Bunch Of Fives: The Very Creepy Hour

Just in time for Halloween, a new podcast emerges from the shadows. The Very Creepy Hour is a horror film review show hosted by comedians Louise Young and Matt Reed, alongside horror obsessive Heather Dempsey. The trio bring sharp wit, strong opinions and a shared love of the genre to the mic—offering up commentary that’s as funny as it is fearsome.

Launching on 31st October, the podcast is just the beginning. Under The Very Creepy Hour banner, expect a growing catalogue of comedy-horror content, from sketches to spooky specials, all delivered with a healthy dose of irreverence. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Here, The Very Creepy Hour gang give us their top five horror movie tropes…

The Bathroom Cabinet
Of the mirrored variety. It’s a staple: someone looks into the cabinet mirror in relative safety, they open the mirror to grab a toothbrush, they close the cabinet door and BAM!  – a monstrous being is suddenly behind them and ready to pounce. The trope is now so entrenched that often the monster doesn’t even make an appearance, just the mere suggestion of a cabinet (arguably a generally adorable piece of furniture) can induce a panic attack. Extra points for it being in a bathroom, generally a scary room for reasons like slippery surfaces and sewage. 

Victim Runs, the Killer Walks
A trope that has been mocked for decades now (I personally remember Muhammed Ali making fun on this on the Michael Parkinson show, what are your favourite memories of this trope or even Muhammed Ali?) but it’s a good’n. There’s something super spooky about a malevolent being moving towards you slowly and relentlessly. Maybe it taps into to our primal fears of being stalked by a wild animal in the olden days or could it be that it’s alarming to imagine ourselves running full pelt while the killer doesn’t even break a sweat? Either way if you were debating dragging yourself out of the house for a 5k later don’t bother, it’s a waste of time. 

Slowed Down Nursery Rhymes 
Overused? Yes. Still unsettling? Yes again. This trope comes in many forms from sad children singing in unison to the foreboding tinkle of a music box. I don’t know who first discovered that reducing the bpm of Humpty Dumpty would conjure up so much dread but bravo, it’s a cinematic device that shows no signs of slowing down. Bolstered no less by the fact that nursery rhymes often have dark origins … I was going to say ‘hidden dark origins’ but even on the surface Jack and Jill is just a poem about a head injury.  

Car Doesn’t Start 
Surely we can’t do a horror trope list without including this classic. It’s almost like every horror character buys their car from that dodgy man in Gateshead I made the mistake of buying from in 2016. It’s almost unnecessary as well because as we’ve established two tropes ago it wouldn’t matter if you were driving a McLaren the baddie would still shuffle close behind you.   

No Phone Signal  
As ubiquitous as the car not starting, no phone signal is a mainstay of the horror rulebook. Of course we realise why it features: if there were working phones, most horror (and possibly crime) movies would be over in about 10 minutes. Popular reasons to justify this device often include: weather, being out in the sticks, being in a basement – and it’s always a delight when a film gives us a genuinely creative reason why there’s no signal. Directors and writers think they have it difficult now having to explain away smartphones, give it 10 years when they have to write into the horror scripts why our inbuilt AI retina chips aren’t coalescing data and contacting the emergency services immediately.