how many people say “oh if i was here i would’ve …” or “why did he do that is he stupid?”
well, how about what if he didn’t do that, would you enjoy the movie? imagine if you’re watching The Conjuring, and people said “yeah fuck this, i’m out”, and the movie ended, would that be better?
you think you would make a better decision than people in the Saw franchise? well trust me, out of fear and panic, you wouldn’t be doing shit. hell we stress in exams and don’t know what to write how about death or life situations?
and of course we make fun of them for the laugh, but still wanted to share this. you either get stupid decisions, or a stupid movie
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All the Sinners discourse like someone doesnt invite them in every damn vampire movie!!
I unfortunately dont remember who to attribute this quote to, but let me paraphrase it anyways:
“It is unreasonable to expect the characters in a story to be aware of what genre they are in”.
Feels applicable to this.
You can make a horror movie that’s good without your main characters behaving in totally irrational ways, though.
“I wouldn’t do anything stupid like that” – says person who spends hours analyzing and criticizing irrational decisions of fictional characters
Depends on HOW stupid. Is it something that would make sense and fits for the specific character to do while panicking? Thats fine. Sometimes people do stupid shit.
Is it wildly out of character and obviously just there to move the plot? Sucks.
I don’t know but most of the time when I see this it’s not because of basic mistakes that’d you’d make from stress or fear. It’s when characters make consistent decisions that go against any common sense for the sake of the plot.
Like when the characters know there’s a killer out hunting them, one of their friends has already died and this is the time they decide to get into an argument about how last summer someone slept with the others bf and they all split up. Or when they hear something bump in the basement, open the door to investigate and hear something large growling with the room is torn apart. And still at that point they go investigate alone with no weapon and the smallest light possible
It’s more about things that are unreasonably dumb and happen consistently, not just one or two decisions
I don’t know. I feel like if you need characters to make incredibly dumb decisions in order to move your story along, it’s an indication of weak writing. Particularly in horror movies, it’s much scarier to see a person make all the right decisions, yet still end up dead. Just my take.
It should be hated because its low effort.
Instead of refusing to leave then die,they could’ve tried to leave but the door wouldn’t open or maybe they make their friends come with them but something separated them.
Low effort should always be discouraged. If you have a fighting movie, is it unreasonable to expect the actors to professionally coached? If youre watching historical drama, could you expect costumes and old castles?
Honestly in a lot of supernatural horror movies, we tend to be like “don’t go looking in there” or “stop following the sound” but in reality, at least for me, even I have caught myself following a creepy or eerie sound. I guess at that moment you are not really thinking clearly or perhaps our own curiosity gets the best of us.
Completely disagree, directors and writers write these movies just to be updated versions or concepts of previous horror movies. I don’t expect characters to know they are in a horror movie but atleast show some skepticism when you see someone standing on your front porch on a rented cabin in the middle of the woods and then go outside look around and go back and go about your night like nothing happened. It’s getting harder to believe movies that take place in the present day, with characters using smartphones and making pop culture references not be aware of horror movies in this fictional world just to play into it. Cabin in the woods was great at making fun of it
Better would be if the character’s motivations make sense given the character as portrayed and their decisions based on that lead to development of the story.
If a character inexplicably does something really stupid or out of character just to progress the story then that’s just shoddy writing. Horror is often the worst for stuff like a group suddenly splitting up for no good reason or whatever.
Also the reality is a lot of people in real life would do the stupid things that the characters do in horror movies
Theres always going to be SOME questionable decisions in horror movies but movies that put in effort to make characters smarter are just better. Its way scarier to see characters think the same way you actually would when trying to escape and the villain thwarts them anyway. Hush is a movie that I think does this well.
“Well if they were good decision makers than this wouldn’t be a movie would it?”
I agree. And i think we can all agree that at least since Covid, we can see just how dumb humans can be. I used to think it was always stupid to have the person just fall while running from the killer, but average unatheletic ppl would fall a majority of the time if they had to just sprint at a random notice.
It’s hated because it takes us out of it. If thr scenario could be solved by a sinple action that they just didn’t take, it’s not that scary of a scenario, now is it?
i think youre only thinking about it in terms of replacing specific decisions in specific movies. a lot of the time when people bring up these complaints its more about horror movie writing as a whole. i dont want existing horror films with stupid choices removed, i want horror films where characters and stories are written in realistic, believable ways. the characters shouldnt have to be stupid to move the plot along.
Stupid reactions, no.
Impulsive, emotionally driven ones, yes.
When characters do things that don’t even make sense for the emotion one would feel in such a situation, it will register as too stupid and will take you out of the movie.
Acting impulsively under stress is relatable. Some things characters in movies do don’t register as human behavior, though. That’s where it falls apart.
If this isn’t an unpopular opinion it truly should be!
The only thing i could agree with is that you shouldn’t judge in universe action/characters based on IRL standards.
>well, how about what if he didn’t do that, would you enjoy the movie?
Absolutely not, but i also wouldn’t enjoy smart and capable characters acting like idiots just for the plot to progress.
>you think you would make a better decision than people in the Saw franchise? well trust me, out of fear and panic, you wouldn’t be doing shit. hell we stress in exams and don’t know what to write how about death or life situations?
How would what I would have done in the same position be relevant when I am not in said position? What matters i how the characters in the story is portrayed and how they act.
>you either get stupid decisions, or a stupid movie
What a reductive take! How about we get well written stories with consistent characters instead? We can have good horror with consistent characters it just takes more work than the slop (for a lack of better fitting word) we are getting now,
I mainly agree EXCEPT for splitting up. That is just fucking dumb. If I was in some weird backwoods town being chased by a hick in a mask and an axe or whatever, the last thing I’d want to do is “Let’s split up… you go and find weapons, i’ll go and find a car, you look for a phone” or whatever.
Nah, let’s stick together. Safety in numbers and all that jazz, plus one of you is a massive fucking blimp and I am sure if push comes to shove I can run faster than you.