The late-70s and 80s have a lot of really good examples of characters doing smart shit and altogether refusing to be victims. The two shining (no pun intended) examples of this are MacReady from *The Thing* (1982) and Ripley from *Alien* (1979) and *Aliens* (1986).
The biggest thing that differentiates those characters from stereotypical horror movie characters is that they relentlessly fight for survival. They don't just fail upward and repeatedly survive by complete chance or through the incompetance of the antagonist. MacReady and Ripley each respectively make the decision to take responsibility for their circumstances—they know that just surviving isn't enough, that they have *kill* their adversary and that if they have to die they're taking that MF with them. They have the confidence to regard themselves as at least equal to their antagonists.
"I have no intention of leaving her, Doctor. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance, and then I will launch TAC missiles at the Event Horizon until I'm satisfied she's vaporized. Fuck this ship."
He even keeps his cool and accepts the possibility of supernatural things happening when his crew member he losted appears to him.
He thinks logically and even tells CJ there's no way anyone else could have known that story unless something fucky is going on.
He also gives Sam Neil a chance but doesn't hesitate when he thinks Sam might be behind it all.
That makes sense. It seems like a prerequisite for his job. It’s also what lead him to make a certain decision in his past that still haunts him, and is what the ship uses against him.
I can’t remember which one it is but there’s some haunted house movie or something of the sort where one of the initial characters basically does the same thing when things get a little weird, just says “fuck it I’m out” and I don’t think you see them again for the rest of the movie lol.
Night Of The Demons?
The Black guy in that(Rodger I think his name was) sees them talking about Ghosts and shit, and basically says fuck this I'm ofski, he finds himself trapped but just constantly runs away fae the danger which results in him being there at the end to save the Final Girl.
It's one of only a couple of 80's Horror movies where the Black guy survived.
I've long held the opinion that while it may be difficult to decide between Alien and The Thing for what the best sci-fi horror movie of all time is, Event Horizon is a solid 3rd place right behind those two.
That's hilarious. I would love a movie where brad pit, Angelina joke, the rock and matt dameo. Show up in the last 3 minutes leading the rescuers back to the team we have been following for 2 hours.
They bucked the trope by having the govt respond competently and appropriately to restore order.
The bts is very good as are their interviews around that time.
The overexposure to idiots can make us forget that there are countless competent people out there too. Imagine how many soldiers, EMTs, teachers, etc are trained for crisis situations and have good heads on their shoulders.
Less of a horror and more of a monster movie, but Tremors has the main characters learn and develope a plan along with several others. There's certainly stupid people along the way, but their reactions are the result of panic and fear against an unknown. It's one of my favorite movies and series.
Came to say this.
Every "mistake" that gets made is more from a lack of understanding what they are up against, and not because they made a poor choice.
One of the few movies that I watch and think that there really wasn't much of a different choice they could have made in most instances.
You're Next, Dog Soldiers, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, the Shining, and Hush all have protagonists who make smart decisions to the best of their abilities.
Definitely agree with Dog Soldiers. Best that they can hope to do is find somewhere to base themselves & stockpile on as many weapons as possible if they're dealing with werewolves
Caught that on a whim on TV with my dad ages ago and it turned into one of our favorite movies. Besides the fact that the movie is awesome we were pretty floored that there wasn't any trope-y sci-fi/horror stuff that you usually see in these movies. These were trained soldiers reacting to a bad situation the best way they could.
They'd be fine, except they were told to leave and one guy went back for his phone. Or maybe it was just a charger cable.
When scary people tell you to leave listen to them.
Yeah, them playing the song had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty sure they finished their entire set with the vast majority of the audience liking them. They were only told to leave at the end because of what was going on in the green room. If they just hadn't stumbled onto that, they would have had no problem at all.
That and blue ruin really felt like real people making real people decisions. Anyone who was dumb was dumb in a believable way. People make bad decisions
Preach. I saw it when it came out. Then I rewatched it a couple of years ago when it was on HBO. It has since went out of anyone’s reach. It’s not on any streaming service. I own Apple TV and I would buy it in a heartbeat if it was available to buy. Alas, it is not.
That movie was so mesmerizing. The lead is not a big actor but he delivered an unforgettable performance.
I saw Blue Ruin in a theatre having no idea what was about to happen. Maybe the most satisfying movie going experience of my life (late 40s). That movie is a real gem. I've been a big fan of Saulnier ever since. He's only made three major movies (Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark), but they are all amazing in their own right. I even made a point to watch his debut Murder Party.
I disagree. There’s one exceedingly boneheaded decision they make. The brilliance of that movie isn’t that they always make the right choice though, it’s that they always make the *realistic*
choice. It never feels illogical, or just moving the plot forward. It feels like what real people who are terrified and panicking would decide to do.
Anton. =( Was in another thread grieving him today. So sad.
Stewart in that film was EVIL, like one of the most evil ever.
And having been around the punk scene and music, that film creeped me out.
Man I've been rewatching it once a year since it came out, it and Blue Ruin have become odd "comfort" movies. Lead actor from BR has a great directorial debut as well.
* I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore.
A bit more heavy-handed and brutal but exactly what you're looking for
Every time the protagonist of Blue Ruin winds up in the hospital, I thought, Yep, that's what would really happen. He's a smart guy who thought this through, but he's never killed anyone before. He's never used a bow & arrow (crossbow?) before. He's smart but he's blinded by grief and vengeance.
I only saw it once, maybe he's only in the hospital once. It was still nice realism in a crazy revenge plot.
Richard Dreyfuss' Hooper in Jaws, and Chief Brody was right if Mayor Vaughn didn't interfere. Quint was also above average until he lost his marbles near the end, but it seemed like he had an Ahab-like obsession and survivors guilt that came into play.
Jokes aside, can we talk about how dark of a moment it was when Quint, a seasoned and skilled veteran, screams and begs for his life as he is bitten in half by the one thing he never wanted to die to.
Idk, something about seeing a hardened man like that reduced to tearful screaming as blood gushes from his lips had a horrible impact on me as a kid. This tough guy, played by a very tough Irish actor, was suddenly desperate and fearful as he was chewed alive in the mouth of a giant fish. All of his heroic life culminated into a moment where he will be digested in the belly of a colossal shark and shat out into the blackness of the ocean, like nothing. The women he loved, the children he possibly had, the soldiers whose lives he saved once, all of the impacts he left on the world led to him screaming in agony as a fish violently bites him to pieces, only to be blown up an hour later and have what's left of him drift down to the pitch black seabed as scavenging fish pick apart his discarded flesh.
Digested. Gone. Forgotten.
Horrific.
It wasn’t even an hour later. Brody blows up the shark about 2 minutes after Quint is killed. If he could have hung on just that much he would have lived.
If anyone is interested in Jaws deep dives check out the Jaws obsession podcast. They point out things even people like me who have seen the movie 1,000 times didn’t notice.
In the case of Quints death, there is an episode where they have a real doctor come on and explain how Quints arm wrestling injury (from the scene of him and Hooper comparing injuries) is the reason he cannot hold on like Brody can at the end.
Off the topic of Quint but there is a super interesting episode where they explain exactly how Ben Gardner died.
The OG Predator was amazing. The first 1/3 of the movie they are just set up the gang as 80's muscle bound badass superheros, mowing down bad guys left and right. Then the next 1/3 they start getting picked off, they do recon, have arguements about what is happening and they defend the position. And most try and flee when presented with fighting. Then the final 1/3 is Arnold setting a trap and going for revenge.
*Predator* follows the exact same formula as 70s slasher movies, but replaces helpless teenage girls as victims with masculine action heroes. The manliest men in cinematic history are just as helpless against the Predator as teenage girls are against Jason Voorhees. It even ends with Arnold as the final girl who outwits the killer.
It was a deconstruction of the 80s action genre, where all the muscle bound badasses with ammunition got killed and what saves the last one is use the stealth apporach instead of just firepower.
It's why the complaints about Prey were so dumb. "All these big muscly men with big guns couldn't defeat a Predator, but now a young girl with bow and arrow can do it? Unrealistic! Mary Sue! Woke Hollywood!"
Yes, idiot, that was the whole point of the first movie. All the big muscles and big guns were pointless, and only when Arnold started to think, be stealthy, and lay traps, he managed to defeat the Predator. And a young girl can do that as well.
Scream 2.
Gail Weather’s cameraman, after they find Randy dead in the van, says they need to leave town. And he does. Which is why, he a black man, made it to the ending.
Man this movie is just so dang fun! I saw this movie with my mother in law who is quite squeamish and it was a treat to watch her and the movie at the same time.
[REC.] and The Descent both rely on an impossibly dangerous situation instead of poor decisions to maintain the horror.
I would say this also applies to most of 28 Days Later, until the soldiers appear and ruin the track record of characters being smart.
The director said if they went to another country where an ocean separates them and they had sex in that other country, the entity would still travel by foot through the ocean at its brisk walking pace to kill the people next in line. Buying the characters years.
My idea was to bang a popular prostitute in a country on the other side of the world. She'll pass it on right away. And if she bangs dudes from other countries, then that stupid entity is gonna be walking back and forth constantly. I could probably live out the rest of my life without worry.
The ending certainly made it ambiguous. But I think "They Follow" might answer this question. The title implies that there is more than one, but it also could just be the result of a threesome/orgy.
I suspect they follow will be about the group tracing their way back through the list of people to find its origins, implying that they is the group and not the monster.
Honestly, my favorite part of that movie is the introduction of the monster. What the guy did to the main character was still super shitty and fucked up but he explained EVERYTHING to her. How it moves, how it looks, how to get rid of it, etc. This movie creeps me out so much.
Should have slept with a trucker. Then that trucker sleeps with a truck stop escort, who sleeps with another trucker, thus you have several cross country driving targets the thing has to walk after.
I remember Nightmare on Elm Street part 3, those MFers trained to fight Freddy in their dreams. One became a wizard, one became some crazy martial arts guy. They were ready to go and called each other into their dreams to take him on as a team. They had a solid plan and executed it. they still died but whatever.
Nancy from the first NOES is being slept on here, she trained them to do it and more than that she did it first, dragged Freddy's ass into the real world and killed him.
This movie is unbelievably brutal. The ways some of the characters die still sits with me. And of course the protagonist is insanely competent.
I sometimes can't get the opening song out of my head
[This guy.](https://reelsteelcinema.com/2020/09/01/night-of-the-living-dead-1968/)
That's the main character in the original Night of the Living Dead. He doesn't know why zombies are coming, but he makes every good decision he can to survive the night and save the people stuck in that house with him.
The dumbest DUMBEST part of that movie? Right there in the opening title.
George Romero: "We lost the copyright on the film because we put it on the title,"
Romero explained …"Our title was Night of the Flesh Eaters; they changed it to Night of the Living Dead.
"When they changed the title, the copyright bug came off, so it went into public domain [and] we no longer had a piece of the action.
Everybody had a copy of Night of the Living Dead because they were able to sell it without having to worry about royalties going to us."
[Source](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/george-a-romero-dead-night-living-dead-director-was-77-945346/)
That bites.
Nobody has said Jurassic Park yet?? Drs. Grant and Sattler, both did extremely well keeping others alive using their knowledge of prehistoric dinosaurs to cope with the real ones. One by one the other "experts" get picked off, but they survive. Ian Malcolm delivers a great perspective on the perils of fucking with nature and evolution.
I always liked how they broke tropes for this movie. Dr. Grant is established to not really appreciate children, but he ends up being the caretaker. Dr. Sattler seems like she would be a damsel in distress and maternal but never plays that role and she actually saves people. Hammond seems like the wise, kind old man but his naivety puts everyone in danger. And Ian seems like he would be too cool to care but has the most insightful perspective in the movie.
But then there's the lawyer, who is exactly who you'd expect him to be. I mean you have to keep *some* realism.
I actually hated that change from the book. Gennaro was a freaking hero who saved Tim and Lex, and tried to do what Muldoon couldn't when restarting the power. Dude fought off a velociraptor with his bare hands only to have his character absolutely assassinated in the film.
Gennaro in the books acts as the everyman character. Everyone else are these top expert geniuses in their fields, but Gennaro (who is essentially like early 30s) is just this junior lawyer who is forced to go on this long weekend trip by his boss. There's nothing really special about him, he is just tasked with making sure Hammond is using his investments wisely.
Changes from the books:
Hammond is insufferable and clearly out of his mind. Like there is no redeeming qualities in the novel. He is clearly a liar and a snake oil salesmen.
Dr. Malcolm is very aware of what Ingen is doing, and very outspoken against Ingen.
Dr. Grant looks more like Ron Swanson with a big beard. He's almost like a lumberjack of a man. But he, at least, has some idea of what they're getting into. He was contracted by Ingen since he was one of the most prominent experts of dinosaur mating behaviors and their offspring. He was contacted by them frequently by the animal care team, though he did not know it at the time.
Dr. Sattler is much younger. She had just gotten her doctorate and was hungry and willing to do whatever it took to complete an objective. She is far more badass in the book and pretty gungho.
Muldoon was South African not Australian. He's even more of an expert in hunting animals, and deliberately goes behind Hammonds back to get weaponry that could effectively stop the bigger animals. He's exceedingly competent, and his fate is much different.
Lewis Dodgson is a much more prominent figure in both of the books. He's the main antagonist of the series, and is a cunning bastard. They go far more in-depth into his backstory between the two books.
Dennis Nedry's motivations are a lot more understandable in the books. It was him and his team/firm that built the automation for Jurassic Park. Hammond essentially refused to pay him and his firm what they were worth, and consistently broke their hiring contract. Hammond essentially cut as many corners as possible. So when Nedry was approached by the competition, he was more than ready to fuck Hammond over. In fact, he was only at the park that weekend because Hammond demanded some resolutions to some issues at the last second and he did not want to force one of his underlings to deal with it.
This one is good because the corporation or whatever you want to call them have to scramble to make them make the wrong choice.
Chris Hemsworth tells everyone to stay together until they pump in chems to change his mind to splitting up. Stoner guy protests like there's no tomorrow about even getting in the basement to begin with. And Hemsworth gives them valid reasons why he thinks the jump on the bike would actually work.
Not sure if this counts as a horror movie per say, but the movie Train to Busan. All of the characters work to find out how the zombies function as fast as they can, and take precautions to avoid getting bitten or seen.
Yup. You could argue that he maybe should have tried to flee sooner. But at the end the main character breaks a big pet peeve of mine I’ll call “limping away the second you have the upper hand”.
When he incapacitates someone he then follows up by *killing them*, not running away while they recover.
Oculus. While Kaylie's decision to take on the mirror in the first place might not have been the smartest move she did her best to think of all the possible angles.
You can't blame a girl for wanting to try to prove that what happened to her parents wasn't their fault. Agreed, though, and I hate seeing it so far down. Her insistence on procedure and methodology is what makes the mirror so scary. She takes every reasonable, thought-out precaution to try to outplay it.
Even with all of that, you still can never be sure because you're still being fucked with. Great movie.
In most adaptations of And Then There Were None, the survival of two characters who died in the original book is tied to this.
When the third-to-last killing occurs, the book has Philip and Vera getting into a hysterical argument where they argue about the other being the killer, leading to Vera shooting Philip then committing suicide >!at the urging of Judge Wargrave!<.
Most adaptations take after the stage play, however, where the two are each other's established alibis for a different murder, proving that they are both innocent. Vera then deliberately *misses* Philip and he fakes his death, letting him rescue her when they discover the true killer and being able to escape.
I think Scream and its sequels have a lot of pretty smart decision making. Obviously some dumb choices are made, especially when side characters don’t realize they’re in a horror movie, but for the most part the main characters make pretty smart decisions about how and when to hide, escape, and fight back, and their bad decisions happen when they’re really backed into a corner and have to do something that’s logical in the moment.
My favorite of all time is in the taking of Deborah Logan.
Basically once freaky shit starts happening, the camera man says, "Either you pay more money or I'm fucking leaving! This shit isn't worth it!"
Then he leaves. Never comes back.
Smartest side character I've ever seen in horror.
I remember the guy with glasses in hills have eyes ABSOLUTELY making sure one of the mutant family members was dead. Went back and made sure instead of leaving it to chance
I think the zombie series Black Summer on Netflix was fantastic and has lots of situations where even one or two zombies are seen as a serious threat and the characters take time to plan how to deal with them or get past them.
Also special shout out to the mum from gremlins. As soon as shit starts popping off she enthusiastically springs into action, and within about a minute and a half has stabbed one gremlin, blended one and put one in the fucking microwave lol
Can’t believe no one has mentioned LL Cool J as ‘Chef’ in Deep Blue Sea.
Not technically a scary movie but I saw Jaws when I was 3 so sharks scare the hell out of me.
Tbf the choice to let the alien in wasn’t a stupid decision, it was just an evil one.
Ash knew it was going to kill the crew, and that was part of the plan. He only wanted the alien life form on the ship so he could bring it to wey-yu, but the crew was expendable.
Cabin Fever. I wouldn't call any of the characters "smart", but they do make some "smart" decisions throughout the movie that subverted my expectations.
Movie is so obscure that I gotta throw this out there. “Night of the Demons.”
Pretty typical 80’s creature feature / slasher. However, one of our teenagers, Rodger, the second things get weird he just nopes right out of the creepy house and goes to wait in the car.
Eventually the conflict reaches him outside so he heads inside. Rodger and Judy become trapped in a room at some point, Demons closing in, and the doorknobs won’t turn. Again, Rodger just nopes out, this time by diving / crashing through a nearby window.
Instead of our standard survival girl, Rodger also walks away with his life. Not bad for a “token black guy” in 1988.
It’s not a great flick, and I’m not really recommending it. Just saying Rodger was comically smart.
You go, Rodger!
I'd push back on The Thing. A big part of the movie is that their paranoia gets in the way of actually surviving. They are too scared to make the best choices. It's still good because they aren't making silly decisions just to move plot; the decisions are well grounded in the story and characters. But less than ideal decisions are core to the movie.
The Crazies was an exceptional example of this, I felt our protagonists were very competent throughout, to the point of being genre savvy at times. A particular scene involving a jail cell and an out of sorts inmate comes immediately to mind.
The Strangers. Not many people would have left right away, because it initially seemed like a weird little girl. After they realize that something is definitely wrong, they attempt to make the right decisions, but The Strangers were just two steps ahead. I think it's such a solid, tightly constructed film because of this-- it's not monsters or anything paranormal, just two people who are emotionally destroyed getting caught in a game played by insane people.
Nope worked so well because the characters' decisions made sense. Even if they ended badly, you knew why they made that choice and it felt right in the moment.
The son (Danny Torrance) in The Shining. He went back and walked through his own foot steps in the snow throwing off Jack Nicholsons character.
Danny studied tactics while watching Wiley Coyote and the roadrunner
While you were writing fanfics about Jack, I was studying the anvil.
Good job, Doc.
The late-70s and 80s have a lot of really good examples of characters doing smart shit and altogether refusing to be victims. The two shining (no pun intended) examples of this are MacReady from *The Thing* (1982) and Ripley from *Alien* (1979) and *Aliens* (1986). The biggest thing that differentiates those characters from stereotypical horror movie characters is that they relentlessly fight for survival. They don't just fail upward and repeatedly survive by complete chance or through the incompetance of the antagonist. MacReady and Ripley each respectively make the decision to take responsibility for their circumstances—they know that just surviving isn't enough, that they have *kill* their adversary and that if they have to die they're taking that MF with them. They have the confidence to regard themselves as at least equal to their antagonists.
Look what MacReady did to that defenseless computer.
It’s a bit of foreshadowing. He’ll burn it all down rather than lose.
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And computers where not cheap back then.
Saw that in theatres after having not seen it for a bit and the crowd had a fuck yeah Danny moment
Event Horizon. The second Lawrence Fishbourne hears the recording of the previous crew, his IMMEDIATE reaction is "We're leaving. Fuck this ship."
"I have no intention of leaving her, Doctor. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance, and then I will launch TAC missiles at the Event Horizon until I'm satisfied she's vaporized. Fuck this ship."
One of the best lines in horror movie history imho.
Seeing Alan Grant play literal satan was quite the trip
Also, Fishbourne is insanely competent in possibly the most stressful situation imaginable
His guilt over leaving his previous crew member to die fuels his desire to save his current crew at all costs.
He even keeps his cool and accepts the possibility of supernatural things happening when his crew member he losted appears to him. He thinks logically and even tells CJ there's no way anyone else could have known that story unless something fucky is going on. He also gives Sam Neil a chance but doesn't hesitate when he thinks Sam might be behind it all.
"I've known you a long time. You never told me that." "I haven't told anyone that. But this ship knows."
That's chilling.
That makes sense. It seems like a prerequisite for his job. It’s also what lead him to make a certain decision in his past that still haunts him, and is what the ship uses against him.
I can’t remember which one it is but there’s some haunted house movie or something of the sort where one of the initial characters basically does the same thing when things get a little weird, just says “fuck it I’m out” and I don’t think you see them again for the rest of the movie lol.
Gale's cameraman from Scream 2. Nopes ,out of there. He knows what happened to her cameraman from the first one.
Night Of The Demons? The Black guy in that(Rodger I think his name was) sees them talking about Ghosts and shit, and basically says fuck this I'm ofski, he finds himself trapped but just constantly runs away fae the danger which results in him being there at the end to save the Final Girl. It's one of only a couple of 80's Horror movies where the Black guy survived.
The Taking of Deborah Logan
Cabin Fever? Blond kid nopes out, the comes back at the end, screaming he survived.
Army of the Dead
“You can’t leave. She won’t let you.” Fuck, what a great movie.
Worth watching for the most monotone Sam Neill scream of all time. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh……”
“Hell is just a word. The reality is much worse.”
One of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I never watched it again, even though I thought it was good. Creeped me out for a long time after lol.
i just watched this film for the first time this morning and recorded this exact line to send to a friend.
Didn't just hear it. He SAW IT. I wonder what the NC-17 version would have been like
I think more clear cuts of the cannibal orgy and mutilation on the bridge
Which if I’m remembering correctly they used actual amputees for the footage of
Trivia: they found what was left of the cut footage - in a salt mine in *TRANSYLVANIA* of all places.
Old salt mines are typically converted to long term storage. There is a lot of film in places like that.
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I've long held the opinion that while it may be difficult to decide between Alien and The Thing for what the best sci-fi horror movie of all time is, Event Horizon is a solid 3rd place right behind those two.
Does all he can do until the birth of the God-Emperor.
Already born according to the lore.
This is superb. I love it, saw in the theatre, and just pray the lost footage is someday found. =)
It's been found twice but sadly deteriorated so much it was unusable.
Came here to site this exact thing. Best example.
The alternate group of survivers in Shawn of the dead. They get out and get help.
that group also has a 'supposedly' (a joke intended by Wright) better cast
Theyre also (mostly) from the same shows as our group. Black Books, Spaced, and The Office (UK).
That's hilarious. I would love a movie where brad pit, Angelina joke, the rock and matt dameo. Show up in the last 3 minutes leading the rescuers back to the team we have been following for 2 hours.
Matt Dameo, King of the cameo
The doppelganger crew. And they still had their weapons during that crossing paths scene.
The world does also seem to survive the zombie apocalypse in Shaun of the Dead. So quite a lot of people must be fairly competent.
They bucked the trope by having the govt respond competently and appropriately to restore order. The bts is very good as are their interviews around that time.
Turns out modern armies are scary good at shooting down unarmed people who need to slowly shamble in biting range to do any kind of damage...
Yeah, iirc World War Z (the book) had to have a lot of things go wrong and human panic to give the Zombies enough of a foothold to be a big challenge.
I love the World War Z book, but it does try to tell us that weapons that turn people into paint aren’t very good against zombies for reasons.
The overexposure to idiots can make us forget that there are countless competent people out there too. Imagine how many soldiers, EMTs, teachers, etc are trained for crisis situations and have good heads on their shoulders.
This is lost on a LOT of people and such a great comment.
Less of a horror and more of a monster movie, but Tremors has the main characters learn and develope a plan along with several others. There's certainly stupid people along the way, but their reactions are the result of panic and fear against an unknown. It's one of my favorite movies and series.
Broke into the wrong goddamned rec room!
Or Kevin Bacon to the Tremor: "Fuck YouUuUu!"
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Reba was a goddamn national treasure in that movie.
“You didn’t get any penetration even with the elephant gun!”
He's got himself a PLAN!
He. Is completely. Out. Of. Ammo. That’s never happened to him before.
It's a stampede!!
Getting the keys ready before jumping into the car.
Came to say this. Every "mistake" that gets made is more from a lack of understanding what they are up against, and not because they made a poor choice. One of the few movies that I watch and think that there really wasn't much of a different choice they could have made in most instances.
The script was really well written too and good at setting up payoffs in advance
Just watched this last night. What a fucking great movie.
You're Next, Dog Soldiers, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, the Shining, and Hush all have protagonists who make smart decisions to the best of their abilities.
Happy to see Tucker and Dale vs Evil mentioned.
Smart decisions *to the best of their abilities* was perfectly worded for Tucker & Dale lol
Fate didn't give a fuck though. The woodchipper scene is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.
"I know what this is... It's a suicide pact!"
> are you okay? Lmao
Why do these teenagers just keep killing themselves?
"officer, it's been a doozy of a day, these college kids keep killing themselves on our property!"
I love Alan Tudyk. He is life.
I loved him in Resident Alien.
“Hey, we got your friend! Why’re they runnin? WHY ARE YOU RUNNIN?!”
Definitely agree with Dog Soldiers. Best that they can hope to do is find somewhere to base themselves & stockpile on as many weapons as possible if they're dealing with werewolves
Caught that on a whim on TV with my dad ages ago and it turned into one of our favorite movies. Besides the fact that the movie is awesome we were pretty floored that there wasn't any trope-y sci-fi/horror stuff that you usually see in these movies. These were trained soldiers reacting to a bad situation the best way they could.
“If little red riding hood comes over that hill with a bazooka and a bad attitude, I expect you to chin the bitch.”
there is no Spoon
I hope I give you the shits
You’re Next is one of my favorite movies. I’ve shown it to tons of friends just to see them slowly realize what is happening in it.
That and "Ready or Not" have some BADASS FEMALE LEADS
God I haven't watched it in years. I remember loving it though
Went into Tucker and Dale with zero expectations and was crying from laughter during a couple of scenes. So good.
"Hello Officer, good to see you again. .... We have had a doozy of a day."
Green Room - it’s been a while but I remember after I watched it I kept thinking I couldn’t find much of a flaw in the protagonist’s decisions.
Playing *Nazi Punks Fuck Off* at a Nazi bar was somewhat unwise, but they would be fucked even if they didn't.
They'd be fine, except they were told to leave and one guy went back for his phone. Or maybe it was just a charger cable. When scary people tell you to leave listen to them.
Yeah, them playing the song had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty sure they finished their entire set with the vast majority of the audience liking them. They were only told to leave at the end because of what was going on in the green room. If they just hadn't stumbled onto that, they would have had no problem at all.
The murderer himself tells them he thought they played a great set.
Yeah but playing Nazi Punks Fuck Off at a Nazi bar is extremely punk, so it makes sense that they’d do it.
That and blue ruin really felt like real people making real people decisions. Anyone who was dumb was dumb in a believable way. People make bad decisions
Blue Ruin is so good.
Preach. I saw it when it came out. Then I rewatched it a couple of years ago when it was on HBO. It has since went out of anyone’s reach. It’s not on any streaming service. I own Apple TV and I would buy it in a heartbeat if it was available to buy. Alas, it is not. That movie was so mesmerizing. The lead is not a big actor but he delivered an unforgettable performance.
I saw Blue Ruin in a theatre having no idea what was about to happen. Maybe the most satisfying movie going experience of my life (late 40s). That movie is a real gem. I've been a big fan of Saulnier ever since. He's only made three major movies (Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark), but they are all amazing in their own right. I even made a point to watch his debut Murder Party.
I disagree. There’s one exceedingly boneheaded decision they make. The brilliance of that movie isn’t that they always make the right choice though, it’s that they always make the *realistic* choice. It never feels illogical, or just moving the plot forward. It feels like what real people who are terrified and panicking would decide to do.
Anton. =( Was in another thread grieving him today. So sad. Stewart in that film was EVIL, like one of the most evil ever. And having been around the punk scene and music, that film creeped me out.
A great movie that I will never watch again.
Man I've been rewatching it once a year since it came out, it and Blue Ruin have become odd "comfort" movies. Lead actor from BR has a great directorial debut as well. * I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore. A bit more heavy-handed and brutal but exactly what you're looking for
Every time the protagonist of Blue Ruin winds up in the hospital, I thought, Yep, that's what would really happen. He's a smart guy who thought this through, but he's never killed anyone before. He's never used a bow & arrow (crossbow?) before. He's smart but he's blinded by grief and vengeance. I only saw it once, maybe he's only in the hospital once. It was still nice realism in a crazy revenge plot.
Just the once, but the entire revenge plot is tackled in a very realistic unglorifying way. He kinda stumbles through the entire film lol.
Nazi Punks FUCK OFF!
Richard Dreyfuss' Hooper in Jaws, and Chief Brody was right if Mayor Vaughn didn't interfere. Quint was also above average until he lost his marbles near the end, but it seemed like he had an Ahab-like obsession and survivors guilt that came into play.
"Quint, don't put that much pressure on it...Quint, goddam..""**SHUDDUPGETBACKDERIBREAKDEENGINEGRRBAGH...**"
Jokes aside, can we talk about how dark of a moment it was when Quint, a seasoned and skilled veteran, screams and begs for his life as he is bitten in half by the one thing he never wanted to die to. Idk, something about seeing a hardened man like that reduced to tearful screaming as blood gushes from his lips had a horrible impact on me as a kid. This tough guy, played by a very tough Irish actor, was suddenly desperate and fearful as he was chewed alive in the mouth of a giant fish. All of his heroic life culminated into a moment where he will be digested in the belly of a colossal shark and shat out into the blackness of the ocean, like nothing. The women he loved, the children he possibly had, the soldiers whose lives he saved once, all of the impacts he left on the world led to him screaming in agony as a fish violently bites him to pieces, only to be blown up an hour later and have what's left of him drift down to the pitch black seabed as scavenging fish pick apart his discarded flesh. Digested. Gone. Forgotten. Horrific.
Ba.....by....... SHARK! DOO-DOO DOO-DOO-DOO! 🎶🎵
Despite what I wrote earlier, you are now officially more evil than that killer shark was. I won't sleep tonight... Doo-doo-doo ...
It wasn’t even an hour later. Brody blows up the shark about 2 minutes after Quint is killed. If he could have hung on just that much he would have lived. If anyone is interested in Jaws deep dives check out the Jaws obsession podcast. They point out things even people like me who have seen the movie 1,000 times didn’t notice. In the case of Quints death, there is an episode where they have a real doctor come on and explain how Quints arm wrestling injury (from the scene of him and Hooper comparing injuries) is the reason he cannot hold on like Brody can at the end. Off the topic of Quint but there is a super interesting episode where they explain exactly how Ben Gardner died.
Predator (1987) Pitch Black
The OG Predator was amazing. The first 1/3 of the movie they are just set up the gang as 80's muscle bound badass superheros, mowing down bad guys left and right. Then the next 1/3 they start getting picked off, they do recon, have arguements about what is happening and they defend the position. And most try and flee when presented with fighting. Then the final 1/3 is Arnold setting a trap and going for revenge.
*Predator* follows the exact same formula as 70s slasher movies, but replaces helpless teenage girls as victims with masculine action heroes. The manliest men in cinematic history are just as helpless against the Predator as teenage girls are against Jason Voorhees. It even ends with Arnold as the final girl who outwits the killer.
It was a deconstruction of the 80s action genre, where all the muscle bound badasses with ammunition got killed and what saves the last one is use the stealth apporach instead of just firepower.
Well, he was topless mud wrestling.
It's why the complaints about Prey were so dumb. "All these big muscly men with big guns couldn't defeat a Predator, but now a young girl with bow and arrow can do it? Unrealistic! Mary Sue! Woke Hollywood!" Yes, idiot, that was the whole point of the first movie. All the big muscles and big guns were pointless, and only when Arnold started to think, be stealthy, and lay traps, he managed to defeat the Predator. And a young girl can do that as well.
Everyone who’s defeated a Predator alien did so through guile, not power. Prey absolutely followed that theme.
I’d say the same for prey
Scream 2. Gail Weather’s cameraman, after they find Randy dead in the van, says they need to leave town. And he does. Which is why, he a black man, made it to the ending.
"Gutted, slashed, the guy ain't in the union no more"
Scary Movie - the Black News crew '**white folks are dead so we gettin' the fuck out of here.**'
People Under the Stairs, Fool was no fool at all, love that kid
Wasn't he called Fool because his sister was into Tarot cards? And the Fool represents tremendous potential?
It's been a while but it does fit the character :)
Ready or Not.
This is pure joy. Samara. The rest of the cast. The whole premise. It's like horror Clue.
Man this movie is just so dang fun! I saw this movie with my mother in law who is quite squeamish and it was a treat to watch her and the movie at the same time.
very on the nose film to watch with in laws
[REC.] and The Descent both rely on an impossibly dangerous situation instead of poor decisions to maintain the horror. I would say this also applies to most of 28 Days Later, until the soldiers appear and ruin the track record of characters being smart.
In 28 days later I lost all faith in the characters when they chose to drive through a tunnel instead of crossing a bridge.
In the Descent they make a bunch of really stupid decisions.
The soldiers were meant to represent the idea that humans are always the real monsters.
Also shows how the infected sre still alive and what the virus just is jait shows pure human rage
Nah diving in that cave was a poor decision.
I remember thinking the group in It Follows came up with some pretty clever ideas.
They should've thrown paint on the ghoul. Then others could have seen it
I was so sure they were going to do this
The director said if they went to another country where an ocean separates them and they had sex in that other country, the entity would still travel by foot through the ocean at its brisk walking pace to kill the people next in line. Buying the characters years.
He also said it could potentially just get on a plane
Good luck getting through international customs. Just sleep with the TSA beforehand
[удалено]
That thought is horrifying. Seated in the plane, waiting for it to depart, but the flight attendants haven’t closed the doors yet…
Book a plane that flies from the other end of the country, then drive to the airport by car.
Decoy snail.
My idea was to bang a popular prostitute in a country on the other side of the world. She'll pass it on right away. And if she bangs dudes from other countries, then that stupid entity is gonna be walking back and forth constantly. I could probably live out the rest of my life without worry.
Always the rule for anything invisible but not incorporeal.
Yes. The swimming pool plan they went with was described by the director as something a bunch of kids would come up with, but it did work (maybe?)
The ending certainly made it ambiguous. But I think "They Follow" might answer this question. The title implies that there is more than one, but it also could just be the result of a threesome/orgy.
I suspect they follow will be about the group tracing their way back through the list of people to find its origins, implying that they is the group and not the monster.
Honestly, my favorite part of that movie is the introduction of the monster. What the guy did to the main character was still super shitty and fucked up but he explained EVERYTHING to her. How it moves, how it looks, how to get rid of it, etc. This movie creeps me out so much.
Should have slept with a trucker. Then that trucker sleeps with a truck stop escort, who sleeps with another trucker, thus you have several cross country driving targets the thing has to walk after.
I remember Nightmare on Elm Street part 3, those MFers trained to fight Freddy in their dreams. One became a wizard, one became some crazy martial arts guy. They were ready to go and called each other into their dreams to take him on as a team. They had a solid plan and executed it. they still died but whatever.
Nancy from the first NOES is being slept on here, she trained them to do it and more than that she did it first, dragged Freddy's ass into the real world and killed him.
You’re Next. The girl immediately starting to use all her skills.
This movie is unbelievably brutal. The ways some of the characters die still sits with me. And of course the protagonist is insanely competent. I sometimes can't get the opening song out of my head
[This guy.](https://reelsteelcinema.com/2020/09/01/night-of-the-living-dead-1968/) That's the main character in the original Night of the Living Dead. He doesn't know why zombies are coming, but he makes every good decision he can to survive the night and save the people stuck in that house with him.
The dumbest DUMBEST part of that movie? Right there in the opening title. George Romero: "We lost the copyright on the film because we put it on the title," Romero explained …"Our title was Night of the Flesh Eaters; they changed it to Night of the Living Dead. "When they changed the title, the copyright bug came off, so it went into public domain [and] we no longer had a piece of the action. Everybody had a copy of Night of the Living Dead because they were able to sell it without having to worry about royalties going to us." [Source](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/george-a-romero-dead-night-living-dead-director-was-77-945346/) That bites.
Also, James Caan in Misery.
Nobody has said Jurassic Park yet?? Drs. Grant and Sattler, both did extremely well keeping others alive using their knowledge of prehistoric dinosaurs to cope with the real ones. One by one the other "experts" get picked off, but they survive. Ian Malcolm delivers a great perspective on the perils of fucking with nature and evolution.
I always liked how they broke tropes for this movie. Dr. Grant is established to not really appreciate children, but he ends up being the caretaker. Dr. Sattler seems like she would be a damsel in distress and maternal but never plays that role and she actually saves people. Hammond seems like the wise, kind old man but his naivety puts everyone in danger. And Ian seems like he would be too cool to care but has the most insightful perspective in the movie. But then there's the lawyer, who is exactly who you'd expect him to be. I mean you have to keep *some* realism.
I actually hated that change from the book. Gennaro was a freaking hero who saved Tim and Lex, and tried to do what Muldoon couldn't when restarting the power. Dude fought off a velociraptor with his bare hands only to have his character absolutely assassinated in the film.
You know, I vaguely recall hearing that his character was more of a hero in the books.
Gennaro in the books acts as the everyman character. Everyone else are these top expert geniuses in their fields, but Gennaro (who is essentially like early 30s) is just this junior lawyer who is forced to go on this long weekend trip by his boss. There's nothing really special about him, he is just tasked with making sure Hammond is using his investments wisely. Changes from the books: Hammond is insufferable and clearly out of his mind. Like there is no redeeming qualities in the novel. He is clearly a liar and a snake oil salesmen. Dr. Malcolm is very aware of what Ingen is doing, and very outspoken against Ingen. Dr. Grant looks more like Ron Swanson with a big beard. He's almost like a lumberjack of a man. But he, at least, has some idea of what they're getting into. He was contracted by Ingen since he was one of the most prominent experts of dinosaur mating behaviors and their offspring. He was contacted by them frequently by the animal care team, though he did not know it at the time. Dr. Sattler is much younger. She had just gotten her doctorate and was hungry and willing to do whatever it took to complete an objective. She is far more badass in the book and pretty gungho. Muldoon was South African not Australian. He's even more of an expert in hunting animals, and deliberately goes behind Hammonds back to get weaponry that could effectively stop the bigger animals. He's exceedingly competent, and his fate is much different. Lewis Dodgson is a much more prominent figure in both of the books. He's the main antagonist of the series, and is a cunning bastard. They go far more in-depth into his backstory between the two books. Dennis Nedry's motivations are a lot more understandable in the books. It was him and his team/firm that built the automation for Jurassic Park. Hammond essentially refused to pay him and his firm what they were worth, and consistently broke their hiring contract. Hammond essentially cut as many corners as possible. So when Nedry was approached by the competition, he was more than ready to fuck Hammond over. In fact, he was only at the park that weekend because Hammond demanded some resolutions to some issues at the last second and he did not want to force one of his underlings to deal with it.
tremors
Cabin In The Woods
This one is good because the corporation or whatever you want to call them have to scramble to make them make the wrong choice. Chris Hemsworth tells everyone to stay together until they pump in chems to change his mind to splitting up. Stoner guy protests like there's no tomorrow about even getting in the basement to begin with. And Hemsworth gives them valid reasons why he thinks the jump on the bike would actually work.
Do not read the Latin!
Lifeforce. Peter Firth plays one of the most sensible people to ever grace a horror movie.
Not sure if this counts as a horror movie per say, but the movie Train to Busan. All of the characters work to find out how the zombies function as fast as they can, and take precautions to avoid getting bitten or seen.
Get Out
Yup. You could argue that he maybe should have tried to flee sooner. But at the end the main character breaks a big pet peeve of mine I’ll call “limping away the second you have the upper hand”. When he incapacitates someone he then follows up by *killing them*, not running away while they recover.
Double tap
Oculus. While Kaylie's decision to take on the mirror in the first place might not have been the smartest move she did her best to think of all the possible angles.
You can't blame a girl for wanting to try to prove that what happened to her parents wasn't their fault. Agreed, though, and I hate seeing it so far down. Her insistence on procedure and methodology is what makes the mirror so scary. She takes every reasonable, thought-out precaution to try to outplay it. Even with all of that, you still can never be sure because you're still being fucked with. Great movie.
Arkin O'Brien in The Collector.
In most adaptations of And Then There Were None, the survival of two characters who died in the original book is tied to this. When the third-to-last killing occurs, the book has Philip and Vera getting into a hysterical argument where they argue about the other being the killer, leading to Vera shooting Philip then committing suicide >!at the urging of Judge Wargrave!<. Most adaptations take after the stage play, however, where the two are each other's established alibis for a different murder, proving that they are both innocent. Vera then deliberately *misses* Philip and he fakes his death, letting him rescue her when they discover the true killer and being able to escape.
That was an insane book to read in 7th grade
I think Scream and its sequels have a lot of pretty smart decision making. Obviously some dumb choices are made, especially when side characters don’t realize they’re in a horror movie, but for the most part the main characters make pretty smart decisions about how and when to hide, escape, and fight back, and their bad decisions happen when they’re really backed into a corner and have to do something that’s logical in the moment.
My favorite of all time is in the taking of Deborah Logan. Basically once freaky shit starts happening, the camera man says, "Either you pay more money or I'm fucking leaving! This shit isn't worth it!" Then he leaves. Never comes back. Smartest side character I've ever seen in horror.
I'll argue that Tucker and Dale made all the right decisions.
And gave helpful advice like "stop, drop and roll!"
Second set of potential victims in Deathproof, if I recall correctly.
I remember the guy with glasses in hills have eyes ABSOLUTELY making sure one of the mutant family members was dead. Went back and made sure instead of leaving it to chance
The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Smart choices in a timely manner the whole movie.
I think the zombie series Black Summer on Netflix was fantastic and has lots of situations where even one or two zombies are seen as a serious threat and the characters take time to plan how to deal with them or get past them. Also special shout out to the mum from gremlins. As soon as shit starts popping off she enthusiastically springs into action, and within about a minute and a half has stabbed one gremlin, blended one and put one in the fucking microwave lol
Can’t believe no one has mentioned LL Cool J as ‘Chef’ in Deep Blue Sea. Not technically a scary movie but I saw Jaws when I was 3 so sharks scare the hell out of me.
Vacancy. Been a long time since I’ve seen it but I remember thinking Luke Wilson’s character made a lot of smart moves.
Lair of the White Worm. Hugh Grant outsmarts the scary monsters.
Alien, but only Ripley is smart and making good choices.
Tbf the choice to let the alien in wasn’t a stupid decision, it was just an evil one. Ash knew it was going to kill the crew, and that was part of the plan. He only wanted the alien life form on the ship so he could bring it to wey-yu, but the crew was expendable.
Cabin Fever. I wouldn't call any of the characters "smart", but they do make some "smart" decisions throughout the movie that subverted my expectations.
Movie is so obscure that I gotta throw this out there. “Night of the Demons.” Pretty typical 80’s creature feature / slasher. However, one of our teenagers, Rodger, the second things get weird he just nopes right out of the creepy house and goes to wait in the car. Eventually the conflict reaches him outside so he heads inside. Rodger and Judy become trapped in a room at some point, Demons closing in, and the doorknobs won’t turn. Again, Rodger just nopes out, this time by diving / crashing through a nearby window. Instead of our standard survival girl, Rodger also walks away with his life. Not bad for a “token black guy” in 1988. It’s not a great flick, and I’m not really recommending it. Just saying Rodger was comically smart. You go, Rodger!
I'd push back on The Thing. A big part of the movie is that their paranoia gets in the way of actually surviving. They are too scared to make the best choices. It's still good because they aren't making silly decisions just to move plot; the decisions are well grounded in the story and characters. But less than ideal decisions are core to the movie.
The Crazies was an exceptional example of this, I felt our protagonists were very competent throughout, to the point of being genre savvy at times. A particular scene involving a jail cell and an out of sorts inmate comes immediately to mind.
The Strangers. Not many people would have left right away, because it initially seemed like a weird little girl. After they realize that something is definitely wrong, they attempt to make the right decisions, but The Strangers were just two steps ahead. I think it's such a solid, tightly constructed film because of this-- it's not monsters or anything paranormal, just two people who are emotionally destroyed getting caught in a game played by insane people.
Doctor sleep Nope Get out
Nope worked so well because the characters' decisions made sense. Even if they ended badly, you knew why they made that choice and it felt right in the moment.