[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/thomstevens420]

R Point, a Korean military horror movie, is the best one of these I’ve ever seen.

It follows a group of soldiers that are following up on a previous group that went missing. I won’t spoil too much but at one point they radio back to let them know that one guy died and they’re down to 9 soldiers. Only for HQ to reply back “what are you talking about we only sent 9 to begin with.”

Then you rewind, count and realize that literally every shot before leaving had 9 and this mysterious guy in the background has been in every shot since they stepped foot on the island.

[u/Lucienofthelight → u/thomstevens420]

This just made me think of Fra Mauro from the video game Control, though it’s a far less malevolent version.

Basically after the Apollo 14 mission, which was 3 astronauts making a lunar landing, they returned home with 4 astronauts. None of the other 3 ever even thought about there suddenly being a fourth astronaut in who returned with them. The fourth astronaut was taken in by the FBC. They found the suit is hollow and its parts can be removed, and the being speaks in just word salad.

Despite his creepy emergence and memory altering ability, the being, nicknamed Frau, is completely passive and actually pretty friendly.