10 Best "You Don't Know Who You're Messing With" Horror Movie Scenes
Whether it's Halloween's Michael or Scream's Ghostface, these villains effed around and found out.
The basic formula of most horror movies dictates that the Final Girl or other survivors only make it out alive by the skin of their teeth and against overpowering odds.
But not all horror movies are built the same, and sometimes filmmakers prefer to flip the script, turn the tables, and reveal a hero who's far more capable than anyone ever anticipated.
Basically, these horror movie characters are all testament to the phrase "eff about and find out."
The villains evidently didn't think these characters or their associates posed much of a threat, but their sudden and unexpected display of smarts or brutality - or both! - proved them dead wrong.
Emphasis on the word "dead" there, by the way.
In these moments, it became clear that the villains - whether supernatural killers or purely human antagonists - got in way over their heads, having no idea quite who they were messing with.
It's always refreshing to see victims turn around and become the victimisers, showing their pursuers that they're not the only ones who can put the fear of God in somebody...
10. Sam Becomes Ghostface - Scream VI
Scream VI's climax reveals the killers to be Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) and his children Quinn (Liana Liberato) and Ethan (Jack Champion).
Their motive? To avenge the death of Bailey's other son, Richie (Jack Quaid), who was of course one of the two Ghostface killers in the previous Scream and brutally killed by survivor Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera).
Yet Bailey evidently didn't count on Sam putting up much of a fight against him, and certainly not putting her inherited killer instinct to its best use.
After Bailey and Sam both take a violent tumble to the floor, Bailey wakes up to a phone call from Sam, who turns the tables on Bailey by taunting him with the Ghostface voice-changer.
Eventually Sam emerges, dressed head to toe as Ghostface, and stabs Bailey dozens of times before delivering the killing blow - a knife straight through his eye.
It's a triumphant moment for Sam, putting her history as the daughter of original killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) to positive use, even though Bailey - who was well aware of Sam's parenthood - severely underestimated how "talented" she would be with a knife.