Cliches

In most horror movies there is a sense of cheesiness with examples like: a girl walks down a dark alley way by herself, or the very common "who's there?" question. As the audience, we thrive on these points; we can see what they're missing, we can hear the eerie music and know that something bad is coming. This idea is called dramatic irony because the audience knows what the characters -- and normally victims -- will soon find out.