My favorite horror tropes ever! What are yours?

Not ranked, just listed- these are my favorite story/character tropes in short stories or horror films or writing:

1. CIA or federal government experimenting on ancient horrors beyond understanding-

Okay this sounds hyper specific but I see it everywhere and I fucking love it. Any story nonfiction or fiction that is based around WW2 or the Cold War gets me. Especially with themes of government surveillance on the population specifically around the 50s-80s. Researching past unethical/inhumane CIA experiments like MKUltra, this concept doesn't even seem to be quite unbelievable: that the US government (or any other superpower's government for that matter) would find something beyond understanding, like a phenomenon or creature or portal that has long lived before us or threatens our human race, and instead corporal greed pushes intelligence agencies to exploit or explore it for war benefit. An extension to this is:

2. Corporation exploits the supernatural, without knowing the consequences-

Discovered my love with this trope when introduced to 'Mystery Flesh Pit National Park' which is like, the greatest example of this trope. I know, its a popular story, but god the idea of a greedy businessman finding something that he couldn't understand and selling it to the American public GODDDD I LOSE IT. Sort of already explained in the above text but felt important to mention.

3. Something that looks like familiar, or maybe even acts familiar, but its only goal is to lure you away from safety, etc.- 

CLONES AND IMPOSTERS. ZOMBIES AND SKINWALKERS. This could even extend to AI and robotic extremes. There is nothing scarier to me in this world then something replicating a human face or speech pattern or behavior when they aren't inherently human at all. Something that puts on the mask to lure you with humanity, and animalistically kill you, or maybe even worse, just take your place. What makes a person a person? What divides humans and animals, is the gap even that big? Could a robot even ever become a person? 

Specifically with mimics or skinwalkers, I LOVE how some writers/directors depict something like a demon or animal try to replicate a person. It's maybe speaking, but the words don't make sense, the inflection is somewhat off, or they keep cycling through new pitches and tones and voices and sounds and coughs. Anything that could lure you far enough away from safety. Extra points if it can "steal" a voice. Or when it tries to move like you do; it stumbles as its trying out its new limbs and it walks stiff as a board, it twitches and rarely blinks and just looks... wrong.

With zombies the fear mainly exists that the thing trying to rip you apart WAS a person. That person is long gone and now a horrific "braindead" parasite is trying to spread its disease or feed on you. It doesn't stop moving, it doesn't' remember you, it wants to rip out your innards and eat your skin. Different media depicts zombies in several different ways, and I think I fall in love with every new depiction of a zombie and its virus. Maybe its a fungus, radiation, or a rabies like sickness. I FUCKING LOVE ZOMBIES!

4. Religious themes WHEN DONE WELL- 

I love when horror is written like this from the perspective of a person who is actually well educated in biblical themes and stories. Sometimes I feel like this genre can be saturated "oh and # was God/Satan the entire time" but it can also be done SO WELL. I myself am not religious and never have been educated in the bible, so this trope really speaks to me when I read and watch other religious peoples analysis of a piece of media. Its extremely interesting to learn about bible stories I swear, don't knock it until you try it.

When a story related to a very specific biblical story, whether directly or just through parallels I go insane. Recently listened to a reading of the entirety of Mother Horse Eyes, which pretty much has all the above tropes, but was insanely shocked by a part that directly referenced Pompeii (? if I remember correctly) pulling back the veil to see God after conquering a temple and finding nothing. It was probably for the best that he didn't find what he was looking for, because it was extremely beyond his understanding. Although something may be beyond our understanding, and we as humans always strive to learn everything there is, would we regret learning/seeing something we were never supposed to? 

Satanic/forbidden rituals that are accurate and believable, always good to mention those as well.

Other times I love when its hard to tell whether an antagonist is meant to be a depiction of Satan or God. I haven't seen this too often, I feel like its underused. How will we know if this entity is leading us away or leading us down the right path? We are supposed to feel the presence of God, but what if the entity is manipulating us for its bidding? This feels right, like what He would want, but what if its all a lie?

5. An evil so great you wish it was a monster, but instead the horror is man-made- 

This can be iffy, sometimes writers just used this for torture porn evil against women. Never a fan of rape/abuse being used in a story because its usually mishandled, but there are times it can be done right and effective. Maybe its a concept where something inhuman IS evil, but even more evil are the humans who use it against each other. Or something like: a gun/bomb is a weapon of destruction, somewhat making it inherently evil, but even more evil is the person/government using it to kill innocent people. 

Additionally: mental deterioration can go along with this, which is also a theme that is easily done incorrectly or borderline offensive. I'm not talking about "oooo this person has DID! And their split personality kills people wooo scary" or "and they are PSYCHOTIC and they KILL PEOPLE and are DANGERIOUS" I'm talking obsession that completely consumes a person. Not as in stalkers, maybe they are obsessed with being alone, with a mysterious object/place, with the concept of religion or rebirth. Dedicating yourself to keep something alive, something on the brink of death no matter your efforts. Or the obsession that eyes are on you, something it watching you in the reflection, and it tears you apart. Maybe that suspicion is real, or maybe it isn't, that's the fun!

Clearly I like a lot of stories that involve "real world" or incorrect history inspired horror...

These are just a few of the things I like, if you want to add more or even suggest series/stories that correlate with these I'm always down to see it!

- KB☆