18 Horror Movie "Rules" That Are So Infuriating, They'll Have You Yelling "***" At Your Screen
18 Horror Movie "Rules" That Are So Infuriating, They'll Have You Yelling "***" At Your Screen
Sara De LedesmaFri, May 8, 2026 at 6:01 PM UTC
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I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to horror movies. But at the end of the day, if it's got an intriguing plot, I'm still watching — just in between the creases of my fingers as they cover 3/4 of my face...
Nickelodeon / Via giphy.comStill, even I know that horror movies come with their own set of questionable choices. The kind that make you want to absolutely scream in frustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RUN!"Over on Reddit, horror fans are sharing the "horror movie rules" that they absolutely hate. I gotta say, they're so correct, I was fully cackling reading through the responses. Here are some of the best answers:
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1. "I hate that when trying to flee from a killer, the main characters see slashed tires and go: 'Oh no, we can't leave.' Like??? Brother, you bet your *** I'm driving on my rims to get the hell out of wherever I'm at. I'd rather need a new car than a funeral."
—hatdeity
2. "Don't say 'I'll be right back' because you won't."
—xXL3gitChrisXx
3. "Help arrives. The character screams and bumbles incoherent nonsense, not saying much of anything. They are told to calm down. The killer attacks them and kills whatever help just arrived."
—Difficult-Ad-9922
"Yea, I dislike it whenever the person asking for help focuses on the wrong information. 'You gotta believe me, starts talking about their supernatural powers' — sounds really dumb."
—ZeroiaSD
Comedy Central / Via youtube.com4. "'We need to split up.'"
—artguydeluxe
"'…I’ll go with the kind dorky virgin, who's recently lived through personal tragedy.
You can go with the arrogant trust-fund jock that bullies everyone.'"
—SkroopieNoopers
5. "When a character doesn't turn the lights on as they investigate a mysterious sound in their own home. I'm also not a fan of the one where a family pet goes missing and the family shrug it off as a 'he'll be back soon' and get on with their everyday lives until they find it dead (usually as a jump scare) days or weeks later."
—west2night
6. "The main characters not finishing off the killer when they knock them out or incapacitate them in some way. But instead, they look for a way out or some **** and then whoops, the killer is gone."
—Ehh-Um-Uhhhhhhh
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Columbia Pictures / Via youtube.com7. "Using the soundtrack for jump scares. Blasting an out of tune violin whenever something spooky pops up in a shot is super annoying. Scares are so much more effective without them. The Nun movies are so annoying with this. The spooky violin is way too overused throughout, and every few minutes there would be a violin jump scare whenever anything mildly creepy happens. By the first 10 minutes, the viewer is already desensitized to any scare."
—pepperzpyre
8. "That flashlights cannot produce any ambient light. They exist as a single point of light or a single beam of light."
—Western-Lawyer-9050
"And then as soon as they hear an unidentifiable noise, the batteries run out."
—JJ_Lomero
"I hate when they use a flashlight while trying to escape a killer. 'Here I am! Here I am!!'"
—artguydeluxe
9. "When a child is acting weird and the parents have to go look around their room. Then they find a bunch of crayon drawings and as they flip through them, they get darker and darker until the last page has a black scribble demon with red eyes."
—jjhunsucker
"I especially hate this one when it's obvious the drawings have been made by an adult trying to emulate how a child draws, it's always so obvious."
—BoneyMostlyDoesPrint
Paramount Pictures
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10. "I hate the wake up because the last scare was a dream thing. I get it, it allows something horrible to be non-permanent, or to build tension for the audience but not the characters, but it’s also inherently just an excuse to put in a scare with no need to connect it into the story, so it always feels lazy to me. This is doubly bad because it’s sometimes the best scare in the movie."
—DiogenesKuon
11. "For me it's when a person is running away and they run in a STRAIGHT LINE! Especially when projectile weapons are involved. Like GIRL if you don't bob and weave! It irritates me so much. OMG and when it's specifically a bow and arrow? You gotta really line that shot up and breathe and reload is not quick! I'm running to the rules of the 'Cha Cha Slide' LMAO."
—Jade_Blazed04
12. "The two main characters, in some cases total strangers that morning, suddenly are compelled to passionately make out and audibly profess their love while actively being chased by the bad guy/monster/deadly natural phenomenon, sometimes when the bad guy is literally around the corner. Bonus points for one or both of them passionately sucking face while that face is covered in blood and gore. Double bonus points when that gore they are slobbering over is neither their own."
—JBR1961
"You've got a bit of Bobby's brains on your lip, let me kiss it off for you."
—SkroopieNoopers
Working Title Films / Via youtube.com13. "That the monster is swift and lethal until it's on camera chasing the protagonist. Then it's bumbling, slow, and incompetent."
—BearButts909
"The 'plot armour' effect. It's so frustrating when a killer takes out five people in five minutes, but then spends the rest of the movie walking at a snail's pace just to let the main character trip, crawl, and eventually get away. If the stakes don't feel real, the horror just turns into a comedy."
—Big_Emotion4963
14. "If a woman gets sick, she's pregnant. Just once I'd like to see a woman get sick and her not turn out to be pregnant."
—Jamie8765
15. "I wouldn't say it totally ruins it for me, but when characters have just wrapped up an incredibly traumatic series of events, but now that the immediate danger is no more they're back to doing just fine mentally. The most recent absolutely wild example of this is Primate. The dad just sends his daughter off in an ambulance by herself, gives his younger daughter a side hug, and the movie wraps. Meanwhile there are multiple brutally murdered bodies in their house, the daughters have been through hell and back, and the dad even contracted rabies. But hey, let's get you to bed, kiddo!"
—___Art_Vandelay___
"Don't worry about your friends whose bodies are strewn all around the pool area, or the one that’s splattered on the rocks below, we’ll hose that mess off tomorrow and have a nice bbq."
—SkroopieNoopers
Paramount Pictures
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16. "'I'm going to take that shortcut that the weird creepy dude/lady at the gas station gave me rather than staying on the main road.'"
—DarthAlexander9
"In the middle of nowhere where I have ZERO cell service."
—AmettOmega
17. "I hate when they feel the need to kill off the final girl from the first one in the second one to prove they mean business."
—objectivelyexhausted
18. "Parents finding (or in SAW's case, making) the most god-awful, hideous doll, sometimes in the literal trash or still-intact with very mysterious yet obvious burn marks on it, and going, 'Do you know who'd ******* love this?' Children who, when given a godawful, hideous doll pulled out of the trash and/or covered in very mysterious yet obvious burn marks, say: 'Thank you, mommy and daddy,' instead of screaming and jumping up and down on its head."
—Sufficient-Border-10
Universal Pictures / Via youtube.comWhat's a "horror movie rule" that you absolutely hate? Let us know in the comments, or use the form below to be anonymous!
ABC Network / Via giphy.comFor more funny internet finds, follow BuzzFeed Canada on TikTok and Instagram!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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