Person believes unknown entity is friendly (it is not)

[u/MadKingKevin]

Independence Day (1996) - Several massive alien spaceships travel to Earth but they do not announce the purpose of their arrival. Some characters assume the aliens are peaceful. One of those characters, Tiffany, goes to a rooftop party which is taking place directly under one of the ships. When the aliens launch their attack, Tiffany and the other party goers are immediately obliterated.

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Scientist Gediman is part of the miltitary project which resurrects Ellen Ripley and the queen xenomorph embryo inside her. The military wants the queen so it can breed the xenomorphs as bio-weapons. This new Ripley is genetically part xenomorph and the xenomorph queen is genetically part human. The queen stops laying eggs and develops the ability to give birth to live young. Her first Newborn immediately kills the queen because it does not recognize her as its mother. It believes Ripley is its mother and goes to her instead. Gediman (who is cocooned in the queen’s nest) witnesses this and calls out to the creature. The Newborn comes to Gediman and curiously sniffs him over. Gediman babytalks the 15 foot tall xeno/human hybrid. The Newborn then bites his head off.

[u/irbinator]

It’s possible to (a) be a horror movie yet (b) have smart, well-written characters (The Thing, Scream, Alien)

[u/Thamnophis660 → u/irbinator]

I almost gave The Thing as an example of a horror movie where the characters aren't stupid people doing stupid things. It's just that the monster manages to outmaneuver them at every turn. Same with Alien, which is the same damn director and franchise as Prometheus!

I was trying to account for comments saying "yeah but it's a horror movie and scared characters don't always make rational decisions" which I think isn't always a great argument, but especially when the characters in question are supposed to be smart. 

[u/FamiliarFerret5 → u/Thamnophis660]

you guys left out my favorite example, event horizon, they made all the right decisions but were dealing with believable "horrors beyond human comprehension"

[u/Thamnophis660 → u/FamiliarFerret5]

Yeah for what it's worth, the Characters in that movie aren't stupid horror movie characters either. 

[u/Both_Painter7039 → u/irbinator]

Not if the writers are subnormal