PIRATE COMMENTARIES
Horror News | Horror Interviews | Horror Reviews & More!
THE TOP 12 MOST UNCONVINCING HORROR COUPLES
A few years ago I wrote a piece on my blog Day of the Woman about unrealistic horror couples, this isn't to be confused with "worst horror couples" or like what Ryan Turek over at Shock Till You Drop posted, "Doomed Horror Romances." Instead, I wanted to focus on couples in horror movies that really have no business being together. Some of these couples I'm judging from the shallow perspective of appearances, but some of these couples just don't seem compatible. Now that I'm a little older and a little more in tune to what actually makes for a good relationship, I've re-vamped and revitalized this list just in time for everyone's favorite holiday developed by the greeting card industry. NOTE: If you and your significant other resemble any of the couples we make fun of, we're not making fun of you…we're making fun of fictional characters. This is all in good fun.
12) EMMA STONE AND JESSE EISENBERG IN ZOMBIELAND
The first time I saw ZOMBIELAND, I rooted for these two to get together. The awkward kid with no friends or family meets the girl of his dreams and wins her love by saving her life. How cute! Wait. Wait just a minute. The survivalist, zombie slaying, con-artist is falling in love with a kid who can't even shoot whiskey? What planet am I on? I get that it's the end of the world so you've got slim pickings, but even her little sister knows that Eisenberg isn't the type of guy her big sister would go for. The two shared a special moment and the next day she stole his car and took off without warning. That's an impressive act of manipulation, and Eisenberg totally fell for it. The only time she genuinely shows affection towards him is after he saves her life, meaning "she owes it to him," right? Congratulations! That's the cinematic equivalent of a guy being pissed off about the friendzone! I save her life, I get the girl. Or…you save someone's life because it's the right thing to do and don't expect prizes for not being a jerk? Maybe? I will hand it to the writers though, you almost tricked me and made me think these two were good for each other.
11) GARY OLDMAN AND WINONA RYDER IN DRACULA (1992)
I firmly believe that the only reason this pairing existed is because Winona Ryder was believe to be the manic pixie dream girl of "dark films" in the 1980s and 1990s, and Gary Oldman could play Princess Diana in her biopic and still pull it off. The reason this pairing fails so horribly is unfortunately the casting of Gary Oldman. Don't get me wrong, Gary Oldman is an absolutely fantastic actor and one of the most underrated of the modern era, but he looks TERRIBLE in this film. Gary Oldman is one of those performers that looks different in all of his films, but this is one of his more unattractive roles. Unflattering costumes and hair does not make for sex appeal. If he would have looked a bit more like his Sirius Black character in the HARRY POTTER films, I'd maybe give this a pass, instead he resembles the demon with boobs on his head from Little Nicky. Everything about this couple was forced and unbelievable. Then again…Winona Ryder doesn't know how to have a male counterpart, but I'll touch on that later.
10) PETER BERG AND CAMI COOPER IN SHOCKER
Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE SHOCKER, but I hate this pairing. The picture alone should show how this couple would have never gotten together in real life. Cami Cooper looks like she stepped out of an H&M ad and Peter Berg is the only man to have ever had an overbite and an underbite at the same time. I'm under the impression that Berg didn't grow eyebrows until somewhere around 1998. He's the poor man's Christian Slater and Cami Cooper is the girl who wouldn't have given him the time of day in high school. He's a putzy football doofus with some serious daddy issues and she's a total sweetheart who even stayed the night to ensure his safety. To put it simply, she is WAY out of his league.
09) GOLDIE HAWN, BRUCE WILLIS, & MERYL STREEP IN DEATH BECOMES HER
Bruce Willis is one of those lucky men who seem to age like a fine wine. The older he gets, the sexier he is. However, he was going through a serious awkward stage in 1992. Donning a really awkward hairline, Malcom X glasses, and a hell of a molestache, this man managed to have Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn fighting over him while they were in their prime. Um. What? The entire film is dedicated to these women attempting to make themselves more attractive in order to woo him over. The character had money, yes, but…for God's sake. If you have the ability to nab an average looking plastic surgeon, you have the ability to nab a super hot dentist. Sure, they needed him to continue to stay beautiful, but there are way better looking plastic surgeons out there! You know how they say "don't let a hairdresser with bad hair cut yours?" Well…are you really going to trust a plastic surgeon that looks like 1992 Bruce Willis? I don't buy this love triangle for a second. Meryl, you should know better.
08) WILLIAM RAGSDALE AND AMANDA BEARSE IN FRIGHT NIGHT
Charley Brewster is the biggest weenie that ever lived. There, I said it. A social reject has this utterly adorable "queen of the bows" in his bed willing to end make out sessions so he can watch his favorite show, snuggles under the covers ready to hand deliver her unopened lotus flower to him, AND HE WANTS TO SPY ON THE NEIGHBORS?! The fact she even started talking to him after that astounds me. Granted, he got some of her dished out comeuppance, but she went back to the fool. Even worse, she turned down a life of being boned by Chris Sarandon so she could hang out with a kid who dons a sweater collection even Bill Cosby would be proud of. What was she thinking?
07) NICOLE KIDMAN AND MATTHEW BRODERICK IN THE STEPFORD WIVES
As much as the underlying message of the film about how men want to secretly turn women into blonde, submissive, sex robots scares the hell out of me, the thought of Ferris Bueller dating anyone but Sloane Peterson haunts my nightmares. Nicole Kidman's character is immensely hard to like in this film. She's harshly judgemental, a huge snoop, and emasculates her husband constantly. To believe he really didn't want to turn her into a robot was a bigger shock than the reveal at the end, this couple never made sense to me. Plus, you'd think a man who constantly felt threatened by his wife would have married someone who wasn't a foot taller than he was.
06) JEFFREY JONES AND CATHERINE O'HARA IN BEETLEJUICE
A cutthroat contractor hell bent on relaxation ends up with a grotesque artist hell bent on transforming his relaxation sanctuary into a work of modern art and exploiting chaos with the undead? I'm so sure this is exactly what eHarmony would consider compatible. Growing up, I was always convinced that Mama Deetz and Otho were in some weird non-sexual relationship, but I never bought Charles and Delia as a couple. I understand the whole "opposites attract" business, but these two never had any couple chemistry. Don't get me wrong, I love the characters as individuals, but that's exactly how I see them. I never think of them as a partnership, I always see them as two completely separate entities.
05) JACK NICHOLSON AND SHELLEY DUVALL IN THE SHINING
Rob G. is going to kill me for this one. Here's the thing, I love Wendy Torrance. I really, really, REALLY, do…but there is no way in hell that I'm ever going to believe that The Joker would end up with Olive Oyl, especially after him having an alocholic fit and hurting her kid. Wendy Torrance is a strong woman who although naturally frightened, is a total badass and fantastic mother. The way she defends her son Danny when her husband Jack starts to lose it shows how caring she is, there's no way in hell she would have stayed with him after an abusive attack. I'm expected to believe that someone as maternal as Wendy Torrance was going to give another chance to a man who drank to much and hurt her son? Nope. No way.
04) THOM MATTHEWS AND BEVERLY RANDOLPH IN RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
Alright Freddy, where the hell did you find this one? Your friends all look like they stepped out of a concert for the lovechild of The Clash and The Cure, your letterman's jacket says "Fuck You" on it, and you're dating a girl who won't drop the 'F' bomb and looks like she's getting ready to wait in line for Tiffany tickets? Uh…sure. I'm sure her trust fund daddy really loves the rebellious streak his daughter is on by dating your punk ass and partying with your friends in cemeteries. She may be loyal, but I'm sure that's because she was hoping to make the quarterback of the football team jealous when she took the anti-jock to the prom.
03) TOBIN BELL AND BETSY RUSSELL IN SAW
Did someone lock Jill Tuck in a TARDIS in a deleted scene or something because I swear she looks younger and younger in each film. Whenever John Kramer and his lady Jill argued, I could only imagine a daughter home from school yelling at her old school pop stuck in his ways. I'm not one to knock age gaps in relationships, but there is a twenty year age gap between the two actors and they make Tobin look so decrepit that it appears to be forty. The film says in his autopsy that he was 52 at the time of his death, which is like my mom trying to tell everyone she's still 29. Good try.
02) HEATHER LANGENKAMP AND JOHNNY DEPP IN A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Most high school students experience the dreaded awkward stage. Johnny Depp, however, is not of mere mortal descent. He's always been a total dreamboat. One of the main reasons I love Heather Langenkamp so much was because she was pretty, but not to the point where you wonder if she just walked out of New York fashion week the way we do with just about every actress in a horror film these days. Let's be real here, Johnny Depp wasn't boning the girl in high school with big hair, big brows, and the same facial expression in every shot…so don't try to flatter us into thinking he did. On the other end of that spectrum, Johnny Depp was sort of a shitty boyfriend. He never really helped Heather Langenkamp's Nancy defeat Freddy. She gave him one job, ONE JOB. Don't fall asleep. What does he do? falls asleep and gets sucked into a bed. Way to drink the extra coffee on that one, jerk.
01) WINONA RYDER AND JOHNNY DEPP IN EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
These two actors are repeat offenders and the director Tim Burton is a two timer on this list as well. Coincidence? I think not. Not that it's her fault or anything, but Winona Ryder really doesn't know how to act opposite men. She's at her best when she's amongst a group of women (HEATHERS, BLACK SWAN, MERMAIDS, GIRL, INTERRUPTED) but looks painfully awkward in the presence of men. Add that to the fact that Kim Boggs is one of the most poorly written characters in the history of poorly written characters and you've got yourself a recipe for disaster. She chooses the nerd from THE BREAKFAST CLUB who beefed out and turned into a huge asshole for a good 3/4 of the film, she BARELY says anything to Edward, she "falls in love" through a glance on a television screen, she didn't do shit to help him when he was in trouble, after convincing the town that he died, she never returned to visit him, and she never told anyone that she and her lame ass boyfriend were the ones who broke into said lame ass boyfriend's house. Edward loved her why?!
One thought on "THE TOP 12 MOST UNCONVINCING HORROR COUPLES"
Pingback: 5 Must Read Horror Articles 17 February 2014 » This Is Horror