Horror movie stupidity

 
  We have seen this many times in horror movies.  A character, usually a supporting one, who does something incredibly stupid and ends up dead or getting others killed.  In the latest Evil Dead movie, the guy with glasses finds the Book of the Dead, wrapped up in a bag and barbed wire, and for no reason whatsoever he decides to unwrap it.  Further, he reads the damn thing, despite the warnings, written in English on the pages.  Did I mention this was after he finds the book in a cabin where someone was burned alive and dead animals were hanging from ropes in the basement?  Yeah, real smart idea. 

  The Wrong Turn series,

  Examples of the characters likely to get you killed in a horror movie:
-The Logical Fundy
-The Howler/Screamer
-Mr. Bigshot
-Custer
-The Noob
-The Bully

The Logical Fundy is the idiot who relies too much on reason and logic, to the point of idiocy.  The character will see something that is plainly supernatural, like a ghost attacking someone or a witch using magic, the first thing they say is "That's not Logical/Rational".  A ghost attacking people in a haunted house?  Not Logical.  The dead rising from their graves to eat the living?  Not Logical.  Magic?  Not Logical.  Anything supernatural is not logical, even if it's right there, attacking other people, and clearly real.  The problem with the Logical Fundy is that he or she is not adaptable, and the character usually screens out evidence.  They tend to be either the person who breaks down quickly, goes crazy, or ignores obvious solutions in favor of ideas that don't have any chance of working.

  The Howler/Screamer is a character who screams at everything.  Hiding with a Howler/Screamer is dangerous, anything that scares them results in screaming and howling, giving away the location of the characters to any monster or psycho in the area.  They're also annoying, typically screaming at anything and ending up being the bait character who forces the other characters to confront the killer, either because the Howler/Screamer is a love interest, friend, or somehow important to the other characters.

  Mr. Bigshot, a pompous asshole who thinks he or she is more important than others in the movie.  Horror movies tend to kill assholes early, or in a horrible manner. The Bigshot will think of himself or herself and force others into doing things like picking up keys from a dead body or search a dark house.  They will also use others as distractions and human shields or otherwise sacrifice others so they can live.

   Custer, the guy who gets the bright idea to do something incredibly idiotic like charging a psychopathic killer, or makes terrible plans and tries to get others to follow him.  A character who comes up with the worst plans tends to be a Custer, whether it's battle plans of survival.

   The Noob tends to be one of those new guys who doesn't know anything about their profession and ends up doing things that no seasoned member of their profession does.  In horror movies where the characters are soldiers, these characters have their guns set to safety mode while in a fire fight, whine incessantly, display a lack of the mental strength of a soldier, and tend to be terrible shots.  In other words, this character makes the audience wonder how the character ever joined his or her profession.

  The Bully is the worst character in a horror movie.  This idiot pisses off others and the audience by pushing around other characters, meaning he or she might be the first person to get killed outside of the minor characters.

  These characters are the supporting characters who get others killed in horror movies almost as frequently as the monsters or killers.  They act dumber than zombies, more erratic the psychopaths, more self centered and arrogant than vampires, and can make otherwise decent characters die off.  Sometimes it's not the monsters, it the people, that make a horror movie so scary.