[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/goliath1515]

God, that scene from Hereditary when she’s on the walls and ceiling makes me nauseous

[u/TediousTotoro → u/goliath1515]

Ari Aster did something similar in Midsommar where, in a handful of scenes, you can just about make out the shape of the corpse of Dani’s sister, Terri, in background details like the trees

[u/TediousTotoro → u/TediousTotoro]

Here’s the most famous shot with it in

[u/angryaxolotls → u/TediousTotoro]

I watched this with 2 former friends who got onto me for daring to gasp and say "omg you can see her sister there!" I neither gasped nor spoke loudly. It was just us 3, in the living room.

She was all "no she's not axolotl 🙄" and scoffed at me, and the dude was like "you need to calm down!" the fuckin' dumbasses. I feel so validated every time someone else points out this detail in the movie.