List of horror novel tropes

Written By Becker

What are tropes?

Tropes are common themes, plot devices or motifs. In other words, they are common scenarios and patterns that often take place in a novel of a particular genre. Novels don’t need to have all these tropes to be considered horror, but you’ll notice when reading horror novels that these tropes may turn up time and time again. For example, a common trope in horror novels is the evil clown!

Here is a list of horror tropes to use as inspiration in your own novel.

List of horror tropes

Situation tropes

  • Vicious mother nature

  • Cremation

  • Curses

  • Beheadings

  • Stuck in limbo – a character can't die and is suffering unimaginable pain

  • Journals – characters find a journal of someone who died before them

  • Crop circles

  • Heads on pikes

  • Something smells off…

  • Creaky windows and doors

  • Wolves howling at the moon

  • Choosing between chopping your limb off and living or staying stuck where you are

  • Space isolation – a character is isolated in outer space

  • Bad things happen in the dark

  • Emergency broadcast

  • Mutilation

  • Behind the door

  • Sleep paralysis

  • Torture

    Endless mobs of rats

  • Trapped with a psychopath

  • It is always nighttime

  • A character's organs are removed and shown to them while they are still alive

  • Character is dragged by their ankles

  • Evil numbers such as 666

  • Mental illness

  • Characters are forced to quarantine after being exposed to something dangerous

  • Nightmares

  • Bad guy just won't die

  • Alone in a haunted place

  • The cell towers are down

  • Space loop

  • The call is coming from inside the house

  • The dog dies :(

  • Not calling the police for reasons of the reason variety

  • Technical difficulties – a movie theatre or TV station experiences difficulties

  • Losing ones glasses and not being able to escape!

  • Don't go in there

  • Summoning an evil power

  • Character is strapped to an operating table and can't escape

  • T'was a dark and stormy night…

  • Jump scares

  • Curiosity killed the cat – or the character

  • Splitting up

  • Look up – there's a corpse or monster on the ceiling!

  • Time loop

  • Buried alive

  • The TV won't turn off

  • The monster has been here the whole time

  • Lost at sea

  • Someone is knocking at the door

  • It's not safe to fall asleep

  • The nightmare was real

  • The door is left open

  • Summoning evil

  • You're being watched…

  • The dead person is calling

  • Sudden death

  • Memory loss

Abandoned places and setting tropes

  • Spirit realm

  • Wax museum is actually a corpse museum!

  • Circus

  • Supernatural hotspots – a town is known to attract supernatural creatures

  • Secret laboratory

  • Cabin in the woods

  • Mist

  • A shop that you swear was not there last time you looked

  • Mansions

  • Forest

  • Maze

  • Torture room

  • Hell

  • Cursed

  • The town has a dark history

  • Isolation

  • Fog

  • A high security research facility

  • Space stations

  • Woods

  • Long winter – characters are getting desperate for food

  • Bathroom drama – a character is using the bathroom and is interrupted by evil forces

  • A train or other vessel takes souls to the afterlife

  • Carnivals

  • The unexpected abandonment – a character turns up somewhere such as a town to find everyone has already fled or disappeared

  • Morgue

  • Hotels

  • Tombs

  • Mysterious swamps

Monster/villain/evil forces tropes

  • The devil

  • Transformation

  • Who are you going to call? – a business or service who specialises in getting rid of evil forces

  • Mutation

  • Metamorphosis – the evil force goes through a gradual transformation

  • Ghost haunts its killer

  • Evil twins

  • Ancient evil

  • Creepy clowns

  • Sorcerers

  • An evil mannequin

  • Abandoned toy turns evil after being forgotten by its owner

  • Killing the innocent – monsters who aren't hurting people are killed because people are scared of them

  • Wendigo – stemming from Algonquian mythology, this is a monster who was formerly human but transformed into a monster after eating human flesh.

  • Doomsday cults

  • Necrophilia

  • Vampires

  • Ritual magic

  • Cyborgs

  • Twins

  • Character is dragged upwards by the evil force

  • Evil force reveals its true form

  • Giant sharks – bonus points if these sharks end up in a tornado

  • Tentacles

  • Devil in disguise

  • Angels and demon

  • Living shadow

  • Doppelgangers

  • Machines gone evil – Ai or evil computers!

  • Force of nature – think a natural disaster with an evil twist, such as Sharknado

  • Illnesses or a plague

  • Kaiju

  • Pagan gods

  • Reanimated corpse

  • Evil force has many, many eyes

  • Someone hiding in the attic

  • Cannibals

  • Animals are evil

  • Creepy doll

  • Werewolves

  • Spree killer

  • Slasher smile – the villain has a big grin

  • A monster must be invited into a house before it can enter

  • Sociopaths

  • Silver bullets – used to kill supernatural beings like vampires

  • Puppeteers

  • Angels and demons

  • Cannibals

  • Swamp monsters – the monster calls a swamp its home

  • Wizards

  • Alien invasion

  • Snakes

  • Monster is invisible

  • Witches

  • Robots

  • Shifters

  • Wall crawl – where monsters can crawl on walls

  • Luring in prey by imitating the voice of another

  • Viral transformation – monsters can turn humans or other animals into monsters

  • The villain has no mouth – either by design or it has been removed

  • Undead mummy

  • Evil birds

  • Stalker

  • Monster has a human face

  • Not all evil forces are evil – some are on the characters' side

  • Clowns

  • A cult

  • Monster was once a man

  • Sirens – sea creatures that lure people out to sea using their voices

  • If you see the monster, you lose your mind

  • Saying the monster's name summons it

  • Undead in a wedding dress – the undead villain, sometimes a bride-to-be who passed away, appears in a wedding dress

  • Monster detects movement

  • Inbred monster

  • Vampires hate garlic and sleep in coffins

  • Vampire child

  • Evil machines

  • Demonic possession

  • Aliens

  • Serial killers

  • Vampires

  • Mummies

  • Aliens

  • The villain has too many mouths

  • Monster can control others

  • Monster is silent

  • Alien abduction

  • Monsters bleed an unusual or useful blood

Character tropes

  • Doctor

  • The survivalist – they've prepped for the world's end and now it is here!

  • The one who can't cope – they are driven crazy by the evil force

  • Psychopaths

  • Mysterious neighbours

  • The good old vampire hickey – a character attempts to hide the visible evidence they were bitten by a vampire

  • Undead narrator – turns out the protagonist has been dead all along

  • Not quite right – a character seems perfect but also a little off

  • Character is killed and only their skeleton remains

  • Creepy children

  • Creepy parents

  • Hostile or elusive local residents

  • Scientists

  • The red herring – you think they're the killer, but they're really not

  • The nonbelievers – they don't believe the evil force is real

  • Clergy

  • Mad scientist

  • Protagonist has been dead all along

  • Nurse

  • Torturer

  • The old caretaker

  • Psychologist

  • Traumatic birth – a woman gives birth to an alien or other evil force

  • Transformation horror – a character undergoes painful physical changes

  • Nuns

  • A child asking what happened to their now zombie-afied parent

  • Witnessing the evil force's transformation

  • Weird or quirky person – usually belongs to an alternative subculture

  • The cops are useless

  • Last person on earth

  • The team splits up

  • Dark secrets

  • Occult detective

  • Creepy families

  • Characters get murdered after having sex

  • Run from the monster

  • A character pretends they are dead

  • Families that kill together

  • The last person left

  • Characters with a hidden backstory

  • A dead character is resurrected

  • Fighting one's inner demons

  • Priest who has lost their faith

  • Pirates

  • Protagonist is the killer and didn't know it

Paranormal tropes

  • Zombies can projectile vomit a dangerous substance

  • Forbidden knowledge

  • The truth is too much for the character to handle

  • Blood magic

  • Black magic

  • Zombie apocalypse

  • Creature absorbs abilities from its victims

  • Werewolves

  • Werewolves restrain themselves before the full moon to avoid causing violence

Item tropes

  • Mirror

  • Mobiles don't work – maybe try using a fax machine instead?

  • Pipe organ

  • Tarot cards

  • Videogames

  • Movies

  • Finding an old diary or video

  • Snuff films – the characters find a video of someone being tortured and murdered

  • Artefacts used to summon demons

  • Artefacts that cause death

  • Amulets

  • Books

  • Cars

  • Relics

  • Music box

  • Haunted painting

  • VHS or DVD

  • Animal traps – but they end up trapping a human for the monster!

  • Taxidermy

  • Reference books

  • Brains in jars

  • TV

  • Religious items

  • Torches

  • White masks

  • No trespassing signs

  • Barricades that do not barricade

  • Pitchforks

  • The one weapon that can defeat the monster'

  • Mobiles

  • Dolls

All the best with your horror novel! If you're not ready to go back to writing and feel you need more procrastination – I mean, planning – time, why don't you look at my developmental editing services or free writing advice?

Becker
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