| Author | Message | ||
     Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 212.183.128.174 |
My favourite is the "usually" small town horror tale of the stranger or strangers who arrive in an isolated community that appears outwardly normal but that hides a dark secret that "usually" leads to his/her or their downfall. Classic examples are; 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', 'The Witches', "Ringing The Changes", 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Santaroga Barrier', 'The Stepford Wives', 'Harvest Home', "Children Of The Corn", etc... So what is your stock horror plot? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.7.171 |
Narrator visits old friend whose life has taken a turn for the worse, and notices some oddities. Then they meet some time later and things are completely shot to hell. Narrator is left somewhat fucked off with life in general. Classic examples are many Robert Aickman stories, several Walter de la Mare stories, and large chunks of the 'slipstream' canon. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.137.235 |
And "The Voice of the Beach". | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.156.185.130 |
Author/filmmaker given chance of a lifetime advance to write book/make film about mysterious person/group that disappeared many years ago only to find that the rumours are not only true but the evil is alive and well... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.29.107.160 |
Childhood friends reunited as adults to confront again some horror only they experienced back in the day. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.212.231.230 |
Cast of mismatched characters besieged in some desolate location by some kind of evil force either human or supernatural. Eg precinct 13 or many other john carpenter films, the mist, charles grant's night's swift dragons or raven, | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.239.242.23 |
Also night of the living dead and dawn of the dead are classic examples of this stock plot. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.29.107.160 |
And King's The Langoliers, which I love. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.152.14.127 |
Something terrible happened here ("here" being either a physical location or a person's mind) and the rift needs closing or healing. As a subcategory: I love the "Is it real or am I just mad?" scenario. The Haunting of Hill House being the classic example of all of the above. | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.16.245.126 |
Family suffers a tragedy (usually the loss of a child) and moves to a big old house and/or isolated community in the country to try and heal. Supernatural shenanigans ensue. Yeah, I watched the first episode of The Secret of Crickley Hall last night. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
In literature I've always liked ones where a person comes back from somewhere—expedition, vacation, maybe just the state of being missing—and though at first all seems well with said person, all most certainly isn't, anymore.... And, in horror films at least, yes, I do love one of the most basic of stock plots: the body count. Especially as done in the giallo school, where this stock horror intersects stock mystery.... | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 80.5.8.49 |
The slow dissolution or metamorphosis of a character, as exemplified by the descent into posession and madness of Jack Torrence in my all time favourite horror novel "The Shining". Cheers Terry |