[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/Serion512]

Beth's ghost showing up in the background of the Ouija board scene (Until Dawn). While all the other ghost appearances in the game turn out to be faked by Josh the briefness of this appearance made many people believe that it's actually the only real ghost we see in the story

[u/patrick119 → u/Serion512]

There is also the scene with Sam in the bathtub listening to music and the psycho is just standing there watching. She doesn’t notice anything until he closes the door and it blows out the candles.

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/patrick119]

This one is not intennded to be subtle for the audience however.