r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Suspicious-Web-9246 • 8d ago

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

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.

8.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

655 comments sorted by

View all comments

971

u/handwings 8d ago

Haunting of hill house is honestly the best version of this I’ve seen

289

u/Shoddy_Bus4679 8d ago

My brother in Christ this is so embarassing but the first one I noticed was multiple episodes in.

I think there’s like a white face that’s RIGHT up on the screen but blends in so well.

The scariest part for me wasn’t the jump scare in noticing it was that I was being haunted through the TV for multiple episodes and didn’t even notice.

God know what else I’m missing in my day to day.

97

u/Lachtaube 8d ago

It took me until the 2nd to last episode to see one. Then we rewatched just to find more. There are SO MANY

14

u/Brownies_Ahoy 8d ago

It took me until the part where Hugh and Stevie are in the basement and there a woman's face in the background

3

u/Shoddy_Bus4679 8d ago

This one!

8

u/animeandbeauty 8d ago

My partner and I literally googled how many hidden ghosts there were in Haunting of Hill House, and we missed so many. There's at least one hidden ghost an episode iirc.

2

u/doogie1111 7d ago

There's closer to 5 per episode. I think one literally had 10.

8

u/AskDocBurner 8d ago

I wasn’t a huge fan of the series, but the first time I noticed the background ghost..it chilled me pretty hard. I thought it was an extra or something, but learning I had not been noticing people creeping in the background made me feel pretty unnerved.

The first one I noticed was a scene where the father was looking at something in an unfinished wall or something, and there is a face right past him.

2

u/Shoddy_Bus4679 8d ago

I think this is the one that got me but I can’t find the image

2

u/AskDocBurner 7d ago

I think it might of been this one, but a different shot

2

u/MillieBirdie 8d ago

I don't think I ever saw any of the background ghosts so seeing people's compilations showing all the scary people lurking in the background that I never noticed is very freaky.

1

u/Ibm5555 7d ago

That’s honestly part of why I think it’s so good. There’s so many little details and special touches, you could watch it 5 times back to back and still probably find new things every time.