Death in horror, is like sex in romance – it happens all the time, few experiences are satisfying. The issue at hand though is when you’ve figured out who your characters are in your story, and who survives the nigthmare you are going to put them through?
More important, do they have the right to live? Just because the main character is the main character, doesnt mean they should live. There are plenty of examples of stupid main characters that “survive” in the world of cinema.
I’m using movies as examples as oppossed to stories because I deal with visual more than verbal.
In 2006 the film Silent Hill was released, and this is the perfect example of a stupid main character. Rose (Radha Mitchel) is the quintisental clusterfuck of this story.
Her adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) is dying from some illness (this is only mentioned once, before being forgotton entirely) and is sleep walking and screaming Silent Hill because it is convinient.
In this case Rose does the only thing she can think of: she kidnaps her daughter, tries to outrun a highway patrol cop Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden)and ends up crashing her vehicle killing herself, her daughter, and the Cybil.
Yes, this is our hero. Because she was “pushed” to the edge ona leap of faith she’s now resposible for her own death, her daughter’s death, and the cop’s death. Rose herself manages to obtain a knife for a weapon, then looses it one scene later. She herself does nothing but run from everything and depends on Cybil to take care of everything. In the end of the movie Rose’s spirit survives the ordeal of Silent Hill and returns to her home a ghost. Cybil who did all the work in the film ends up getting roasted like a marshmellow after the exposition scene from hell.
The main character in thise case does nothing but get her daughter killed, run from all the monsters, let the demon kill everyone in church and then drive home and presumably haunt her miserable husband for the rest of his life.
This was not a character that deserved to live through this experience, in all honesty her ass should have been split down the middle by Pyramid head in the films opening scene.
While in the end its up to the author to decide who lives and who dies, here are some questions I ask myself about the main character:
- Are they strong?
- Stronger characters are easier to focus on, and they themselves will meet a challenge head on.
- Are they human? Do they have problems? Are the problems real?
- No one is perfect, and no one is always happy. Depression, loss & anger – these are emotions we all sympathize with and help us get closer to the characters as the story progresses.
- Do you like them?
- Sometimes the main character of the story can be unlikable. Usually when the main character is unlikable they go through a personal transformation throughout the story. This is not always the case though. Generally its a good idea to have your character likable; lets face it, if we wanted to read a story about an asshole who got lucky, we’d watch the news.
You’ll notice one question I didn’t leave up here was ‘”is your character a hero?”. A hero isnt a normal human being. They represent the best of us and they are the best of us. They can be beaten, burned, and blown up. But they’re always there.
Heroes do die yes, but usually in that case they pass the mantle onto someone esle. But Heroes are their own catagory, yes Heros are human, but its their endurance that sets them apart from regular people.
A character who is not a hero, but posesses heroic qualities is in all honesty, a normal person. Normal people usually make the best characters in horror stories, primarily because they are us.
The fact that they are us can make the experience more terrifying because at any moment they can die, and so can we.
So when determining if your main character ‘has the right to live’, remember that every character you write is an extension of yourself.
Whatever you’re going to put them through, try to mentally put yourself though it first and see how you’d react in a given scary scenario. Would you survive unscathed? Would you survive? Would you surive only if you’re thinking like a specific character?
These are some of the ramblings I go over with myself on characters in stories. But again, it ultimatelly is up to you who lives and who dies in your stories.
Surviving a nightmare should be a reward earned, not given.