10 Dumbest Decisions In Slasher Horror Movies

9. Needlessly Pausing Your Own Escape - I Know What You Did Last Summer

Child's Play 1988
Columbia Pictures

1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer is a movie that has a special place in the heart of many a horror fan.

While Wes Craven's Scream completely reinvigorated slasher movies and horror films, period, in 1996 - poking fun at the tried and tired tropes of the genre as a whole - that brought in a new wave of slashers, such as the aforementioned I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Director Jim Gillespie's '97 picture didn't quite match the sheer brilliance of Scream, but it's a vastly enjoyable beast on its own merits. But like is so commonplace in horror, I Know What You Did Last Summer is a movie that has you shaking your head in disbelief at certain points.

On this front, the biggest perpetrator is Sarah Michelle Gellar's Helen Shivers.

The beauty queen of the day, Helen flees to her sister's store after seeing her boyfriend Barry and a cop both killed by the hooked killer of the film. After her sister is then next to be brutalised, the race is on as Helen looks to get away from the picture's villain.

For once in a slasher effort, Helen actually manages to outrun and outsmart the killer, edging ever close to the safety offered by the nearby 4 July parade. With victorious freedom in sight, Gellar's character acts like a total idiot by stopping to double-check she really has evaded her stalker - giving the hook-wielding Ben Willis the chance he needed to slice Helen up.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.