The Blair Witch Project is a decent example of "suggest, don't show." At no time is the villain shown on screen.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Actually even then it's "suggest don't show". Like having barrells suggest the position of the shark in Jaws rather than showing the rubber shark

The funny thing about the original "Jaws" was that they had a lot of trouble with the mechanical shark. They wanted to use it in more scenes but it just kept breaking down. In the end, it made for a better movie.

This is in sharp contrast to the sequels where the shark was working fine. It got so bad that just about everytime someone even looked at water (be it a waterglass or a toilet), there would come the shark.

The Grudge remakes are awesome examples of how not to do it...

And how not to do anything else either.

One thing I've noticed with a certain kind of horror film - the first encounter with the monster is never too bad. In the (excellent) remake of Dawn of the Dead, the first zombie encountered is almost docile - she just stands in the doorway. The same is true of the first Infected in 28 Days Later. In Terminator 2, the advanced terminator is quickly dispatched to begin with - temporarily, but enough for the good guys to get away.

Not actually a cliche - just a technique.

__________________
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Speaking of Jaws, it introduced a lot of cliches that have been in many monster movies since, including "the first victim" - where the audience sees the first attack of the menace, but without getting a clear idea of what the menace really is or all its capabilities, "monster hunting yahoos" - the group of incompetent rednecks who show up to try to claim a reward, "the little shark" - the little monster that is dispatched early and makes everyone think the threat is over, "captain Ahab syndrome" - where one character refuses to let other interfere in his personal vendetta with the monster (obviously Jaws wasn't the first to use this one), the "one radio rule" - there can only be one outside communication method, and it nearly always gets broken, and "refusing to close the beaches" - government or other authorities refusing to take unnusual action to avert a crises because they feel it would impact the bottom line.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

And the Jaws series as a whole may be the best example of "each sequel is worse than the original." It's hard to think of another film series where the first one is as good as Jaws and the last one is as bad as Jaws IV: The Revenge.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

The 1978 Superman movie versus Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

That's a pretty good parallel, though they've started up the Superman series again with a relatively good movie.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

Every private art collector is an obscenely wealthy white-collar criminal who hires theives and mercenaries to steal priceless artifacts from museums and sacred burial grounds. Despite having all this stolen swag on display in his own house, he's somehow never caught.

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Yes, and he's usually British.

__________________
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Only the British can appreciate art!

That bad-guy art collector will hire the hero to find something for him, even though they know the hero is more principled than them and will always betray them when they find out.

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

I dunno. Those fingernails on the blackboard get to me every time. (shudder)

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

Would there be a reason to put an art collector in a movie if he didn't hire theives and mercenaries to collect his pieces?
I can't imagine a movie showing real art collectors at work as being very interesting.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

Reminds me of some joke ideas for a realistic "24" (the TV program)

Episode 1, 8:00 - 9:00 - Jake gets up, takes a shower, eats breakfast, and brushes his teeth (but will he floss!!!!????!!!!)

Episode 2, 9:00 - 10:00 - Jakes flips around the channels on TV and reads the newspaper. Starts doing the crossword puzzle.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Episode 3, 10:00 - 11:00 - a terrorist attack takes place. Jack is stuck in traffic for the next 3 episodes trying to get to the scene of the crime.

Episode 4 11:00-16:00 Jake meets Jack and realizes it's his doppelgänger.
Episode 5 16:00-08:00 Jake and Jack spend the night reflecting on their shared experiences.
Episode 6 08:00-16:00 The fusion/sex change operation is successful and Jacqueline faces her new world.

End of series.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Jack joins writer's strike, show title changed to "6".

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.