10 Best Second Kills In Horror Movies
When the second kill is better than the first.
First impressions count for a lot, and so it makes sense that horror filmmakers tend to ensure that their opening kill is something truly memorable to grab the audience's attention from the get-go.
But y'know what we don't talk about nearly enough? Second death scenes.
While there's obviously more of an incentive to make the first kill an absolute banger, sometimes the second kill is no slouch in its own right, and perhaps even good enough that it tops the first entirely.
There's certainly a strong argument to be made for that with these 10 movies, each of which delivered brilliantly nasty, creative, visually stunning, and perhaps even hilarious second deaths.
If nothing else, these deaths confirmed that the first was no fluke, and that the filmmaker in charge clearly had a knack for delivering unforgettable, visceral, fantastically unpleasant death scenes you wouldn't shake for days, months, or maybe even years.
From the campy to the iconic, the nauseating to the jaw-dropping, these second horror movie kills were categorical "holy s**t!" moments which helped each film sustain momentum once its opening death was done with...
10. Jennifer Caulfield - A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
The A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is certainly well known for its creative death scenes, in which Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) murders his victims inside their dreams in typically heightened, surreal fashion.
And one of the series' all-time best is the second kill in the third movie, when Freddy invades the dreams of aspiring TV actress Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) and gives her a grimly appropriate death to that end.
After falling asleep, Jennifer dreams herself watching a late night talk show, when the host suddenly morphs into Freddy and attacks his guest.
As the TV turns to static, Jennifer approaches it, at which point it sprouts arms, picks her up, and Freddy himself emerges from the top.
Freddy then assures Jennifer she's about to get her "big break in TV," before dropping the immortal, Robert Englund-improvised one-liner, "Welcome to Prime Time, b*tch!," and shoving her head through the TV's screen.
At once shamelessly silly, fantastically inventive, and instantly iconic, this remains one of the most memorable kills in the entire Elm Street saga.