In horror movies, characters often don't always make the right decisions. It's a common cliché that some of them would make completely baffling, even moronic, choices that either get them or other people killed. Anyone who has ever seen these films can at least relate to one time or another getting frustrated whenever they notice the characters are doing something that they should have completely done the opposite way.
Indeed, horror cinema has had its fair share of questionable character choices throughout the decades. They were frustrating and easy to point out among viewers. Most of these bad decisions had terrible consequences that affected the rest of their stories. Here are ten of the worst character decisions in horror films that'll leave anyone scratching their heads.
10 Helen Stopping To Look Behind Her
'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (1997)
Image Via Columbia Pictures
When a serial killer is chasing after you, word of advice: don't ever stop at any point to look back to see if you've lost them. Unfortunately, that's the mistake poor Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) makes in Jim Gillespie's '90s slasher hit I Know What You Did Last Summer. When the deranged, hook-wielding killer fisherman (Muse Watson) was hot on her tail, Helen managed to outmaneuver her attacker at several turns and eventually gave him the slip. But, when she was inches away from running into a crowded street in a dark alleyway, she stopped and looked back to ensure she was no longer being chased. Unfortunately, this gave the fisherman enough time to sneak beside her to make his kill.
There's something spectacularly frustrating about seeing a character die just moments away from salvation. Had Helen decided not to stop and turn around, she'd most likely have been in the clear. Unfortunately, her hesitation and her failure to recognize that she still wasn't out of danger caused her heartwrenching demise.
Release Date October 17, 1997
Director Jim Gillespie
Runtime 101 minutes
9 Pulling A Prank During The Zombie Apocalypse
'Zombieland' (2009)
Image via Sony Pictures
Zombieland follows four survivors, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), as they go on a cross-country road trip through a zombie-infested US to find a new home. Along their journey, Tallahassee decides to make a short stop in Hollywood to visit the home of his favorite actor, Bill Murray. He and Wichita later are surprised to find that the still-living Ghostbuster star has survived the apocalypse by disguising himself as one of the undead. While Columbus and Little Rock are off somewhere else watching a movie, unaware of what's happening, Murray plays a hilarious prank on the two. He walks into the room pretending to be a zombie, to which Columbus instinctively shoots him dead.
It turns out that pretending to be a dangerous monster and barging into a room with high-strung, gun-toting survivors is not such a good idea after all. This darkly hilarious death scene is one of the defining moments of Zombieland. Murray's demise is so sudden and shocking, but at the same time, it is so expected, considering how poorly thought out his prank was. It truly is a shame, though, what happened to him. At least his only regret was making Garfield.
Release Date October 7, 2009
Runtime 88
8 Running In A Straight Line
'Prometheus' (2012)
Image via 20th Century Fox
Prometheus tells the story of a group of space explorers traveling to an unknown planet in the universe to find answers to humanity's origins. But there, they awaken a sinister extraterrestrial pilot from its long hibernation to continue its mission to wipe out all life on Earth. In a last-ditch attempt to stop the alien's ship, a few remaining humans sacrificed themselves by ramming their vessel into the enormous spacecraft, crashing it back to the surface. However, during the crash, one team member, Vickers (Charlize Theron), was crushed after strangely trying to outrun the falling ship in its direct landing path.
Prometheus features many bad decisions, like characters taking off their helmets in toxic environments or clueless scientists trying to befriend clearly hostile-looking alien creatures that ultimately attack them. However, Vicker's decision to stay in a straight line when escaping the crash stands out as the worst of them all. It was an easily avoidable death because all she had to do was run off to one of the other sides.
Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.
Release Date June 8, 2012
Runtime 124
7 Going to Meet Josef
'Creep' (2014)
Image via The Orchard
In this unsettling found-footage horror film, Creepfollows the story of Aaron (Patrick Brice), a freelance videographer who agrees to spend a day documenting a dying man's, Josef (Mark Duplass), final remarks to his unborn son. However, as the day progresses, it becomes clear to Aaron that something is off about Josef, and he leaves because of this strange behavior. Over the next several weeks, he begins receiving bizarre gifts and even threats from Josef, who is stalking him. But for some terrible reason, when Josef sends an apology video claiming he was lonely and just wanted to be friends, Aaron takes pity and agrees to meet Josef in an empty park.
Josef's meeting turned out to be an obvious trap as he lured Aaron to him so he could kill him with an axe, finally revealing that he was a serial killer. It's frustrating that Aaron was so gullible and trusted someone he knew was acting suspiciously towards him right from the start. Worse even, Aaron had completely zero awareness of his surroundings and didn't notice that Josef was standing right behind him near the park bench, taking his time before killing him. He was a nice guy who paid the ultimate price when, in reality, he should have used the opportunity to tell the police where Josef would meet.
Release Date June 23, 2015
Runtime 77 minutes
6 Darry Goes Into The Pipe
'Jeepers Creepers' (2001)
Image via United Artists
Jeepers Creepers follows siblings Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darry (Justin Long) on a countryside road trip back home during their spring break. However, they encounter danger when they spot a trench-coated motorist (Jonathan Breck) at an abandoned church, clearly dumping a sheet-wrapped body down a pipe. Later, after a heated car chase with the mystery man, the two head back to the scene of the crime, and then Darry recklessly decides to investigate the pipe himself against his sister's wishes. Once down below, he uncovers a horrifying discovery, which unfortunately leads him and Trish to become the targets of a nightmarish, supernatural monster.
It's baffling as to why Darry would ever go down alone into a dark, dangerous pipe after he witnessed a body getting thrown into it. It's a terrible plan that even Trish rightly points out. Had they not just simply alerted the police to the scene and kept on driving, it's possible Darry wouldn't have ultimately met a grizzly fate in the film's terrifying climax.
Jeepers Creepers
Release Date August 31, 2001
Director Victor Salva
Cast Jonathan Breck , Gina Philips , Justin Long , Brandon Smith , Patricia Belcher
In one of the scariest British horror movies of the 21st century, The Descent follows six women, led by their extreme outdoor enthusiast friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza), as they explore a cave in the Appalachian Mountains. However, when they become trapped after a tunnel collapses, Juno reveals to the group that she's lied about where they were going and deliberately led them into a new unexplored cave system so they can bond closer together through a dangerous adventure after a recent tragedy. She didn't realize, though, that she'd just led her friends into the den of ravenous cave dwellers.
Though she had no idea they would become trapped in a cave full of vicious monsters, Juno's desire to push herself and her friends ultimately led to their deaths as they were picked off one by one. She knowingly led her friends into a risky situation without telling them or taking any safe precautions, like telling other people back on the surface where they were actually going. It was a reckless move that eventually became a total disaster for them all.
The Descent
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
Release Date August 4, 2006
Director Neil Marshall
Cast Shauna Macdonald , Natalie Jackson Mendoza , Alex Reid , Saskia Mulder , MyAnna Buring , Nora-Jane Noone
Zack Snyder's thrilling 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead sees a group of survivors attempting to escape from an enormous shopping mall surrounded by hordes of the undead. However, during their preparations, a few of them reluctantly go on a dangerous rescue mission when one of their own, Nicole (Lindy Booth), risks her life to save her new canine companion, Chips, from a zombie-infested gun store building across the street.
Nicole's reckless action unintentionally resulted in the group's downfall. Some lost their lives in the rescue attempt, and the mall became overrun by zombies, leading them to make a hasty escape through the city, where even more tragedies befell them. It's a frustrating decision because the zombies only seemed interested in attacking humans, meaning Chips was in no danger at the store. It's one of the many questionable choices the characters make.
A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
The Evil Dead films are the go-to for splatter horror entertainment. Featuring five near-perfect installments, including a beloved but short-lived TV series, this bloody good franchise often follows groups of people as they come across "The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis," or The Book of the Dead. Bound in human flesh and inked with blood, it harbors a dark power that can summon demons and other nightmarish creatures to attack or possess whoever so unwisely reads out loud its incantations.
However, that's percicley how all this trouble in the Evil Dead films starts. Whether it's through sheer naivety or dumb curiosity, some characters completely ignore all warning signs to not utter words from the Necronomicon, but they do it anyway. Unfortunately, it leads to terrifying consequences as the book unleashes its frightening demons, known as the Deadites, to proceed to take over bodies and attack those around them. This happens a lot throughout the franchise, especially when the hero, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), has possession of it, as he always seems to mess things up and unleash hell once again.
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Release Date October 15, 1981
CastBruce Campbell , Ellen Sandweiss , Richard DeManincor , Betsy Baker , Theresa Tilly , Philip A. Gillis
Steven Speilberg's summer blockbuster masterpiece Jaws sees a peaceful summer community, Amity Island, rocked by a series of grizzly shark attacks. When a group of local fishermen kills a shark, which they initially believe was the culprit, the sheriff, Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), and a marine biologist, Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), aren't convinced and know a much larger creature is still on the loose. But, unfortunately, their concerns didn't faze the town's greedy mayor, Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), who refuses to close the beaches before the real killer shark can be found, resulting in an attack at Amity's Fourth of July celebration.
Vaughn's stubbornness to close the beaches is one of the most infamously bad decisions in cinema history. He reasoned that he was just looking out for the community's best interests since they needed to stay open to attract bigger tourism to keep their economy afloat during the winter. But in his attempts to protect other people's livelihoods, he indirectly cost lives and further exacerbated the shark problem. He ultimately put profit over people, making him technically more of the film's villain than the shark.
Release Date June 18, 1975
Runtime 124 minutes
1 Making the Game go Viral
'Truth or Dare' (2018)
Image via Universal Pictures
In Truth or Dare, a group of young friends encounter a sinister demon after being tricked into playing a cursed game of Truth or Dare after hanging out in an abandoned chapel in Mexico. After the demon has claimed most of their lives by the end, the last two survivors, Olivia (Lucy Hale) and Markie (Violett Beane), realize the game won't end until everyone is dead, so now their only means of survival at this point is to add more players to delay their next turns.
In a shocking move to save themselves, Olivia and Markie upload a video to the internet, drawing thousands or even millions of viewers into the demon's deadly game. This notoriously bad ending must be one of the most selfish, irresponsible decisions in horror. Though it was understandable that the two had no other options and just wanted to survive for as long as they could, their actions potentially caused the rest of humanity to die along with them.
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