Fifty More Horror Clichés That Should Be Left to Spoil

#38: Villains All Operate the Same

  Perhaps one of the greatest innovations to the fictional genre is none other than the well known morality scale. Created as a way for players to better flesh out their characters in Dungeons and Dragons, the morality scale goes beyond the typical hero/ villain scale used in most basic storytelling. There are differing levels of heroism and villainy, with a nice in-between gray area for anti-heroes and anti-villains. Despite the scale being pretty simple in concept, only having nine scales, its creation is a strong tool for the beginnings of fleshing out any potentially diverse character for an inspiring role player or even writer to enjoy.

This scale, already great on its own for writing imperfect protagonists, is additionally a strong tool for crafting better villains. With the horror genre being especially reliant on a strong central evil to thrive, the morality scale could be a make or break methodology to craft the scariest, most complex villains out there. By just mapping out their morality on the three final darkest parts of the morality scale spectrum, you can get a much stronger idea on what angle you want your character to go in. You can figure out if your character is going to be the next tragic villain, or the next soulless demon.

On the lightest side of the villain morality scale is the lawful evil character. Those in this range of the evil spectrum do bad things to others, but may have a certain set of morals that stops them from being complete animals. This person could have a limit on hurting children, want to keep their family out of the drama, or even be appalled by other certain evil actions. Though he is not a horror character, in my opinion, Walter White aka Heisenburg from the TV drama Breaking Bad perfectly fits this mold. A drug lord originally motivated to make crystal meth to leave monetary resources to his family in fear of his impending doom from cancer, Walter White does have a certain moral code in his actions throughout the series. His number one rule in this code is that his family is to be completely uninvolved and unharmed in his secret second life, even his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank. If any member of his family were to be injured, Walter would compromise everything, even the potential of his secret leaking out, in order to protect them. Despite being low enough to poison a child or low enough to leave someone to die of a drug overdose, Walter has just enough sprinkling of a coincidence towards his family not to purposefully do anything to them. Types of character like him still follow society's laws to an extent, and therefore cannot be said to be completely dark hearted villains.

Right smack in the middle of the the villain scale is the neutral evil character. These characters like with lawfully evil characters do follow some set of morals, but their choices are completely interchangeable depending on circumstances. One day, this villain will be all ready to protect cute puppies, and possibly in the next want to kill them. A second path this character could take is choosing when an action that is heroic works best for them, or when that same heroic action does not work out for them. Norman Bates, both from the classic film Psycho and the horror and suspense genre TV show Bates Motel, falls into this category. While acting completely immoral to those he chooses as his potential random victims, his sociopathic nature now and then allows him to care about a select few individuals. One such individual is his love interest in the Bates Motel TV show Emma Decody, who he helped deal with the ramifications of her cystic fibrous and eventual lung transplant. However, unlike Walter White, this morality did not stay that way with Emma forever. As Norman Bates fell deeper and deeper into insanity, his care for the few people he cared about, including Emma, virtually disappeared to the point of just seeing her as another potential victim by the show's conclusion. What was once genuine feelings for a girl fell into needless mistrust in just a snap of a finger.

Finally, there is the chaotic evil level of the villain scale. Chaotic evil characters truly are the worst of the worst of the bunch, having no code to protect certain individuals or limits they will not cross. They look out completely for themselves and do not care if the world ends up burning down with them. Anyone is on the chopping block, so far as it will be entertaining to watch. Alma Gardner from the recent first half of the tenth American Horror Story season, Red Tide, fits this bill perfectly. Despite just being a child, Alma early on shows early psychopathic tendencies that evolve into darker territory upon taking the vampiric black pill to enhance her violin skills. To ensure she keeps taking the talent enhancing pills, Alma is not only willing to drink as much blood as possible, but take the lives of those who stand in the way of her goal to become a world famous composer. This is best demonstrated when in the fifth episode of the series, she gives her mother Doris the black pill, knowing it will turn her into a mindless bloodthirsty creature instead of a talented interior designer so she will not impede on the progress Alma is making in her music. Even worse in this situation is the case that Doris had just given birth to Alma's baby brother Eli and was suffering in her last days from a horrible drug induced haze to keep her from being in the loop about the potential talent granting pill. Alma looks out for herself alone, not caring if even the ones who brought her into the world have to die to achieve their greatest ambition.

With the morality scale in play, the cliché of creating one-note horror villains can disappear in an instant. All you need to do is figure out where the character's limits will go, if there are any at all. Follow this up by fleshing out their main objectives and the motivations behind said actions. Then, scale how much you wish the character to care about anything besides themselves, and what they will do if pressured to do so. By following these simple instructions, black and white villains can be completely avoided.