15 Insufferable Movie Protagonists That Ruined Their Movies
13. The Main Trio - Hostel
Possibly the biggest reason that Hostel, an overall unsuccessful Torture Porn thriller, doesn't work is that no-one can truly be expected to like the main characters. Sure, they in no way deserved their nightmarish fate, but it was still hard to get truly invested in their survival.
Paxton and Josh, two immature young Americans and Oli, an Icelandic man, go through Europe being sexist, mistreating women, starting fights, taking drugs and generally being a**eholes with a startling lack of respect for the cultures or the people around them.
Josh is a bit better, but frustratingly not only does he die, but he also gets the film's longest death scene. The film's survivor is Paxton, yet not even the horrendous ordeal he goes through is quite enough to make one feel much fondness towards him. Prior to his torture, Paxton is just an irritating misogynist who's impossible to root for despite Jay Hernandez's strong performance in the role.
Luckily, both the film's sequels had likable leads, so this was a mistake the rest of the series learnt from.