He lost an arm, grafted a chainsaw to it, shot a bunch of spirits in the woods, got transported to medieval England, went into more woods and shot more spirits, return back to his time, fought a witch, dropped one of the hardest one-liners ever then shot said witch on top of a table in the middle of a supermarket. This is the easiest question ever.
OJ from Nope is definitely one of my favorite horror heroes in recent memory. I love that his arc isn't about him learning or improving necessarily, but him reinforcing his ideals he already knew as a professional animal handler. You can't control animals, you can only bargain with them. The standoff he has at the end of the movie with Jean Jacket is ultimate culmination of this where he fearlessly stares down the monster to save his sister. I fully believe he survived the encounter though. Jean Jacket itself probably recognized how much trouble OJ caused it already, and decided it wasn't worth trying to consume him. He's also a great foil to Jupe, who thinks he knows the monster and how to control it, while OJ puts in the work to understand what Jean Jacket is and likely gains a sort of respect from it.
I would argue horror heroes come in five main archetypes. With many characters falling into more than one. Man of Science - Van Helsing and Doctor Seward in Dracula, Most of Lovecraft's heroes, The Ghostbusters, and Doctor Loomis in Halloween. Characters that use modern scientific knowledge to overcome or survive nightnarish threats. Monster Slayer - Ash Williams, Van Helsing, Sienna Shaw, Buffy, Roland The Gunslinger, Guts The Black Swordsnan, or the Warrens in The Conjuring franchise. Characters that battle and destroy monsters and menaces directly. Most likely to overlap with one of the other archetypes as the source of theur monster fighting prowess. While many heroes will destroy or fend off the monster, these guys are dedicated to it, through desire or destiny. Vanquishers of evil, instead of just survivors. Pure Maiden - The Final Girls of slasher movies, or the Victorian ladies of Dracula like Mina and Lucy whose virtue must be protected. Overcome villains or inspire others to do so by their inherent goodness. Mystic - Characters with supernatural abilities of their own or kbowledge of the arcane. They overcome evil with tradition or magic. Often harness the power of the evil to destroy it. The Priests in Exorcist, The Loser's Club and Jack Torrance in the works of Stephen King, Alice in Friday the 13th Part 7. Any character with psychic abilities, magic books, etc... Average Joe - A relateable hero designed to be just like you or me. The mothers and fathers, detectives in over their head, resourceful survivors, terrified children. Ellen Ripley in the first movie, The Gang From Stranger Things or Scooby Doo, Johnathon Harker, Andy Barclay, there's really no limit to these dudes.
I'm biased because Evil Dead is my favorite horror franchise. However i do believe Ash is the best horror hero, because he is very flawed and more complex than what you may think at a first glance. One of my favorite moments is when he breaks down in the last episode and says he is a failure, and then his daughter goes ahead and makes him come back up and keep fighting. Yes he is goofy and almost cliche in many ways, but deep down he is an almost broken man who Lost ALMOST everything he had. Furthermore many times he blames himself for the deaths, which is an additional layer to his character. I rather like Nancy, Tommy Jarvis and Ripley. However i still like Ash better.
I mean he has always been my favorite! For real though Ash is the best horror protagonist because he's reluctant, selfish and brave. He takes whatever is thrown at him and throws it back with a one liner and shotgun blast. But he still hides his vulnerability behind the bravado and that's what makes him unique to so many other horror protagonists.
Maybe not hero since she only appears in one movie, but I found Alex Amberson in Wishmaster to be an underrated horror protagonist. I loved that the movie is essentially a battle of wits between her and the Djinn, with her looking for a way to stop him and save as many people as possible while he exploits her trauma and her guilt to keep her from acting rationally. And I especially love that the conclusion comes when she realizes that she’s not as cornered as the Djinn has led her to believe and she figures out how to outwit him and save everyone. It’s very satisfying. Part of me would have liked to see more of her in the sequels, especially because I’m sure she’s keeping a close eye on that statue and the gemstone inside. It’d be interesting to see a protagonist who has gone through all these traumatic events that everyone else is completely unaware of, and you know that the Djinn would have a bone to pick with her if he remembers that timeline as well. But I guess there wouldn’t be any way to match that first ending without it just feeling like the same story told twice.
Can we call Buffy a horror show? It was always more of an action adventure show, based on spooky vibes and supernatural mythology. Cause if Buffy counts, then certainly the Scooby Gang counts.
Not to criticize your editing, but do you think for the times Ash, you, and Crystal, could you maybe have an indicator for which person is talking? Maybe like a box around the person currently talking or displaying subtitles in different colors for each person. It can get hard to follow who is and isn't talking. Other than that, great video. :)
Erin from “You’re Next” is my favorite horror hero/final girl. She’s a beast and the movie completely changes when she reveals how dangerous she actually is
The first hero I thought of was Quincy from Dracula. He answered the call when his friends needed him, and was instrumental in the victory over evil, even though it cost him his life.
On this note I have a hypothisis about Lovecraft. We like his monsters because we like the things Lovecraft feared. We like multicultural advances in science, it's also why we "don't understand" cosmic horror, we do we just do not agree with the premice. We understand the premise... and that it is wrong all is meant to be understood even if we can't pin down the underpinnings.
Isn't that actually not true, you don't go crazy if you see cosmic gods. If you're weak willed you'll lose it but there's some people who are just fine with it. I think some dumb guy was affected.
@ Most people are go nuts or become cults. Not to mention all of reality well… isn’t. The fact is everything we know is a dream and if Yog sothoth wakes existence is erased.
Was a little surprised to see a podcast when the introduction was setting up to be a video essay but I’m pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the conversation. Great work.
Anthony has a lot more video essays on his channel! Highly recommend checking them out tjeyre pretty neat. My favorite are the star wars criticism ones
You know. I have a feeling we actually need more horror heroes now. We already got a big line up of horror movie villains, but when it comes to heroes, Ash seems to be the only iconic one aside from maybe Ripley.
Idk why this video has so few views but this is great. I really wish Bruce Campbell had been a bigger actor in the 80s/90s because he’s just the coolest. I’ll never forgive Stars for canceling the show. They shall know my wrath until I die. Or they fold. Idk anyone who’s watched a Stars show in years.
Yes to me Ash Williams is the best Horror Protagonist this world has ever seen and I even have him as number one on my horror heroes list and also I have Sidney Prescott after him 💯
what about making a vid on cosmic horror b4 the end of the spooktober, it would be the best way to end the scary season, especially considering that genre is heavily influenced by that one guy whose cats name shall not be named.
A couple that didn't crop up in your discussion, but might count - Professor Quatermass from the Quatermass; Clear Rivers from the first two Final Destination films (more her characterization in 2 than 1); Sapphire and Steel from, well, Sapphire and Steel (...Although that kind of depends on if you count ghost stories as horror... And exactly how you define hero)
I watched all the Alien films for the first time (and then rewatched Alien because I dozed off several times during it) in preparation for Romulus, and I... I don't know. I enjoy the franchise. I think it's good. But I don't really consider it to be horror like a lot of other people. To me, it's just purely sci-fi and nothing else. But even if we grant that it's a horror franchise, I've never really been particularly enamored with Ellen Ripley as a character, let alone a protagonist. She's okay, I guess, but not someone I'd say is the best horror hero. So, for me, it's still just Ashley J. Williams, Housewares.
I cannot wait for Sienna Shaw to be on videos like this, my gut says terrifier 4 is going to propel her into hero fame like t3 propelled art the clown to slasher legend status
Well i wouldnt call Ash a traditional hero because most of the bad situations he's in are his own fault and he's kind of a coward. But he always steps up and does his best to do whats rights and clean up his mess in the end.
also anthony , i had noticed you only covered, eng films in your right wing horror. i had things like parasyte, if it even canbe considered a horror anime, cause it also dealt with morality of who deserves to be left alive, cause in the Anime there was a scene where a parasyte was wondering why these humans get so shocked when a human is minced into meat while they do that to pigs themselves. of course there are many other scenes which touch on this theme & others. and i don,t know, maybe yu could have talked about ethics of abortion or taking someone,s life ,if they are convicted for a serious crime oor something. also ihave a horror movie recommendation, for you . the moviie i am talking about is called kanchana. its a series of movies , and fromwhat i remember it has like one or more movies where the main lead was a trans or intersex. its been years since i saw it. there was one scene where that intersex person,s ghost was asking to lord narashimbha( avatar of vishnu, who is a human with the head of a lion) to let her enter his mandir(temple), so she can kill the guy who killed her when she was alive, & now is hiding in that very mandir to save himself from her ghost. its a tollywood movie & i think the og language is tamil. since it is an indian horror film,i definitely wouldn,t say you would get tto see good cgi or some kind of good scare. but i think you might enjoy it. mayybe you could make a vid on this, as this was a pro lgbtq film with religion being on the positive side.
Ash is better acted, more constantly written. They’re definitely not more badass (ripley only one that could be close), ash cut his own arm off while laughing to get one over on the evil, plus kicked ass in army of darkness. and ash has been so appreciated over the years because he’s so likeable. No one hates Bruce Campbell
He lost an arm, grafted a chainsaw to it, shot a bunch of spirits in the woods, got transported to medieval England, went into more woods and shot more spirits, return back to his time, fought a witch, dropped one of the hardest one-liners ever then shot said witch on top of a table in the middle of a supermarket. This is the easiest question ever.
Badass legend
OJ from Nope is definitely one of my favorite horror heroes in recent memory. I love that his arc isn't about him learning or improving necessarily, but him reinforcing his ideals he already knew as a professional animal handler. You can't control animals, you can only bargain with them.
The standoff he has at the end of the movie with Jean Jacket is ultimate culmination of this where he fearlessly stares down the monster to save his sister. I fully believe he survived the encounter though. Jean Jacket itself probably recognized how much trouble OJ caused it already, and decided it wasn't worth trying to consume him.
He's also a great foil to Jupe, who thinks he knows the monster and how to control it, while OJ puts in the work to understand what Jean Jacket is and likely gains a sort of respect from it.
I would argue horror heroes come in five main archetypes. With many characters falling into more than one.
Man of Science - Van Helsing and Doctor Seward in Dracula, Most of Lovecraft's heroes, The Ghostbusters, and Doctor Loomis in Halloween. Characters that use modern scientific knowledge to overcome or survive nightnarish threats.
Monster Slayer - Ash Williams, Van Helsing, Sienna Shaw, Buffy, Roland The Gunslinger, Guts The Black Swordsnan, or the Warrens in The Conjuring franchise. Characters that battle and destroy monsters and menaces directly. Most likely to overlap with one of the other archetypes as the source of theur monster fighting prowess. While many heroes will destroy or fend off the monster, these guys are dedicated to it, through desire or destiny. Vanquishers of evil, instead of just survivors.
Pure Maiden - The Final Girls of slasher movies, or the Victorian ladies of Dracula like Mina and Lucy whose virtue must be protected. Overcome villains or inspire others to do so by their inherent goodness.
Mystic - Characters with supernatural abilities of their own or kbowledge of the arcane. They overcome evil with tradition or magic. Often harness the power of the evil to destroy it. The Priests in Exorcist, The Loser's Club and Jack Torrance in the works of Stephen King, Alice in Friday the 13th Part 7. Any character with psychic abilities, magic books, etc...
Average Joe - A relateable hero designed to be just like you or me. The mothers and fathers, detectives in over their head, resourceful survivors, terrified children. Ellen Ripley in the first movie, The Gang From Stranger Things or Scooby Doo, Johnathon Harker, Andy Barclay, there's really no limit to these dudes.
Nah, man.
Lucy is a pure maiden who must be protected.
Dracula kills Mina's girlfriend and Mina decides to wreck his shit about it.
@paulsmart4672 I dunno which book you read, but it sounds pretty cool.
@@DoctorLazers People aren't making that shit up in adaptations, man.
Dracula is a real weird story for its time.
@@paulsmart4672 I have read the book. Several times. It's one of my favorites. This is just... Not an accurate description.
Should’ve put Isaac Clarke from dead space under “average joe” tbh
I'm biased because Evil Dead is my favorite horror franchise. However i do believe Ash is the best horror hero, because he is very flawed and more complex than what you may think at a first glance. One of my favorite moments is when he breaks down in the last episode and says he is a failure, and then his daughter goes ahead and makes him come back up and keep fighting. Yes he is goofy and almost cliche in many ways, but deep down he is an almost broken man who Lost ALMOST everything he had. Furthermore many times he blames himself for the deaths, which is an additional layer to his character.
I rather like Nancy, Tommy Jarvis and Ripley. However i still like Ash better.
this video only needed to be five second long to say "yes" and then to high five yourself
hail to the king, baby!
Bruce Campbell is the finest man to grace the silver screen.
I mean he has always been my favorite! For real though Ash is the best horror protagonist because he's reluctant, selfish and brave. He takes whatever is thrown at him and throws it back with a one liner and shotgun blast. But he still hides his vulnerability behind the bravado and that's what makes him unique to so many other horror protagonists.
Maybe not hero since she only appears in one movie, but I found Alex Amberson in Wishmaster to be an underrated horror protagonist. I loved that the movie is essentially a battle of wits between her and the Djinn, with her looking for a way to stop him and save as many people as possible while he exploits her trauma and her guilt to keep her from acting rationally. And I especially love that the conclusion comes when she realizes that she’s not as cornered as the Djinn has led her to believe and she figures out how to outwit him and save everyone. It’s very satisfying.
Part of me would have liked to see more of her in the sequels, especially because I’m sure she’s keeping a close eye on that statue and the gemstone inside. It’d be interesting to see a protagonist who has gone through all these traumatic events that everyone else is completely unaware of, and you know that the Djinn would have a bone to pick with her if he remembers that timeline as well. But I guess there wouldn’t be any way to match that first ending without it just feeling like the same story told twice.
I think that Buffy the vampire slayer deserves a mention on this list!
Can we call Buffy a horror show? It was always more of an action adventure show, based on spooky vibes and supernatural mythology. Cause if Buffy counts, then certainly the Scooby Gang counts.
@@DoctorLazersI mean Sam and Dean Winchester is an arguement is buffy is
Not to criticize your editing, but do you think for the times Ash, you, and Crystal, could you maybe have an indicator for which person is talking? Maybe like a box around the person currently talking or displaying subtitles in different colors for each person. It can get hard to follow who is and isn't talking. Other than that, great video. :)
Erin from “You’re Next” is my favorite horror hero/final girl. She’s a beast and the movie completely changes when she reveals how dangerous she actually is
For me it's either her or Sydney from Scream
The first hero I thought of was Quincy from Dracula. He answered the call when his friends needed him, and was instrumental in the victory over evil, even though it cost him his life.
On this note I have a hypothisis about Lovecraft. We like his monsters because we like the things Lovecraft feared. We like multicultural advances in science, it's also why we "don't understand" cosmic horror, we do we just do not agree with the premice. We understand the premise... and that it is wrong all is meant to be understood even if we can't pin down the underpinnings.
Oooh, I like this hypothesis
Isn't that actually not true, you don't go crazy if you see cosmic gods. If you're weak willed you'll lose it but there's some people who are just fine with it. I think some dumb guy was affected.
@ Most people are go nuts or become cults. Not to mention all of reality well… isn’t. The fact is everything we know is a dream and if Yog sothoth wakes existence is erased.
Was a little surprised to see a podcast when the introduction was setting up to be a video essay but I’m pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the conversation. Great work.
Anthony has a lot more video essays on his channel! Highly recommend checking them out tjeyre pretty neat. My favorite are the star wars criticism ones
You know. I have a feeling we actually need more horror heroes now. We already got a big line up of horror movie villains, but when it comes to heroes, Ash seems to be the only iconic one aside from maybe Ripley.
Idk why this video has so few views but this is great. I really wish Bruce Campbell had been a bigger actor in the 80s/90s because he’s just the coolest. I’ll never forgive Stars for canceling the show. They shall know my wrath until I die. Or they fold. Idk anyone who’s watched a Stars show in years.
Well damnit I forgot Outlander was Starz.
Yes to me Ash Williams is the best Horror Protagonist this world has ever seen and I even have him as number one on my horror heroes list and also I have Sidney Prescott after him 💯
Short answer is yes, yes he was, is, and always will be the best
She had a brief mention in the video, but I think Clarice Starling could have resurfaced as the answer to the “best horror hero” question.
Next year will have the sequel be about horror game or horror tv heroes
I saw the Shade in theaters, I really enjoyed it.
what about making a vid on cosmic horror b4 the end of the spooktober, it would be the best way to end the scary season, especially considering that genre is heavily influenced by that one guy whose cats name shall not be named.
A couple that didn't crop up in your discussion, but might count - Professor Quatermass from the Quatermass; Clear Rivers from the first two Final Destination films (more her characterization in 2 than 1); Sapphire and Steel from, well, Sapphire and Steel (...Although that kind of depends on if you count ghost stories as horror... And exactly how you define hero)
One of my personal favourites: Will Graham from "Manhunter".
I watched all the Alien films for the first time (and then rewatched Alien because I dozed off several times during it) in preparation for Romulus, and I... I don't know. I enjoy the franchise. I think it's good. But I don't really consider it to be horror like a lot of other people. To me, it's just purely sci-fi and nothing else.
But even if we grant that it's a horror franchise, I've never really been particularly enamored with Ellen Ripley as a character, let alone a protagonist. She's okay, I guess, but not someone I'd say is the best horror hero. So, for me, it's still just Ashley J. Williams, Housewares.
I cannot wait for Sienna Shaw to be on videos like this, my gut says terrifier 4 is going to propel her into hero fame like t3 propelled art the clown to slasher legend status
Ash si the greatest horror hero and Ripley is the greatest horror heroine.
At least the most entertaining
Yes, next question.
Yes ash williams is the best one man
Well i wouldnt call Ash a traditional hero because most of the bad situations he's in are his own fault and he's kind of a coward. But he always steps up and does his best to do whats rights and clean up his mess in the end.
Next ask if Ash is the best Movie Hero, the answer is also Yes
Ripley is the best Horror Movie Hero
Hell yes
Yes
This is a very subjective topic. If you're not an Evil Dead fan like myself, Ash is probably nowhere near being your favorite horror hero.
The answer is yes. Don't even need to watch the video. Still will though
@agramuglia Can we get a Tim Drake video? You are quickly becoming my favourite content creator around GSD/LGBTQIA+ subject matter
Hail to King baby.
Yes.
yes. i'm sorry ripley but ash has more than two good movies. (both are great characters tho)
also anthony , i had noticed you only covered, eng films in your right wing horror.
i had things like parasyte, if it even canbe considered a horror anime, cause it also dealt with morality of who deserves to be left alive, cause in the Anime there was a scene where a parasyte was wondering why these humans get so shocked when a human is minced into meat while they do that to pigs themselves.
of course there are many other scenes which touch on this theme & others.
and i don,t know, maybe yu could have talked about ethics of abortion or taking someone,s life ,if they are convicted for a serious crime oor something.
also ihave a horror movie recommendation, for you .
the moviie i am talking about is called kanchana.
its a series of movies , and fromwhat i remember it has like one or more movies where the main lead was a trans or intersex.
its been years since i saw it.
there was one scene where that intersex person,s ghost was asking to lord narashimbha( avatar of vishnu, who is a human with the head of a lion) to let her enter his mandir(temple), so she can kill the guy who killed her when she was alive, & now is hiding in that very mandir to save himself from her ghost.
its a tollywood movie & i think the og language is tamil.
since it is an indian horror film,i definitely wouldn,t say you would get tto see good cgi or some kind of good scare.
but i think you might enjoy it. mayybe you could make a vid on this, as this was a pro lgbtq film with religion being on the positive side.
🎃👍
The best horror movie hero? I think you mean, is he THE BEST....answer being yes.
00:48 are you freaking kidding me...
?
What is the problem?
Ellen Ripley isn't a horror icon because only Alien counts as a horror film.
He's not even better than the worst final girl. Sidney, Sienna, Ripley, Laurie and Nancy are all both better written, more badass and more likable.
Ash is better acted, more constantly written. They’re definitely not more badass (ripley only one that could be close), ash cut his own arm off while laughing to get one over on the evil, plus kicked ass in army of darkness. and ash has been so appreciated over the years because he’s so likeable. No one hates Bruce Campbell