It’s not news that one of the features of horror is how frustratingly “stupid” many of its characters can be and how that can have us shaking our heads, facepalming, or even yelling at the screen.
And yet, while it’s true that, indeed, many characters do insanely stupid things, sometimes our criticisms of them can be too harsh. We fail to consider an important reality: we are not quite in their shoes.
It is easy to keep a clear and cool head when you’re not inside the horror story, when you’re an outsider to it, and get to see it from the outside, perhaps even being shown information about it that would serve the characters’ decision making but that they’re deprived of. In other words, we may be expecting the characters to be "wiser" than they can realistically be in a given moment.
That goes without mentioning the fact that, while they’re stuck in there, they’re overridden by fear. And you’re not. They may be fearing for their life, for the lives of others, and/or for the fate of the world or place they’re in. Plus, there’s often the pressure to act as quickly as they can, which barely leaves room to think. They may be severely wounded and in intense pain as well. All of this limits one’s ability to use one’s brain.
Furthermore, they may be experiencing what they are for their first time and have no prior experience to draw from. Whereas, you might have lost count of the times you’ve seen something like this in horror.
Then again, that brings up the question: Have they never seen a horror movie? Do they not know how these things usually go? Maybe they have, and maybe they haven’t. Plenty of people go their entire lives without consuming (much, if any) horror and therefore have no idea of what you may be going on about. But even if they have, even if they’re familiar with common horror plots and plots that resemble theirs, it still takes a while to recognize that, yes, they are in a horror story. Hard to believe. What are the odds of there being a zombie apocalypse or of being chased by a masked killer? How unlucky do you have to be for that to happen to you?
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| The Empty Man (2020) |
That being said, there are a few stupid things that people do in horror stories that can drive me mad. Or that I see so frequently that it boggles my mind.
• “Hello? Is anybody there?” Then they go investigate without turning any lights on nor grabbing any weapons to defend themselves with.
• “I have a bad feeling about this.” But ignore it and proceed anyway. No pausing to ponder why and no staying extra alert in case there’s a valid reason for it. The one having a bad feeling may care about it, but still go along with the wishes of those that overlook it.
• “You’re not like this, I know there’s good in your heart!” They just killed three people and could do it again, but go off I guess.
• Someone was on their own and saw or heard something extremely relevant. Reunites with the group, which is clueless and desperate for answers, doesn’t bring it up.
• Takes their sweet time, as if there’s absolutely no pressing matter - even when there is.
• Loses or leaves an object of sentimental or material value behind. Risks their and others’ lives to go get it.
• Finds a perfect hiding spot, which the killer completely misses and passes by. Doesn’t even wait a minute, for the killer to be gone or their chances to improve, before coming back out of it.
• Hits without looking, injures an innocent.
• Shoots or harms the killer in some way, so they fall to the ground. Immediately drops their guard and turns around, convinced that it’s over without having bothered to check or make sure it truly is.
• Moves on, apparently having learned nothing, makes the same or worse mistakes in the sequel.
There’s more. The list goes on. You can probably think of some that stand out for you.
Is there anything you’ve done that, in hindsight, was actually pretty dumb?