in Instagram, I've been scrolling around and there are people,
there's like, I don't know if it's a challenge or what, but they'll have, like, employees at a
workplace like get a head start run from someone dressed as Michael Myers slowly walking towards them
and they have to like, unlock a door and get in and like lock it behind them. And a lot of the times,
the people fail. They don't drop the keys, but they have a hard time finding the right key or
they just like, can't put it in the hole. Oh, they give them a giant ring of keys. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's actually cool. Like, could you escape the killer at a horror movie and a lot of the times
they, they do fail at doing that. Dude, I would actually get so scared doing that even knowing it's
not real, but just knowing like, okay, I'm giving you this big ring of keys and I'm going to have
someone dressed up as Michael walking towards you. I would actually freak myself out doing that.
See that? And that's the thing is like, we, from the comfort of our couch, we're like, this is dumb.
They're dropping it. But like, if you're actually in that situation, it might be stressful enough to
where you would realistically do it. For sure. But the game's not, is it realistic? The game is
what's the worst cliche? I guess, yeah. Yeah. But that judgment, a lot of it is what is going to take
you out of the movie, at least for me. And I guess, you know, even if it is realistic, it still is going
to kind of take me out of it. So what's it up against? Or do we have, do we have like examples?
I feel like this one's so broad. It happens. I mean, it happens so much. I don't think any of these
examples are really going to help a lot of them are the Halloween, Halloween H2O. Human centipede
happens. Saw two, it happens. It's right out for the needle pit. Oh, yeah, because you can't get
a Xavier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is up against one of my favorite tropes. And I asked people online if
they could guess what my favorite trope was. And I think Patreon subscribers, especially,
would be able to guess. And I don't think I saw anyone guess at time of recording. And I'm just
disappointed in you all. Do you know what this is? Your favorite trope? This is the one that I get so
fucking, like, I pop every time this happens. Little guys? No.
Grustled you have any idea? I don't know. I get so fucking stoked when I ever this happens in a
movie. And I, I pointed out every single time. I'm sure as soon as you say it, I'm gonna know. Yeah.
We're going to the library. Oh, for microfilm. We're gonna look at microfish. Okay. I love it. I love
it so much. This happens a lot. I love it. We just had a stranger things for they were doing that,
you know? Anytime you need to research something that's a couple decades back. Yeah. The town's
local lore. I love getting a lore dump through a bunch of newspaper. It's so good. Candyman,
doing some research. Candyman, that is an example where she's researching Caprini Green,
Silence of the Lambs, Paris's researching. Pretty good movies. Pretty hot tape. Pretty good movies
there. The changeling George C. Scott's investigating his house. The ring Naomi Watts is going to
the library. Yeah. Good stuff. I just always think it looks cool. It's moody. It happens in like
some not so good movies too. I forget what we were just watching where it happens. It was like
tarot or something. Something it was some weird random movie, but I still got really excited.
It was something we were watching for a Patreon commentary track. While I was researching this
trope, I found a video montage. Did you research it by going to the library and looking at
microfish? Yeah, I looked at microfish of movies that do it. I found a video on YouTube by some guy
that was just called hot chicks and horror movies looking at microfish. It was a montage of women
and horror looking at microfilming. It was so cool. Nice. I was like, this guy gets it.
I know. I want to task the editors with just like making compilations of all of these
because they don't have anything to do. That's a joke. They're so overloaded. Thank you,
editors. I love you. So it's that against lost keys. Lost keys. Yeah. I know you're losing your
keys is worse. Yeah. Although when I was looking up the kind of library side quest trope,
plenty of people hate it. Which is fair. It is a thing where it's an easy exposition. Dom,
I can see how it's bothersome in terms of screenwriting or feeling like you're maybe getting spoon
fed a little bit. Oh, it's definitely yeah. Short cut of exposition. But I love it in terms of
if a character solving a mystery and having a piece click into place. It just, I love that kind of
sequence. All right, but keys, keys, keys on Van Aise. It's okay. Next up, this is a similar one
to some other scares on here, but I made it its own category. It's the friend scare fake out.
Like your friend's like, oh, it's me. They're like pranking you and it's a fake out.
This is a weird one because it feels so common where it's like a friend sneaking up on someone else
and they go, gotcha. But even Bella was having a hard time finding specific examples of this and
it feels like one where we've like collectively hallucinated it or something. I know it happens,
but I was having a really hard time searching it. You know what I bet? I feel like this was very
common in the post-screen way. Yes. Like the teen targeted kind of slashes. I just feel like
for some reason I'm just like, was it in urban legend? I can't say for certain, but I feel like
maybe yes or like a valentine or like and I know because often those movies follow groups of
friends. So you have a bunch of characters and you know someone's on edge and then a friend's like,
so I feel like that's where we could find them. Yeah, that and just really low budget
like slasher stuff is where I think that kind of happens. Like any scene where it's a bunch of
teenagers in the woods, that's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah. I just can't think of any examples
specifically of where that's going on, but that is up against one of my least favorite things or
things that I'm sick of rather bone cracking slash contortionism. Oh. Like a monster, you know. Yeah,
usually women. I would say like 95% of the time it's like a woman whose limbs are moving in
weird ways. Probably in an exorcism movie. Oh, so oh yeah, man. Those demons love contorting
those bodies. They love it. They love doing a back walkovers and you're like back bridges.
I mean, obviously the exorcist where she's crab walking down those stairs. You got old.
Old cave. Yes. Yeah. I mean, that scene is great. There's exceptions to all of these.
There was a movie we saw recently, which I shot on a and that's for another episode that
did it and I just was getting so annoyed by it. Stay tuned for more of that. I just, I don't know.
I just never really find it that scary. It just I'm always just very aware of. Oh, they hired
a circus performer for this part, you know, because it always feels a little samey to me. Uh-huh.
I feel like Smile 2 did a pretty good job with people, but that was like a group of people.
Yes. That's what made it so interesting. And the smile and the smile. Yeah.
That made it scary. Uh, obsession, which is coming out also has a character moving in an unnatural
way, but I don't know how much of the bone, but like you have to find a unique unnatural way.
This is not woman in a dirty white dress with long hair going. Yeah. Which I just stop it. Stop.
Like we're done. It was good when the ring did it. How many years ago? Yeah. Like do something else.
Okay. I just don't ever really unless you're doing a good like a cool spin on it. Yeah, like you
said Smile 2. I just I'm kind of over it. It feels it feels easy to me. I don't know. I feel like
I can kind of see through what's being done there. Um, again, I just I'm always I can always see
the like and yeah, we hired a contortionist. She does. She's she's a circus performer. And uh,
yeah, we got her in for the scene and she did a great job kind of thing. I can just I just when I see
stuff like that happening, the behind the scenes instantly starts playing in my head. Uh, but if
you do something interesting with it, then that doesn't take me out of the story, I guess. Um,
anyway, I just find it kind of boring. And what's it going up against? It's going up against
the friend scare fake. Um, what do you think? I don't love either. Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, you know what? Friend scares like cheap and easy. Bone cracking feels a little more
tri-hardy. And I might go with that as the worst trope. Hmm. Because I feel like more weight is
being put on it to be scary. Yes. Friend scare is like, oh, we're just fucking round. It's a quick
little thing. But like the bone cracking is like, isn't this scary? So I might go with that as
the worst trope because even the filmmakers know the friend scares just a throwaway thing. Yeah.
I mean, I feel like it like you said, it happens in exorcism movies and any kind of possessed or
infected movie where it's like just a shorthand to show like, oh, there's something wrong with them.
There's some real wrong with this chick. Yeah. We got to call the exorcist. Yeah. And exorcism
movies just a night. We don't neither of us really have got to be a bottom for me for
this specific subgenre. It was a pro is not there riding a tiny scooter and drinking espresso.
Then what are we doing here? Yeah. I think I might agree with you. It's just a pet peeve of mine. And
yes. All right. Last match. Oh, another movie that did it well. Uh,
hoisera. Oh, the woman. That movie's that's all about bone cracking. Uh, that's just all bone
cracking. Still, I just have a slight vendetta against that movie because the lead actress took
best actor at the prime ribs over Tobin Bell for Sawex. And I just, that's tough because that was
when we opened it to a panel. I just, I want Tobin Bell to get it. I know. That was a tough year.
That's tough year. Tough year. Next up, this is our last in our initial round. Next up,
is the power going out. Oh, right it in. That's it. That's pretty. That's pretty bad. I mean,
do I need to read examples of it? Sure. Hit us. What are you at? Let's see if I can even find it.
I wish I had these in a fucking order. Here we go. Often from weather, but I mean, hey,
this is an example where it's so interesting because these tropes are all ones where we're like,
oh, fuck, I fucking hate this. But then I look at the examples and they're all really good movies.
Aliens when the xenomorphs are preparing to attack, they cut the building's power in the fog
during the attack on the weather station. The ghost fog causes the building's power to get cut
in jaws during the nighttime attack on the boat that causes the power to get cut. And in
nope, the UFO or gene jacket messes with the power. So that always causes sure. But like you said,
those are all really good examples and there's so many where there are many bad examples as well.
Power goes out. Yeah, whether due to weather or the killer is like it finds the giant power switch
on the outside of the button or outside of the building and just turns it off. Or if you're Jason,
you throw someone into a circuit board and that usually cuts it out. Yeah, that is going up
against consulting an expert slash survivor. So going in talking to either a professor or
paranormal expert or feels very broad because it would include, for instance, paranormal activity
bringing that guy to the house. But would it also include like in smile her visiting the guy in
jail because he has experienced the curse and survived it. I'm thinking more this is the person
who if the person is giving a giant either exposition dump or they're the person who knows,
okay, here's how you deal with this that like that's the person. Is this Hannibal and Van Helsing?
They're both Anthony Hopkins. I'm realizing. But yeah, you know, like when you include that kind of
thing because like this, this to me feels kind of a little bit like the Arbanger where like this is
like storytelling. Yeah, like does Tangina count? Is that what you're thinking or not? Tangina,
this is Lin Shea in most things. In most things. That person. Okay. Where they're like, here's
how you deal with this. Yeah, I mean, I think we got to go with power outage because again,
similar to Harbinger, this is a true. And I love a weird expert. Yeah, it's more fun to play
around with this one. Especially if they're kind of kooky. Yeah. Another great opportunity for
a character actor. Exactly. Yeah. Often older woman. Arguably quint. Yeah. You can
jaws. Maybe do that. Yeah. Power out. Power. Okay. We're on to our next round. And that's
going to be the person that no one believes until it's maybe too late, either for people to be saved
or too late in the movie. And we're all annoyed versus everyone. Let's split up.
Everyone. Let's split up. Yeah. I think so. That felt definitive. I mean, again, there's so
many reasons why you would not believe someone who says, hey, these leatherclad BDSM demons from hell
have come with a puzzle box. And they're they have my uncle in hell. And I have to go save him.
I'm like, okay. Let's you know, get you some help. As opposed to let's split up. It's just
it's it's real cheap and rarely justified. But what if you split up because one of you's injured
and one of you has to take care of that person and you're like, go get running, get help.
Or you know how to jump start a car. Arguably, that's a different trope. That's leave me and
save yourself. Oh, okay. You think that's a different thing. It's it's arguable. It might
be included. But in any case, you know, as we said, we can always find good examples of these.
I think the there are more justifiable reasons for someone to not be believed.
Of what they're saying in a horror movie as opposed to splitting up in a dangerous situation,
which is what I think is most of these occasions. Okay. I think splitting up source.
It's splitting up. It feels too squiggly. It is. I mean, it's squiggly, too. And there's
less some narratively interesting reasons for it, too. Whereas someone not being believed.
Again, that's such a cornerstone of horror. I feel like often with the not being believed,
the person not being believed, either as a past with substance abuse or mental health issues or
something. Yeah. But smile one and smile, too. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, both of those.
Both of those movies. You just described both of those movies, which is why they're so fucking good.
Okay. So yeah, the not being believed can feed into the themes of the film.
Okay. Yeah. All right. Then we have the mirror jump scare versus creepy crayon drawings or creepy
kid drawings. This is tough because I know which one I hate more and it's creepy kids. I know you
hate those creepy kid drawings. They're just not scary. And every time I see them, I just get
I think we if we want to be consistent, which we aren't always with these, but we could apply
the same logic of the friend jump scare versus the creaky bones in that the creepy kid drawings
often have to hold more weight as a scary thing as opposed to the mirror jump scare, which is just
a quick little like. Oh, we got to moving on. Yes. Because as soon as as soon as a movie introduces
the creepy drawings, I'm like, fuck, we're hanging so much of this movie on this because especially
if it gets introduced early on, I'm already disappointed that this like if this is what the movie
is wanting me to find scary, what else is the movie thinking I'm going to find scary. I just
that's not yeah. Yes, I'm already just thinking I'm not going to be on the same wavelength. Yeah,
we're not calibrated to the same spookiness. Yes, unless it's a campy like orphan is a really fun
send up of that because she's not a kid. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We've got the cat jump scare versus
dropping your keys. This is hard. Yeah, but based on those Instagram videos I saw, I'm going to say
cat jump scare since oh, because the the keys you might reasonably lose focus. I think I'm going
to make the same argument you've made twice previously though, which I think is a very good argument.
There's more scare weight on dropping your keys. I don't think there is it's a it's a it's a
minor speed bump in a chase scene that just is used to slow someone down. But versus the cat jump
scare, which is just to kind of like have scare in that moment. I don't think the keys is a scare.
It's more of a just a a obstacle, you know, which again, I feel it's kind of the equivalent to
the jump scare in the mirror of the cat in that it's like just a quick little obstacle to slow
them down enough for the killer to get close and then you resolve that obstacle move on. So I
just think out of both of these, I'm less likely to go, oh, come on. If I see the keys happen
versus the cat. Yes. Cat is oftentimes I'm like cat that hasn't been seen before. Yeah, just
getting thrown at the cat. It's like come on. What are we doing? Yeah, I'd say cat. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, then we've got cracking bones slash contortionism versus the power going out.
That's tough. I think the power going out is the cheaper you think it's cheaper. Yeah, even if
it's motivated, like it's raining out or yeah, because like how often does I mean, or like the killer
cuts the power. How easy is it to cut the power to a building from like the outside? Oh, no,
I'm not a freak. I've never thought about it. You've never thought about like just going to
the neighbor's house and just trying to. Yeah, I mean in theory, there's one big line that goes
into the house. Yeah, but like how do you cut that safely? I would just say like how do you do
it without like? Yeah, is there a horror movie where like the power goes out and they're all scared,
but then nothing happens. And the next morning they find like an electric killer. Funny.
That'd be very good. Do they be so fun? And then the rest of the movie is them who killed this guy.
You're realizing yet them trying not to be framed for I mean, that's almost body's body's body's body's
body. Yeah, it's still very good. Yeah, or they're like, why was this person after us? Yeah,
that's so stupid. Yeah, I'd still say I know you don't like the body contort, but like I can think
of a few occasions where it was kind of creepy I guess. Nothing I can vocalize right now. It's just
nebulously in my head as like, oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just think what is bad, it's really bad.
And it's the same thing as the creepy drawings thing to me where when a movie uses it and
it's like, isn't this so fucking scary? I'm like, oh no. Is the like, what else is this movie
thinking is scary? Like I'm just not on the same. That's true. I'm not I'm not going to vibe with
the rest of this. What do you think, Gressel? I think the power is the is the worst cliche because
it's also a quick cheat to make things scarier because it's dark now it's dark. Yeah, that's true.
So it's the same kind of logic of this is a quick way to show that something's wrong as the contortionist,
but it's so much broader because it's just now it's dark. So it's scary or you know, now we don't
have power. So things are you know, harder. It's also here. I'll throw this in there. I think
there are many times where the power goes out and then someone goes to use the phone and it's dead
even though land lines would work. So I'm just going to throw that in there as a little bonus of
like why this trope is bad. Yeah. Because I've seen, yeah, the knock on effects of that. Yeah, I guess
the power. I feel like because you two seem to be leaning more. I think I'm leaning more. Okay.
You'll have plenty of commenters being like Chelsea is right. The body contours is worse.
Okay. You'll be you'll be vindicated in the comments. Final four. Okay. Final four. We've got
let's split up versus creepy crayon drawings. Okay. I got to go with let's split up.
I understand, but like it's just so it has to be one of the most referenced and thought of
cliches when people criticize horror movies for being cheap and dumb. I mean, this is up there
with like going upstairs. Yeah. That's true. In terms of what's made its way to popular culture.
Yeah. So like even if you don't watch horror movies, you know that in a horror movie people will
split up and that will lead to their deaths. And so when you actually see it in a movie, you're like
really we're doing this. I gotta say let's split up, dude. Man, it's like I yes, it sucks,
but it just I'm just so much more personally annoyed by the stupid. I know. Hey, being a semi finalist,
nothing. I know. I know. Just what a bummer. Okay. I mean, like this is one of the horror cliches.
I know. Okay. Let's split up. Then we've got the cat jump scare versus the power going out. That's
tough. These two live together. Yeah. These two fucking room together. Man, they split rent. Heavy
hitters. Damn. Heavy hitters. I think cat jump scares were. I think cats worse because it's so
fucking random. Yeah. There's no need for it. Whereas, you know, with the with the power, you
often need to get it dark or whatever. And it'll lead to more scares. Mm-hmm. Cast just. It's
there's no need for it. Yeah. You don't have to have it. I think I agree with you. Okay. The power
being out can lead to cool moments. Yeah. And it forces your characters to act a bit more
desperately, which can lead to fun things. You know, forces them to maybe get out of the house or,
I don't know, we're just making up reasoning. We're just making stuff up. That's all these are.
We're thinking cat. We're just like voters, dude. We just we already know how we feel and then we
just justify it to ourselves after the fact. Yeah. That's what everyone does. So cat.
Cat. Yeah. Okay. In the final two, let's split up versus cat jump scared.
Who? That's tough. That's tough. One of these has a lasting impact on the trajectory of the plot.
And one of these is just a dumb thing that pisses you off for a little bit. I think that's it,
though. I think that just seals it. Like as as ubiquitous as let's split up is the Scooby-Dunis
of it, the spread into broader pop culture, you got you've made the argument the whole time,
the cat serves no purpose. But I would say that splitting up often leads to deaths and can be like,
oh, no, I like this character, but because they acted in such an unrealistic way, now they're
going to get killed and removed from the movie. And that's upsetting. Do you think splitting up can
go hand in hand with a thing that also pisses people off and was something that I saw people
argue was a trope and I wasn't sure whether or not to include or I didn't really think about
including, but like characters acting stupid or just making dumb decisions. Yeah. It is a specific
version of that. Characters behaving dumber than they actually are. Yeah, for sure. Which I think is
again, a thing that people who don't like horror movies will cite as a reason they don't like them.
It gives horror a bad name, you know? Yeah. So that they can get killed. That's an interesting
argument to make in the championship. Yeah. Yeah. So I lean towards let's split up.
I think cat jump scares a very worthy opponent. I'm leaning that way too, especially because let's
split up tends to be the type of horror movie that I find really boring. Like a paint by numbers
slasher. Um, when you're like, okay, we all split up. Now I have to watch them. I'll get killed one
by one mid 80s like to mid 80 slash or even like that weird run of like 2000s slash where they're
just like random ones that no one really thinks about anymore where they're all kind of samey.
And they do the let's split up and you just got to watch the same shit play out over like, let's
split up is what contributes to me to the movie being really boring in like that last stretch.
Mm-hmm. Okay. I think we're going with let's split up. I think let's split up as the worst horror
trope. In the worst horror trope. According to us. According to the three of us. What do you all
think? Maybe we're totally off here. Yeah. But I think it's a solid bad horror trope. Yo, yeah,
for sure. Let us know if you think one of the ones that we talked about deserves it more or
one of the ones that we didn't talk about. I mean, we talked about a few that weren't in the
bracket like the shining references or I think this one's got a lot going for it. It's like it's
one that's parodied in parody films. Yeah. It's one that people who are just casual horror fans
understand and did also dislike about horror films for better horror. And did like every parody
like in the blackening. Yes. We have to say it. Don't say it. We have to split up. It's fun when
movies find a fun way to do it. Yeah. Cabin in the woods or the blackening. It's for me a trope
that makes movies worse to watch. Yeah. It just feels like such a shortcut in the writing process
whereas the cat jump scare is like a shortcut in the filming and editing process. You know,
it's just like a quick little adrenaline burst. I am more upset by shortcuts in writing because like
just try a little harder. You know, I know it's not easy writing is fucking hard and to make things
pan out in an interesting way that is still realistic. Very difficult. But try. Keep trying. Yeah.
Also arguably let's split up as a gateway to more tropes happening. It's like a parent of other
tropes. Yeah. Yeah. A group of people isn't going to get scared by a cat. Yeah. And let's split up
is then two characters can have sex and get killed. The urge. Yeah. It is. It really is. All right.
Yeah. Cool. I'm happy with that. Yeah. Okay. I'm feeling good about that. But yeah,
maybe you just agree. Let us know in the comments. This is fun. This is fun. We did this now because
it's March, but the the scream episode that we hadn't planned on doing the scream seven episode
kind of threw off the schedule. And so we to get back on the regularly planned schedule with
like sponsors and everything, we will have an episode for you next week. Yeah. Instead of a gap
week. Yes. And next week, we'll be talking about South by Southwest and all the movies we saw.
And so like it's kind of a preview of upcoming horror movies. Some that are coming out
imminently. Others that maybe who knows. Yeah. We don't have distribution yet. But we'll let you
know what to look forward to and what you can miss. Most things look forward to. Yes. Great
festival. And we'll just talk about the festival in general because it was our first like big festival
besides overlook. And I can't wait to talk about it, which we're going to do in like five minutes
after I changed my shirt and grip. Yeah. There's a movie we saw that's like possible movie
of the year. Oh, yeah. Unless something crazy comes along and knocks it out of its number one spot.
This movie fucked me up. We're screaming in the theater. I'm I don't know. Oh, and we'll talk
about the movie. I'm then because that premiered at South by Southwest. It's grind. Yes. It's the
movie she's talking about. It's like, yeah, that number one. It is very, very good. No, it's fun.
It's a fun movie. Well, you hear all about next week on our lightning round slash South by
Southwest review episode. But until then, I'm James. I'm Chelsea. That's grass. And this has been
The Dead Meat Podcast. Change my shirt and get Coke.
President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough seats
in Congress to raid the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years. But you can
stop them by voting yes by April 21st. Help put our elections back on a level playing field and
let voters decide not politicians. Vote yes by April 21st. Paid for five Virginians for fair elections.



