"Genre Savvy" is a 2021 short story by Andrew L Bergman.
Edgar Craig is a horror movie buff along with his old college friends, and every year they do a weekend-long horror movie marathon called called "Horrorween". After an all-nighter movie binge he's getting breakfast with his friend Charlotte and they discuss the tropes and clichés that make up horror movies; and he believes that by being Genre Savvy you could avoid being in a deadly movie scenario. So afterward he decides to take the scenic route home and finds himself in a potential horror scenario.
Tropes:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Discussed, while joking about what Mojave animals could feature in a bad B-Movie, Edgar suggests a giant rattlesnake.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: Discussed by Edgar and Charlotte, joking about animals local to the Mojave Desert that could become B-Movie Killer Whatevers; Giant Rattlesnake and Killer Roadrunner and naturally a versus crossover between the two.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: Discussed; Edgar offers that nobody gets horror-movie murdered while in bed at home, Charlotte counters that vampires attack people in their bedrooms.
- Genre Savvy: The title of the story no less, and what Edgar believes to be the trick to avoiding being caught in a horror scenario. You won't get killed if you stay away from the resort beach or mountains when people start dying in them, or go home when you see the creepy hillbillies on vacation, or recognize that the gory person eating somebody is a zombie and not just "sick".
- Hillbilly Horrors: On Edgar's mind when he sees the barefoot girl screaming for help on the side of the road; that if he stops to help her Leatherface or some other killer hillbilly will murder him while he's distracted.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Discussed; mentioning that Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland might be the only two zombie movies that acknowledge zombie movies exist in their world and use the term.
- Port Manteau: Edgar and his friends celebrate "Horrorween", a mash up of "horror" and "Halloween"; their half-way to Halloween party.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Edgar encounters an injured, barefoot woman in the middle of nowhere screaming for help. He slows down briefly in numb shock at the situation, knowing that he needs to help . . . then speeds off because Good Samaritans always die in horror movies.
- Sleep Deprivation: Edgar and Charlotte were up all Sunday night watching horror movies, caught a few hours of sleep around six, and then went to Denny's for breakfast and the coffee they needed to get through the day. Charlotte will attempt a nap before work, but Edgar decides to make the long drive home.
