Welcome back to A Podcask of Amontillado, where we delve into the dark, dreadful, and terrifying parts of the world.

The Creepy House. The Creepy Doll. The Creepy Guy Outside the Camp. All clichés, or in modern parlance, all tropes! Sometimes they’re a useful tool, other times they’re a shortcut that betrays a lack of imagination. But is that the fault of the trope, or the writer? In either case, what is it about them that we either despise, or love, about these tried and tested story devices?

Listen in as Erin and Gary break Zack Parris from the Back Row Super Show out from behind the wall to discuss if they’re accurate or why they’re not, why writers keep using them, the Black Hole of the Internet’s massive List of Horrror Tropes, trope vs genre, Who Dies First, crime thriller vs horror (again), jump scares, Horror Tropes: The Movie!, gratuitous tits, getting the hell out of the house, pleading for movies to stop over-explaining, how they gotta show the love, and how we love to sound smart.

Insidious demon

Sinister trailer

Dance Macabre by Stephen King

Blade 2 opening scene

Ernest Scared Stupid trailer

Arcane Carolinas

Tanis, The Last Movie, Rabbits

Opening and closing music is “Softly Shall You Sleep,” by Valentine Wolfe.

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A Vino, Atrocitas.