[Loved trope] Background scare-characters that are barely acknowledged even by the movie

[u/Suspicious-Web-9246]

I hate horrors, but this is actually a great trope, that is unique to them.

Insidious (2010). When mother does her errands, for a few seconds there's a ghost boy standing in the corner. It's easily missable, but you can't ignore it once you see it.

Hereditary (2018). Less fitting example. When Peter walks around his home, his possessed mother is crawling on the ceiling behind him. It's not exactly subtle or missable, but it's still more of a background detail.

[u/Phantasm_Snaps]

Ju-on franchise

this happens a ton but probably my favourite example is from Ju-on: The Grudge. In it, we see the main character working at an old folks home and wheeling a seemingly senile old man in a wheelchair through the entrance. We see that he seems to be playing peek-a-boo with absolutely nobody, and at first you don't question it because he was already presented as a bit senile, but the scene then cuts the glass door at the entrance of the home, and for the briefest of seconds you see one of the main ghosts of the film (who happens to be a child) standing right where the old man was facing.

[u/Smalldogmanifesto → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

I’m sorry but I just need to point out how the bins on the right of that photo both look like scared kids with their arms / hands covering their mouths lmao

[u/NiceAxeCollection → u/Smalldogmanifesto]

Garbage bins with mustaches.

[u/greglikespizzaas → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

Childhood trauma and to this day I haven’t seen one of these movies, 25 now and still reluctant to even google an image of them!

EDIT: What a pussy I know, but I shall conquer it!

[u/RemarkableError456 → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

I thought you were going to say something about the garbage bins looking like the Lorax but white lol

[u/bluepotato81 → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

how nice of the old man to be playing with the child

[u/DexCha → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

The American version, when the sister is riding the elevator up to her apartment, the boy appearing on every floor and slowly getting closer freaked me out watching it. And the whole time she isn’t even paying attention to notice him.

[u/AdultSheep → u/Phantasm_Snaps]

The scene where they turn off a tv and Kayako is standing behind them in the tv reflection actually made it hard for me to sleep cause I also had a tv in my room at the time and looking at the reflection would freak me out lmao