10 Horror Movie Characters Who Knew When To Quit (But Didn't)

10. David - An American Werewolf In London

Dammit, David, your first instinct was the right one.

Early on in An American Werewolf In London, protagonist David (David Naughton) and his pal Jack (Griffin Dunne) are trekking across the North York Moors, against the advice of the locals, when they're attacked by a werewolf.

Well to be clear, Jack is attacked by the werewolf, being brutally mauled all while David's immediate survival instinct has him high-tail it in the opposite direction rather than risk suffering the same fate.

But after running away while listening to Jack's desperate screams for help for a few seconds, David's pesky conscience ends up overpowering his fight-or-flight response, causing him to return to the scene against his better - or at least smarter - instincts.

Yet within moments of discovering Jack's mangled corpse, David is also attacked by the werewolf. Though he's ultimately rescued by the gun-totting locals, the damage has already been done - David has been turned into a werewolf, setting him on a path which leads to his own demise at film's end.

But if David simply kept running, there's a strong chance he would've escaped the moors while Jack was being killed and made it back to the safety of the Slaughtered Lamb pub.