10 Dumbest Ever Horror Movie Protagonists

Horror films are usually so full of dumb people that they’re practically a prerequisite. We’ve all sat down to watch a scary movie and found ourselves screaming at the screen when some idiot with a common sense bypass goes down into the basement when they should be running out the door or decides to split from their group after uttering the immortal words ‘I’ll be right back’ when a maniac killer is on the loose.

But the thing about horror movies is that they kind of rely on idiots to propel the plot. If they didn’t have imbeciles making bad decisions, we wouldn’t get to witness the grim and gruesome situations they find themselves in. In other words, if horror films were populated by real-life people with logical thought processes and sound judgement they’d be over before they’d even really begun.

It’s not too much of an exaggeration then to say that without dumb protagonists in horror movies, we wouldn’t actually have horror movies. They’re as essential an ingredient to the horror film as the big bad villain or the final girl.

So, some stupidity is to be expected but certain acts of sheer idiocy in horror films defy all logic no matter how hard you try to suspend your disbelief. Some horror protagonists make decisions so utterly brainless that you can’t help but wonder if they’ve got a death wish.

Here’s to those characters – the dumbest of the dumb in the horror genre – in all their idiotic glory.

Defining Dumb Moment: Not taking being terrorised by a demon seriously.

There’s a few easily abided by rules when it comes to dealing with the demonic entity that’s taken up residence in your home yet the arrogant, moronic Micah from Paranormal Activity manages to wilfully break them all.

After being warned by noted psychic Dr Fredrichs – a man well acquainted with all things demonic – not to communicate with or encourage the demon in any way, shape or form Micah continues filming the weird goings-on in he and Katie’s home. He even goes so far as to try and speak with the entity via a Ouija board. So pretty much the exact opposite of the psychic’s advice then.

Even when the demon ups the ante considerably and starts leaving its cloven hoofprints around the house and physically bites Katie, Micah doesn’t think it might be time to get the hell out of there or at least get a demonologist or Catholic priest round.

So when he inevitably and brutally dies at the hands of his own now demonically possessed girlfriend, you have to admit the idiot kind of had it coming.