Basic Trope: A character is able to appear anywhere, at any time, without having to actually travel to the location, so long as the camera is not looking.
- Straight: Alice confronts Bob The Killer in a house; Alice runs through the living room and throws open the front door... only to find Bob on the porch waiting for her.
- Exaggerated: Alice confronts Bob The Killer in the basement; Alice runs up the stairs and through the front door, hurries to her car and locks herself in... only for Bob to pop up from the back seat.
- Downplayed: Alice didn't see Bob move, but is not too worried about his disappearance and/or is only mildly surprised when he reappears in an unexpected location.
- Justified:
- Bob chooses targets who either having vision or hearing problems, so they cannot tell when he has left or arrived until he is right upon them.
- Bob is extremely familiar with the location, and this allows him to take improbable but technically plausible shortcuts.
- In addition, Alice is distracted or has her back turned for awhile, giving Bob time to discreetly leave and predict her next location.
- Alternatively, Bob is a supernatural entity, and this is established to be one of his normal abilities.
- "Bob The Killer" is actually two or more people in the same disguise.
- Bob is a teleporter or can use portals.
- Bob can observe the fourth wall and use it to his advantage.
- Inverted:
- Bob The Killer is chasing Alice out the front door; as Bob reaches the door Alice is abruptly half a mile away and still going, thus making it look like Alice has used Offscreen Teleportation to Bob.
- Bob has hardly moved from where he was last seen even though he hasn't been seen in quite a while.
- Subverted: Alice runs out the front door... only to find Bob waiting on the porch. But surprise, it's just Charlie, wearing a mask and pulling a prank.
- Double Subverted: But then Bob suddenly looms up behind Charlie.
- Parodied:
- Alice locks Bob in the basement, runs out to her car, drives to New York City, hitches a ride to Los Angeles, stows away aboard a flight to Singapore, then stows away aboard another flight back to Honolulu but grabs a parachute and hops out mid-flight; she lands on an uncharted desert island, all alone... only for Bob to pop out from behind a palm tree.
- Alice is confronted with a series of doors... with Bob lurking behind each and every one of them.
- Bob can be seen in the background of certain shots, scurrying to get into position in order to invoke the trope.
- Zig Zagged: At times in the movie, Bob The Killer is seemingly inescapable. However, when Alice learns to be afraid of every door, Bob is nowhere to be found... for just long enough to give a break in the action before Bob is hot on her tail again.
- Averted: Bob The Killer never appears in any location which he could not logically reach in the allotted time.
- Enforced: "Wouldn't it be wicked scary if Bob The Killer popped out in front of Alice right here?"
- Lampshaded: "Holy crap! Just where did you spring from?"
- Invoked: After escaping Bob The Killer, Alice says "I bet he'll have already caught up with me."
- Exploited: Alice takes advantage of this and keeps him in sight but at a safe distance until Bob can be apprehended.
- Defied: Alice escapes Bob's reach. The camera pans back to where Bob once was... to reveal him gone. The camera then pans back to Alice with dramatic music... revealing nothing behind her.
- Discussed: "No matter how far you run, Alice... I can catch you."
- Conversed: "Just watch, the killer's gonna jump out from behind that tree."
- Deconstructed: Alice is so stressed out by Bob’s attacks that she either has blackouts, which allow him to leave the scene undetected, or she has hallucinations of him being present. These hallucinations cause her to become violent and perpetrate the horrific acts she believes Bob is committing.
- Reconstructed: Bob The Killer is Crazy-Prepared; he has been studying Alice very carefully so as to predict where she'll run to.
- Played For Laughs: Bob The Killer is right on Alice's heels as she throws open the front door... only to find Bob on the porch waiting for her. She turns to run back inside... only to find Bob inside waiting for her. Alice can only stand there in the doorway, turning back and forth and finding Bob standing both in front and behind her seemingly simultaneously.
- Played For Drama: Alice is so obsessed with Bob The Killer (or, more likely, with her crippling fear of him) that she sees him everywhere she goes, and this begins to interfere with her ability to live a normal life — but it's not really Bob The Killer, it's all in Alice's head. Or is it?
The killer's already waiting for you back at Offscreen Teleportation.
