Victims: More Than Targets

I’ve always said that a horror film has to revolve around the evil, be it an unexplainable curse or popular antagonist, but at the same time (for that evil to properly hit us), it has to threaten something we either value or can relate to, and so the victims must be of a high quality.

There are a myriad of reasons why so many modern American horror films are sub-par, from the poorly executed clichés to a reliance on jump scares, but arguably more damning than all of that are the brainless, whiney teens who we wish would die as soon as their car breaks down or they decide to get it on in the middle of rapesville. When all you have to offer are loud screams and an inability to stay on your feet when chased then death is hardly a tragedy.

One of the reasons The Exorcist (1973) was so good is it had characters who felt like real people with real struggles. You feel for both Chris MacNeil and Father Karras because we get a sense of who they are, how they try to make ends meet. Rather than doing their best to burst ear drums they conveyed fear, despair and mental exhaustion in all its soul-sucking stages.

I recently watched Hereditary and while I thought it could have been better it definitely had solid characters. Annie Graham, son Peter and daughter Charlie all carried a lot of emotional baggage which came though every time they were on screen. They compelled to the point I rode their emotions, and so when the evil came a knockin’ I begun to share some of the burden. If that connection isn’t there then there arguably isn’t any terror.

One of the unsung heroes of hysterics for my money is Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), played by the late Marilyn Burns. We all remember Leatherface, the sense of isolation and furniture made of bones but, again, for all this to properly hit we need a someone to react, and Marilyn’s performance ran the full gamut from concern to unhinged, blood-stained delirium.

She deserved to get away.