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Greedy-Loss9030 t1_ja2q8u5 wrote

The thing people forget, especially post-Scream, is that these characters aren't the audience-they aren't aware they're in a horror film, and in most cases, aren't aware that they are in any considerable danger.

As far as whether these "dumb decisions" some viewers choose to fixate on are on purpose or not, alot of times it just comes down to nothing more than creating tension in the most economical way. Also, the audience reacting to characters doing "dumb" things is part of the experience-you're supposed to cringe in fear at the character walking down a dark corridor after hearing a strange noise as you know whats likely coming. The way you reacted is the way you're expected to react--("OMG, I wouldn't do that....you're gonna die...oh shit!")

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geo_gan OP t1_ja2rird wrote

Yes, so it —is— done on purpose

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Greedy-Loss9030 t1_ja2sm2b wrote

Depends on what "dumb" decisions you're pointing out. Character choosing to explore darkened area for noise-on purpose for the sake of building tension and/or possibly killing off a character. We have no way to know what is in every writer's head.

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lucia-pacciola t1_ja3ek6f wrote

"Did it on purpose" connotes intentionally doing something wrong or bad. I think a lot of the stuff you're talking about isn't wrong or bad, in the context of horror storytelling.

So I'd put it as "did it for a reason."

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