Over the years in horror movies, its very easy to point out certain patterns. Movies that start off with a huge two story house. A typical suburban American family with 2.5 kids, just moved in with their dog named Bo. The parents tend to neglect the teenager of the family somehow leaving them more prone to being X’ed off. Strange activities begin to happen in the house, but only one spouse believes there is a presence while the other insists there is “no such thing as ghosts”. Movies such as Insidious and the 1970’s Amityville Horror come to mind. These types of movies can be classified as more of a supernatural type of horror. Rather than people being slashed left and right, they are possessed! How entertaining…Author Pat Gill suggests that “children’s questions and accusations are met with denial or excuses by parents who do not wish to engage them fully. It comes as a shock that 10 times out of 10 they are wrong. No element of surprise here directors. Another stereotype is the African American being killed within two seconds of the movie or not existing at all. I still haven’t found out the reason for this. Well, maybe I have but will not mention it to prevent from offending anyone. On the contrary, movies such as Halloween: H20 leave us thinking “hey maybe the minority does get to live”. And he does. When LL Cool J is the security guard at this preparatory school, he comes face to face with the infamous human/supernatural killer (still unsure of what he is) throughout the entire movie.
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Evolution of the Horror Film 