10 Horror Movie Characters That Didn't Deserve The Hate
8. Don Harris - 28 Weeks Later
The way folks talk about 28 Weeks Later's initial protagonist Don (Robert Carlyle), you'd assume he was responsible for unleashing the planet-decimating Rage Virus in the first place.
For many, their hate for Don was cemented in the film's gut-wrenching opening sequence, where his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) grants refuge to a terrified young boy running from a fleet of the infected.
As the infected arrive and massacre the group of survivors, Don tries to convince Alice to leave the boy to his own devices, but Alice flat-out refuses.
And so, as the infected close in on them, Don decides to abandon his wife, fleeing the overrun cottage and just barely escaping to safety.
To this very day, many continue to brand Don a feckless coward who condemned his own wife to die. And even ignoring the fact that Alice inexplicably survives the attack, what was Don really expected to do in this situation?
From Don's perspective, there was very little he could do to fend off the infected, and staying behind would've most likely resulted in all three of them dying rather than just two.
The fact of the matter is that Don makes audiences uncomfortable because he holds a mirror up to them, reminding them how they'd most likely act in a real version of this scenario, powered by their innate fight-or-flight response.
Don did the only realistic thing he could in order to survive, and we shouldn't hate him for that.