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Any film, no matter the genre, is more likely to find success if it can successfully balance unique elements and familiar ones within its storyline. In the case of the horror genre, this can be tricky because there are so many beats in a horror film that are essential to it feeling scary.
One way that filmmakers can achieve this balance, without altering the very specific structure of a horror movie, is by creating unconventional protagonists or antagonists within scary scenarios. Of course, there’s far more creative range allowed with creating unique antagonists, as they don’t necessarily have to conform to the rules of reality, but creating original protagonists can be a different story.
Coming up with unconventional protagonists is more of a challenge because usually the main character reflects people somehow so that the audience can connect with them or care about what happens to them. This creates a smaller window of opportunities to get creative with them, but that doesn’t mean some horror movies haven’t aced the assignment.
Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense
One interesting detail is that this is a child protagonist, which would usually be a risky move for a horror film because so much violence or darkness is implied by the genre and no one wants to see that type of content happen to a child for an entire movie. Beyond that, this particular child can communicate with the spirits of people who have died and need to pass over to the other side. To take this a step further, Cole is an unusual approach to a protagonist, because in most cases, the protagonist is one of the last people to learn what is really happening in the story, while in Cole’s case he is the only one that knows the story’s twist. Though he doesn’t necessarily experience the same things that other horror film protagonists do, his unique position in the film brings a new and impressive element of story to the genre.
Erin from You’re Next
While the goal of most protagonists in horror movies is to escape their tormentor, that is not the case with Erin. When she comes under attack on her honeymoon, she fights back with unusually good methods. It’s revealed that during her childhood, she was brought up in a survivalist compound, and she was thus trained to defend herself against the most extreme types of aggressors. Her background makes her the perfect match for horror movie killers, as she doesn’t hold back from matching their brutality to make her point: don’t mess with her or her loved ones.
Van Helsing from Dracula
Another protagonist that fights back against the monster is definitely Van Helsing, who has become iconic for his role in fighting Dracula. This character, in fact, takes fighting back a step further by deliberately hunting the antagonist and even teaching others to do so as well. Van Helsing was so successful in his role fighting back that he is synonymous with Dracula and vampires, resulting in several film variations of his character, all where he is a highly skilled vampire hunter. What makes him so unique isn’t even his impeccable ability to fight and defend, but is his drive to hunt the very monsters that have plagued his life. Many of the trope items that are used to hunt vampires in movies, even today, can be attributed to Van Helsing’s tools in Stoker’s Dracula.
The Losers Club in It
Again, we don’t traditionally get children protagonists because people tend to not reflect fondly on bad things happening to child characters in film, however considering the antagonist for this film, it couldn’t be more appropriate. In part this film follows children as protagonists to create a backstory for the sequel, where these same characters come back to confront It as adults, but it reflects more than that in the story. Because the monster of the film is a clown, a job that is commonly associated with kids, it was an appropriate choice to have children face off against him because he would be scarier to them than adults that had no prior association with It. To further the unique factor of these protagonists, these kids make a pact centered around It, almost functioning like a club.
Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Another classic horror tale on the list, Dr. Frankenstein is equally fascinating as his antagonist counterpart, his creation. While many people mistakenly refer to the monster as Frankenstein, those familiar with the story know that Frankenstein is the madly intelligent doctor who sews together the body parts of dead bodies and brings them to life with an electric shock. That said, his having created the monster isn’t what makes him so unconventional as a main character, it’s how he chooses to respond. What allows many protagonists to make it t o the end of a horror film is their willingness to fight back and not run. Dr. Frankenstein is responsible for his creation being a monster (not because he created him from cadavers, but because he rejects him and casts him out, creating trauma and a hunger for revenge in his now sentient creation) and chooses to completely avoid responsibility– even run from it.
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