So much of the horror genre is contingent on characters meeting their grim end through their own stupidity, so it’s always refreshing when folks in horror films actually demonstrate the faintest sliver of a self-preservation instinct.
But while it might be satisfying to see smart characters make it to the end in one piece, this isn’t always the case.
A great person once said “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose,” and indeed sometimes in horror, despite the hero doing everything right, they can still end up failing.
That’s absolutely the case in these 10 horror movies, each of which presented characters who seemingly had the intelligence, grit, and sheer drive-to-survive necessary to prevail.
But despite doing generally smart things and keeping themselves out of danger where possible, these characters all failed in the end, whether falling victim to their attacker and dying, or surviving but suffering a bleak fate regardless.
It can result in a sure bummer of an ending, no question, but it can also provide a refreshing departure from the expected formula of genre fare, that just because a character is ultra-competent, it doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed a happy ending…
Though the earlier Saw films had Jigsaw (John Kramer) espouse the philosophy that each of his “test subjects” were given a “fair” opportunity to earn the right to live, that all changed in Saw III, when his disillusioned apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) began rigging games to be totally unwinnable.
And the most devastating victim of Amanda’s chicanery was surely Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer), a fan favourite character who proved herself to be a smart and resourceful cop in the first two movies.
But at the start of Saw III, Kerry is kidnapped and placed in a trap as apparent punishment for being too obsessed with her work. To survive, Kerry needs to grab a key in a vat of acid to free herself from a contraption hooked into her ribcage, and being the gutsy hero she is, she does as instructed.
Yet despite “beating” the trap, the key doesn’t free Kerry due to Amanda’s shenanigans, leaving her helpless as her ribcage is torn out.Â
As arguably the smartest heroic character in the entire franchise and someone who didn’t really put a single foot wrong, Kerry’s death was a huge bummer.