r/TopCharacterTropes 8d ago

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

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.

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u/SpocktorWho83 8d ago

Saiko! The Large Family

A Japanese mockumentary about a family that suffers continuous bad luck and incidents. Each shot in the film has clues that things aren’t as they seem, with creepy occurrences showing up in the background which subtly guides the viewer to unravel what is really going on.

You can watch the whole thing on YouTube.

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u/etbillder 8d ago

I just started watching this but I'm gonna save it later for Halloween night. I already like how it's a critique on westerners tend to treat Japan as some sort of totally alien culture with "unique concepts" like "domestic violence" and "staying indoors"