The protagonist of a movie should ideally be likable or, at the very least, sympathetic. The audience must want to become emotionally invested in them, see them succeed in their struggles, and enjoy watching as they grow throughout the film. Connection is far harder to do if the protagonist isn't likable.
In the case of horror, some movies emphasize villains as characters, opting to use protagonists as mere vehicles for scares and gory kills. The protagonists are still important characters to the plot, however, and some films fail to make them in any way compelling or likable in any way.
10 Tyler Is An Intensely Annoying Teenager
The Visit is one of M. Night Shyamalan's more divisive recent efforts, with some seeing it as a return to form for the filmmaker and others viewing it as another disappointing entry with weak scares and underbaked characters. One thing most agree on, however, is that Tyler, one of its protagonists, is an annoying character.
Tyler embodies many of the pitfalls of horror movie teenagers, being too clever for his own good and prone to making exasperating decisions. One of his more grating habits is his belief that he is an amazing rapper, which the audience is subjected to more than once throughout the film.
9 Wendy Torrance Spends Too Much Time Hysterical
In a real-life horror movie situation, many people would respond to it with hysterics and panicking. In horror movies, however, audiences tend to want to see collected, brave, and resourceful protagonists who overcome their fears in short order and begin to fight back.
In The Shining, Wendy Torrance is Jack's wife and Danny's mother, who must attempt to stop Jack when he starts his murderous rampage. However, she annoys many viewers with constant screaming and poor responses to events. This demeanor is a change from the source material, where she is a much calmer and more collected individual. The film instead reeks of the genuine trauma actress Shelly Duvall suffered from director Stanley Kubrick and co-star Jack Nicholson on set.
8 Micah Makes Everything Worse
Paranormal Activity follows Katie and Micah as the two attempt to deal with a demon that has haunted Katie since childhood. They receive advice from several characters to tread lightly to avoid aggravating the demon, and to seek the help of an expert.
Katie follows this advice. On the other hand, Micah attempts to take matters into his own hands by recording everything that goes on throughout the house in an attempt to trace the demon's movements. Whenever Katie protests his choices, he responds by being rude and dismissive to her, insisting he's in the right as the demon grows increasingly aggressive.
7 Edward Malus Has A Hair-Trigger Temper And No Idea What He's Doing
In the original The Wicker Man, the protagonist is Neil Howie, a sober and sensible policeman whose rigid Christianity clashes against the liberal paganism of Summerisle. In the 2006 remake, the main character is Edward Malus, a haunted and bad-tempered police officer with a personal stake in the disappearance of the young girl Rowan.
The film is disliked for many reasons, but Malus is one of the most frequently-criticized aspects. Throughout the film, he is clueless, irrational, prone to fits of anger, and easily manipulated. In addition, he displays almost no sympathetic characteristics, causing his eventual death to have much less impact on the audience.
6 Tommy Jarvis Resurrects A Killer In The Name Of Thoroughness
Tommy Jarvis is one of the most frequently recurring characters in the Friday the 13th franchise other than the iconic Jason himself. He initially appears as a child in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and proves to be surprisingly likable and competent. He survives against the notorious slasher and is even the one to kill him, showing a savvy that previous survivors lack.
In later films showing Tommy as an adult, he becomes a much less likable character. Haunted by his previous encounter with Jason, he goes to confirm the killer's death, only to succeed in unintentionally reviving him with lightning. Although he tries to make amends for his mistake, causing several dozen more of Jason's murders doesn't make him particularly sympathetic.
5 Louis Creed Invites Terror On His Family
Pet Sematary is a film about grief and the terrible things it can drive a person to do. Unfortunately, relatable motives aside, protagonist Louis Creed loses nearly all audience sympathy when he knowingly and willingly takes his daughter to a cursed burial ground.
Despite seeing the effects the ground has on those it revives, Creed resurrects his daughter and seals his family's fate. Coupled with a lack of particularly redeeming qualities, being the abject impetus for the film's violence and death makes Creed very hard to like indeed.
4 Julie James Lets People Die To Hide Her Crimes
The first few minutes of a film are important for establishing a protagonist's personality and making them somebody that the audience can like. As such, it's an unusual choice in I Know What You Did Last Summer to have protagonist Julie James immediately commit a crime by encouraging her friends to cover up running over a pedestrian and attempting to hide all the evidence.
From low beginnings, James doesn't improve much. As it becomes more and more apparent that the murders are happening due to her and her friends' actions, she refuses to go to the police or even tell anyone, impeding any attempt to stop the murders purely to save her own skin.
3 Patrick Bateman Would Be Unbearable Even Without The Killing
American Psycho takes the unusual approach of having its protagonist and villain be the same character, telling the film from the perspective of serial killer Patrick Bateman. Obviously, his murderous urges and crimes limit how likable he can be, but his personality is plenty objectionable besides.
Despite a charismatic performance from Christian Bale, Bateman is condescending, pretentious, misogynistic, and hiding it all beneath a false veil of moral righteousness. This is a deliberate choice, with the film acting as a commentary on the 'yuppie' culture of the 1980s.
2 Rocky Fails To Redeem Herself Despite The Film's Best Attempts
The movie Don't Breathe tries to make the audience take the side of the protagonist Rocky. She has an abusive family, a younger sister she wants to take care of, and dreams she wants to fulfill. Despite this, she fails to be sympathetic, even when she's trapped in a pitch-black house with a rampaging gunman.
This is because the entire film is caused by Rocky, a career thief, attempting to rob its antagonist. He's a disabled war veteran, and the money she wants to take is a payout from the death of his daughter in a car accident. No matter how contemptuous Norman Nordstrom is throughout the film, Rocky remains entirely unsympathetic due to her awful goals.
1 Blaire Lily Is Simply An Awful Person
Despite receiving widespread praise for its novel format and uniqueness, Unfriended has received a fair amount of criticism for its characters. One of the most notorious is its protagonist, Blaire Lily, who entirely fails to be sympathetic or likable in the least.
This is because a year before the film's events, Blaire caused her friend's suicide by publicizing a humiliating incident on the internet, turning her into a laughing stock. Blaire seems unmoved by her actions until she begins to suffer horrifying consequences for them, giving the audience no reason to care about her.