10 Films That Make You The Bad Guy
We reveal the scariest movie villain of all: the person reading this sentence.
There's no better feeling than kicking back and sticking on a movie. It's a chance to escape everyday life for a while, to relax and enjoy the freedom of being entertained for a couple of hours. Maybe you'll laugh, maybe you'll cry, but whatever you do, one thing is for sure: you are in no way morally responsible for the fate of the characters on screen. Right?
Wrong! Very, very wrong.
Sometimes, a film will come along that puts the viewer in a bit of an awkward position. While most movies limit themselves to only representing the people on screen, this isn't enough for some filmmakers. No, they want the people watching to feel like they are a part of the story, a part of the action, and, occasionally, a part of the problem.
While watching the following ten films, we couldn't help but feel a little... off. Each movie managed to do it in a different way, but they all achieved the same result. Whether the film implicated the audience directly, or just referenced their role in the story, they made one thing very clear: you, the viewer, are the real villain.
10. Cabin In The Woods
Cabin In The Woods follows the inner workings of a shady organisation who sacrifice teens to a pantheon of mysterious gods. So far, not a particularly believable scenario. However, the film slaps on whole new levels of meta-commentary as it becomes increasingly clear exactly who these mysterious gods are: us.
It's not enough that the chosen teens are slaughtered - the gods, known as the Ancient Ones, want to be entertained. It just so happens that their favourite form of entertainment is a trope-heavy slasher flick.
Throughout the film, we see the five main characters manipulated into behaving like five horror movie archetypes: the whore, the athlete, the scholar, the fool, and the virgin. The Ancient Ones watch as one by one, they get killed off by a variety of classic movie monsters, rumbling the earth to show their approval. When the teens realise what is going on and put a stop to it all, the Ancient Ones are so upset that they destroy the entire planet.
The Ancient Ones are an obvious analogue for the audience watching, demanding sex, violence, and scenes of a very graphic nature from the onscreen characters. This movie dares to ask the question: how many more fictional teens have to die before we've got our fix?