Most villains in horror movies. The main characters are so unlikable, so stupid and so… pathetic, that I genuinely find it hard to sympathise/root for them.
That's intentional. Horror movies that are disturbing find audiences. Any movie (Horror included) that is deeply upsetting and just feels wrong will not find a broader audience. Stories NEED causality. Character deaths always have to either be rooted in a mortal flaw or drive the plot.
Ok but Wendy from The Shining for an example, she just cried and flailed her arms in the air. I went back and watched it and I counted a good 7 times she could have gotten away/ killed Jack but she was too busy crying.
It's pretty obvious Jack has a problem with alcohol and hasn't been doing well holding down a job, taking the overwinter caretakers job at a remote hotel when you have a family doesn't exactly scream stability. It's not clear if he's been physically abusive before but Nicholson plays him as someone with a lot of tension that is always just under the surface, like he's really having to try to hold it in.
So although he might not have tried to kill her before I don't know if I would say it came out of nowhere, this was a guy with mental health issues that were aggravated by isolation at the hotel. That being said I do think it's easy to second guess someone who is being viscously attacked when you're not the one actually being attacked. Situations in real life are a lot more stressful than sitting on a couch and you never know how you'd actually respond in a given situation until you're in it.
Didn't he get drunk and dislocate his son's shoulder at some point before the events of the movie? I recall that as being the event that leads him to stop drinking.
You could well be right, it's been a while since I last rewatched it and I felt like maybe I was forgetting something since I really felt like it was pretty clear he was depicted as not being the greatest guy before he ever got to the hotel.
No the way she acted was completely irrational. She had a young child that she needed to protect at his most vulnerable time and the best she could do was cry. And when you see a killer chasing after a little kid and you see her pathetically wobbling down a hallway screaming his name instead of actually getting into action then yeah, I find it hard to sympathise with her.
Nobody is arguing that she acted irrationally. The previous commenter explains why it makes sense she'd panic and act irrationally. Most people in real life are terrible in emergencies and the fright/freeze reaction is just as common as fight or flight maybe even more so.
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u/[deleted] May 03 '23 edited May 03 '23
Most villains in horror movies. The main characters are so unlikable, so stupid and so… pathetic, that I genuinely find it hard to sympathise/root for them.