Whether by accident or design, these horror movie heroes were impossible to root for.
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00:00Horror movies are so often filled with awful, horrible, unlikable, detestable characters,
00:05and sometimes that sort of description isn't solely reserved for the villains.
00:09Whether by accident or design, there have been plenty of horror heroes who've been,
00:14well, insufferable pricks. It may be misjudged writing, it might be smartly judged writing,
00:19or it might be due to an under- or overdone performance, but certain protagonists forever
00:24have you shaking your head. With that in mind, I'm Andrew from What Culture Horror,
00:28and here are the 10 Most Unlikable Horror Movie Heroes.
00:3110. Sgt. Hooker – Leprechaun 4 In Space
00:35To be fair, whenever Leprechaun 4 In Space comes up in a conversation, you know it's not going to
00:40be for any particularly positive reason. Taking the franchise up into the stars and to the future
00:44of 2096, here we have Warren Davis' Loveden trying to marry an alien princess. Having tinkered
00:51with the plans and reminding organisation, our Leprechaun is being hunted by some space marines,
00:55headed up by Sgt. Hooker, or as some of his friends know him, Metalhead. Amongst the numerous
01:01Star Wars and Aliens rip-offs, Hooker is part jock, part 1950s sexist, part roid rage, as he
01:07admires his biceps, fires guns and screams, and tells women to get back in the kitchen.
01:12To the credit of actor Tim Colcheri, though, he did actually serve in the marines,
01:16and at one point was a professional golfer, before injury brought that to an end.
01:20Don't say we don't ever bring some mild trivia for you here at What Culture Horror.
01:239. Andy Nicholas, Jaws 2
01:26This one does feel a smidge harsh, with Andy Nicholas having such a small role in Jaws 2,
01:31and taking up a leadership role when he and his pals are attacked by the film's great white shark.
01:36The problem is, actor Gary Springer is a little too cheesy in his performance as Andy,
01:41making any scene he's in feel a little insincere. Andy's actions should actually make him likeable,
01:46but the delivery of those actions have the opposite effect, turning the audience off
01:50the character. With only a few roles after Jaws 2, Gary Springer moved into the publicist side
01:55of the entertainment industry, and also randomly reached out to me on x after seeing the written
02:00version of this list to ask whether he should be honoured to be included here, or whether he
02:03should wish for my beloved Rex and AFC to never win a game of football again, and for me to have
02:08a close-up encounter with a shark. Yes, that did really happen.
02:118. Claire, Superhost
02:13A stunning hidden gem, Brandon Christensen's Superhost finds lovebirds and travel vloggers
02:18Teddy and Claire staying at an idyllic remote property owned by the erratic Rebecca. Well,
02:24not actually owned by Rebecca, for she's murdered the homeowners and is merely pretending to be the
02:29owner. Superhost is great in how it doesn't try to kid you about its premise, making it clear that
02:34all isn't right with the erratic Rebecca from the get-go. As such, the enjoyment is in seeing the
02:39phenomenal Gracie Gilliam go through the emotions as Rebecca, and predicting when the character will
02:44embrace the chaos. While Teddy is sincere and warm, his girlfriend Claire sadly lacks in that
02:49area, being uncomfortably obsessed with getting those like shares and subscribes for their YouTube
02:53channel. To the point, she even thinks a genuine marriage proposal was just simply a stage master
02:59stroke to get more views. So, when Claire ends Superhost on the wrong side of the crazed Rebecca,
03:04you don't particularly feel any sympathy for her.
03:067. Franklin Hardesty, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
03:11By default, you should want to get behind Franklin, with him clearly having suffered
03:15in life due to the disability that's left him in a wheelchair. Added to that,
03:18he and his sister Sally are visiting their grandfather's grave after reports of that
03:22site being vandalised. While there's clearly sympathy for him, Franklin is simply childish,
03:27selfish, abusive and downright rude, making you feel sorry for those stuck with him on the Texas
03:33roads. Even Franklin actor Paul A. Partain, who sadly passed away in 2005, said in interviews
03:38how the character was a whiny bastard and how he'd remain in character on set purposely to
03:43annoy his co-stars. 6. Lewis Creed, Pet Sematary
03:47Pet Sematary is a tale about grief, or to be more specific, about how experiencing grief is
03:52an inevitable part of life we cannot run away from. When the Creed family move from busy Chicago
03:57to rural Maine, their new neighbour Judd, played by a magnificent Fred Gwynn, introduces them to
04:03a pet cemetery in the woods behind their house. And it's not long before those woods become the
04:07downfall of the Creeds. Once the family cat Church is killed after being hit by a truck,
04:12panicked family patriarch Lewis is worried about how his daughter Ellie will react.
04:16Seeking advice from Judd, Lewis is taken past the pet cemetery and to a special burial ground.
04:22After burying Church there, wouldn't you know it, but the cat returns to life the very next day,
04:27just extra aggressive and with glowing eyes, which is always a good sign.
04:32When Ellie's younger brother Gage is likewise killed by a passing truck,
04:35rather than deal with that death, Lewis digs up his son and re-buries him in that same special
04:40burial ground. And of course, Gage returns as a murderous beast. And when Gage kills his mother
04:46Rachel, what does Lewis do? Yep, obviously he buries her in that same spot, because what could
04:51go wrong? It's hard to feel sorry for Lewis when he keeps making the same mistake time and time
04:56again, bringing on even more misery for himself rather than facing up to his grief. 5. Tina
05:02Williams and Sam Loomis – Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers
05:07Rachel Carruthers was a brilliant character in Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers,
05:12so of course she was killed off in the opening act of Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers,
05:16and replaced by her best pal Tina Williams. As such, Tina took on the big sister role for
05:21young Jamie Lloyd, the niece of Michael. The problem is, Tina is just so annoying.
05:26From the moment she's introduced and does some awful song and dance thing,
05:30to skipping out on Jamie to be with her greaser a-hole boyfriend,
05:34to pulling a fake Michael Myers prank on two armed cops on high alert,
05:39yeah, Tina is just hard to get behind. And while this entry was to be all about Tina,
05:43a recent Halloween 5 rewatch means Sam Loomis can't not be featured here too.
05:48Devil Pleasance, his franchise favourite, has always been intense and erratic. That's part
05:52of his charm, after all. But Halloween 5 goes way too far with Loomis, as he spends the movie
05:57bullying a bunch of traumatised kids, uses Jamie as bait to draw out Michael,
06:02locks the poor kid in the Myers' house, breaks a police radio to stop outside contact,
06:06and literally golds Michael into a game of what Loomis calls,
06:10Catch the Little Girl. Not cool, Sam. So, so not cool.
06:14Number 4. Annie. Dashcam. Part of the aim of Rob Savage's dashcam is,
06:19essentially, to get you to root for a hero who's pretty darn dislikeable.
06:23That hero would be livestreamer Annie, played by Annie Hardy as a semi-fictionalised version of
06:28herself, who winds up in an eerie situation involving a creepy woman who has murderous
06:32desires where it relates to Annie, her pal Stretch, and anyone else who happens to come
06:37into this lady's crosshairs. The thing is, Annie is brimming with self-entitlement,
06:41berates anyone with opposing views, and constantly oversteps the line to let people know her thoughts
06:47on the pandemic restrictions, vaccinations, masks, the homeless, and her obnoxious way
06:52of championing MAGA. While, in one sense, Rob Savage achieved his aim in delivering
06:56a central protagonist who's hard to root for, in another sense, that aim was way overachieved,
07:01and it becomes hard to truly invest in Annie and her story.
07:04Number 3. Shelley Finkelstein. Friday the 13th Part 3.
07:09In fairness, you could fill out this entire list with dislikable characters from the Friday the 13th
07:14franchise. You're not getting away with this, Ted, or Teddy. Yeah, you're on the radar. But it's
07:18Friday the 13th Part 3's Shelley who gets the nod here. Shelley spends the bulk of his
07:22screentime pulling boy-who-cried-wolf pranks or spooking his friends, to the point that
07:27when Jason Voorhees does actually turn up, they think it's just Shelley goofing around.
07:32Plus, Shelley's decision to run over one of their motorbikes brings bikers,
07:35Fox, Loco, and Ali to Higgins Haven, which nearly results in the barn being burnt down.
07:41And even when Shelley himself is killed, his friends think it's just one more prank.
07:46Number 2. Mika Sloat. Paranormal Activity.
07:50While it's one thing to be sceptical, the way Mika is so dismissive in Paranormal Activity
07:54had you totally rooting for something awful to happen to him. For Mika's girlfriend, Katie,
08:00she's concerned about spooky shenanigans in their new home, even more so because she thinks this
08:04could be the same eerie presence that's tormented her since childhood. To his credit, Mika does set
08:09up cameras to record any spooky goings-on, but he does so firmly with his tongue in cheek and
08:14with a sense of mockery. And when a psychic warns the couple to avoid communication with this
08:19presence, Mika of course stumbles down by getting a Ouija board, all as poor Katie becomes increasingly
08:24angry at him. Thankfully, Mika gets his comeuppance in the film's closing moments,
08:29killed off-screen by the possessed Katie and then having his corpse thrown at the watching audience.
08:33Number 1. Gail Weathers. The Scream Franchise.
08:37As of this recording, the only legacy character still involved with Scream is Courtney Cox's
08:42Gail Weathers, and she's a tough hero to really ever get behind. For every good deed she does,
08:48Gail can't help but undermine that by doing something extremely scummy. For instance,
08:53having helped save the day in 2022's Scream, she outright promises Sam and Tara Carpenter that she
08:58won't write a book about their story, but will instead write a tribute piece to poor Dewey Riley.
09:04Of course, when Gail reappears in Scream 6, she's absolutely gone back on that promise and
09:08written a book on the most recent Woodsburn murders, which earns her a punch from Tara,
09:12which obviously follows on from similar punches from Sidney Prescott in the first two Scream
09:16movies, as Gail is forever unable to resist her very worst instincts when it comes to breaking
09:21her story or making a book from someone else's misery. But hey, there's always Scream 7,
09:26because things are going so well for that film right now.