Just saw the trailer for The Wolfman where Benicio Del Toro gets to squint and use the #1 most cliche paranormal line evah:
“What kind of animal could do that?”
Dum-da-duuuuummmm!
Extra cliche bonus points if he touches in the inside of a mud track, licks his fingers, squints some more, and says, “It’s close.”
Okay, it’s not Benicio’s fault. It’s the writers. C”mon, guys. There were probably — what? — a dozen of you, all told, and you couldn’t come up with a better line than “What kind of animal could do that?”
#2 most cliche paranormal line:
“It’s just the wind.”
As my co-worker likes to say, “It’s never just the wind.” The corollary to my co-worker’s astute observation that it’s never just the wind is that, as a writer, you should never give anyone the line “It’s just the wind” for fear of evoking…
Dum-da-duuuummmmmmm!
#3 most cliche action-adventure line often used in paranormals:
“Don’t you die on me.” Usually followed by a heart-wrenching “Noooooo!” when the exhorted character does indeed die on the character doing the exhorting. Said death is usually caused by the same not-animal referenced in the #1 most cliche paranormal line.
Dum-da-dumb.
Oh, just ignore me. I’m bitter because I’m trying to make sure I don’t rhyme fire, higher and desire anywhere in my love scene revisions.
Jessa Slade 