10 Dumbest Decisions In Slasher Horror Movies
Halloween, Friday the 13th, Child's Play and those other slasher movies that saw stupid decisions.
Few genres are quite as forever appealing as the horror genre. Over the decades, audiences continue to flock to horror time and time again, with the genre offering up so many different sorts of pictures and tales that means that there really is something for everyone when it comes to this oft-dark and sinister corner of cinema.
Within horror, one certain type of film that has a particularly passionate fan base is the famed slasher movie.
Having come to the fore in the 1970s, then amped up to an entirely new gear in the '80s, the humble slasher is a staple of horror and can more often than not be ripe to be spun into an entire multi-movie, multi-medium franchise.
Much like horror, period, the slasher subgenre is one that is far from perfect, mind, and there are so many examples of slashers not just overdoing it with overplayed tropes, but also having the tendency to offer up some on-screen decision-making that is questionable at best, and outright idiotic at worst.
Here, then, are ten such examples of utterly dumb decisions made in slasher movies from over the decades.
10. Going Upstairs - Black Christmas
Along with John Carpenter's Halloween, 1974's Black Christmas is viewed as the movie that ushered in the slasher subgenre. In addition to also introducing the famed 'the calls are coming from inside the house' trope, Black Christmas likewise saw one of the most bone-headed decisions in horror history.
With a sorority house having been tormented by creepy phone calls - all while dead body after dead body is amassed - the final act of Black Christmas saw the jaw-dropping reveal that these sinister calls had actually been coming from inside the house.
Upon being informed of this by a frenzied Sgt Nash, Olivia Hussey's Jess freezes in panic, nervously takes in her surroundings, as the audience awaits for someone to emerge from the shadows. Then, though, Jess makes the utterly stupid call to head upstairs, shouting out to see if anyone is there.
Much to her terror, Jess soon finds the corpses of two of her best friends, is confronted by the killer, and ends up locking herself in the basement, where she promptly passes out.
Nearly as stupid as Jess' decision to head upstairs despite the police telling her not to(!), is the cops' logic upon finding Jess and the dead body of her boyfriend Peter in the basement.
Clearly looking to minimalise their paperwork, the police presume Peter was the killer, quietly put Jess to bed... as viewers are shown how the killer is, of course, still alive and in the house.