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 sore description isn't solely reserved for the villains.
00:09Whether by accident or design, there have been plenty of horror heroes who have been,
00:14well, insufferable pricks. It may be misjudge writing, it might be smartly judge 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 WhatCultureHorror,
00:28and here are the 10 most unlikable horror movie heroes.
00:31Number 10, Sergeant Hooker, Leprechaun 4 in Space.
00:35To be fair, whenever Leprechaun 4 in Space comes up in a conversation,
00:39you know it's not going to be for any particularly positive reason.
00:42Taking the franchise up into the stars and to the future of 2096,
00:46here we have Warwick Davis' Lubden trying to marry an alien princess.
00:50Having tinkered with the plans of a mining organisation, our Leprechaun is being hunted
00:54by some space marines, headed up by Sergeant Hooker, or as some of his friends know him,
00:59Metalhead. Amongst the numerous Star Wars and Aliens rip-offs, Hooker is part jock,
01:04part 1950s sexist, part droid rage, as he admires his biceps, fires guns and screams,
01:10and tells women to get back in the kitchen. To the credit of actor Tim Colcheri, though,
01:14he did actually serve in the marines, and at one point was a professional golfer,
01:18before injury brought that to an end. Don't say we don't ever bring some mild trivia for you here,
01:22at what culture horror? Number 9, Andy Nicholas, Jaws 2. This one does feel a smidge harsh,
01:28with Andy Nicholas having such a small role in Jaws 2, and taking up a leadership role when he
01:33and his pals are attacked by the film's great white shark. The problem is, actor Gary Springer
01:38is a little too cheesy in his performance as Andy, making any scene he's in feel a little insincere,
01:44and these actions should actually make him likeable, but the delivery of those actions have the
01:48opposite effect, turning the audience off the character. With only a few roles after Jaws 2,
01:54Gary Springer moved into the publicist side of the entertainment industry, and also randomly
01:58reached out to me on X after seeing the written version of this list to ask whether he should be
02:02honoured to be included here, or whether he should wish for my beloved Wrexham AFC to never win a game
02:06of football again, and for me to have a close-up encounter with a shark. Yes, that did really happen.
02:11Number 8, Claire, Superhost. A stunning hidden gem, Brandon Christensen's Superhost finds lovebirds and
02:18travel vloggers Teddy and Claire staying at an idyllic remote property owned by the erratic
02:23Rebecca. Well, not actually owned by Rebecca, for she's murdered the homeowners and is merely
02:28pretending to be the owner. Superhost is great in how it doesn't try to kid you about its premise,
02:33making it clear that all isn't right with the erratic Rebecca from the get-go. As such,
02:37the enjoyment isn't seeing the phenomenal Gracie Gillam go through the emotions as Rebecca,
02:41and predicting when the character will fully embrace the chaos. While Teddy is sincere and warm,
02:47his girlfriend Claire sadly lacks in that area, being uncomfortably obsessed with getting those
02:51likes, shares, and subscribes for their YouTube channel. To the point, she even thinks a genuine
02:56marriage proposal was just simply a stage masterstroke to get more views. So, when Claire ends Superhost
03:02on the wrong side of the craze Rebecca, you don't particularly feel any sympathy for her.
03:06Number 7, Franklin Hardesty. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. By default, you should want to get behind
03:13Franklin, with him clearly having suffered in life due to the disability that's left him in the
03:17wheelchair. Added to that, he and his sister Sally are visiting their grandfather's grave after reports
03:21of that site 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 how the
03:39character was a whiny bastard and how he'd remain in character on set purposely to annoy his co-stars.
03:44Number 6, Lewis Creed. Pet Sematary. Pet Sematary is a tale about grief, or to be more specific,
03:50about how experiencing grief is an inevitable part of life we cannot run away from. When the Creed
03:56family moved from busy Chicago to rural Maine, their new neighbour Judd, played by a magnificent Fred
04:01Gwynn, introduces them to a pet cemetery in the woods behind their house. And it's not long before those
04:07woods become the downfall of the creeds. Once the family cat church is killed after being hit by a
04:12truck, panicked family patriarch Lewis is worried about how his daughter Ellie will react. Seeking
04:17advice from Judd, Lewis is taken past the pet cemetery and to a special burial ground. After
04:22burying 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. When Ellie's younger brother
04:33Gage is likewise killed by a passing truck, rather than deal with that death, Lewis digs
04:38up his son and reburies him in that same special burial ground. And of course, Gage returns as a
04:43murderous beast. And when Gage kills his mother Rachel, what does Lewis do? Yeah, obviously he
04:49buries her in that same spot, because what could go wrong? It's hard to feel sorry for Lewis when he
04:54keeps making the same mistake time and time again, bringing on even more misery for himself rather
04:59than facing up to his grief. Number 5, Tina Williams and Sam Loomis, Halloween 5, The Revenge
05:05of Michael Myers. Rachel Carruthers was a brilliant character in Halloween 4, The Return of Michael
05:11Myers. So of course, she was killed off in the opening act of Halloween 5, The Revenge of
05:15Michael Myers and replaced by her best pal, Tina Williams. As such, Tina took on the big sister
05:21role for young Jamie Lloyd, the niece of Michael. The problem is, Tina is just so annoying. From the
05:27moment she's introduced and does some awful song and dance thing, to skipping out on Jamie to be
05:32with her greaser a-hole boyfriend, to pulling a fake Michael Myers prank on two armed cops on high
05:38alert, yeah, 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.
05:48Double Pleasance's franchise favourite has always been intense and erratic, that's part of his charm
05:53after all. But Halloween 5 goes way too far with Loomis, as he spends the movie bullying a bunch
05:58of traumatised kids, uses Jamie as bait to draw out Michael, locks the poor kid in the Myers house,
06:04breaks a police radio to stop outside contact, and literally goads Michael into a game of what
06:09Loomis calls, catch 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, essentially, to get you to root for a
06:21hero who's pretty darn dislikeable. That hero would be livestreamer Annie, played by Annie Hardy as a
06:26semi-fictionalised version of herself, who winds up in an eerie situation involving a creepy woman who
06:32has murderous desires, 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, berates anyone with
06:43opposing views, and constantly oversteps the line to let people know her thoughts on the pandemic
06:47restrictions, vaccinations, masks, the homeless, and her obnoxious way of championing MAGA.
06:53While, in one sense, Rob Savage achieved his aim in delivering a central protagonist who's hard to
06:57root for, in another sense, that aim was way overachieved, and it becomes hard to truly invest
07:02in Annie and her story. Number 3, Shelley Finkelstein. Friday the 13th, Part 3. In fairness, you could fill out
07:10this entire list with dislikeable characters from the Friday the 13th franchise. You're not getting away
07:15with this Ted or Teddy, yeah, you're on the radar, but it's Friday the 13th, Part 3, Shelley, who gets
07:20the nod here. Shelley spends the bulk of his screen time pulling boy-who-cried-wolf pranks or spooking
07:26his friends, to the point that when Jason Voorhees does actually turn up, they think it's just Shelley
07:31goofing around. Plus, Shelley's decision to run over one of their motorbikes brings bikers Fox,
07:36Loco, and Ali to Higgins Haven, which nearly results in the barn being burnt down. And even when
07:41Shelley himself is killed, his friends think it's just one more prank. Number 2, Mika Sloat,
07:48Paranormal Activity. While it's one thing to be skeptical, the way Mika is so dismissive in
07:53Paranormal Activity had you totally rooting for something awful to happen to him. For Mika's
07:59girlfriend Katie, she's concerned about spooky shenanigans in their new home, even more so
08:03because she thinks this could be the same eerie presence that's tormented her since childhood.
08:07To his credit, Mika does set up cameras to record any spooky goings-on, but he does so firmly with
08:13his tongue-in-cheek and with a sense of mockery. And when a psychic warns the couple to avoid
08:17communication with this presence, Mika of course doubles down by getting a Ouija board, all as poor
08:23Katie becomes increasingly angry at him. Thankfully, Mika gets his comeuppance in the film's closing
08:28moments, killed off-screen by the possessed Katie and then having his corpse thrown at the watching
08:33audience. Number 1, Gail Weathers, the Scream franchise. As of this recording, the only legacy
08:40character still involved with Scream is Courtney Cox's Gail Weathers, and she's a tough hero to
08:45really ever get behind. For every good deed she does, Gail can't help but undermine that by doing
08:50something extremely scummy. For instance, having helped save the day in 2022's Scream, she outright
08:56promises Sam and Tara Carpenter that she won't write a book about their story, but will instead write a
09:02tribute piece to poor Dewey Riley. Of course, when Gail reappears in Scream 6, she's absolutely gone
09:07back on that promise and written a book on the most recent Woodsburn murders, which earns her a
09:11punch from Tara, which obviously follows on from similar punches from Sidney Prescott in the first
09:15two Scream movies, as Gail is forever unable to resist her very worst instincts when it comes to
09:21breaking a story or making a buck from someone else's misery. But hey, there's always Scream 7,
09:26because things are going so well for that film right now.