10 Exact Moments That Doomed Horror Movie Villains

You almost got away with it, Jill.

Scream 4 Jill
Dimension Films

While a lot of horror movies end with the villain living to fight another day or even prevailing over the hero altogether, there are also many instances where the antagonist is indeed put down for the count for good.

Typically it's the result of the hero overcoming tremendous adversity to take the villain out, but sometimes it's also fair to say that the bad guy, whether a flesh-and-blood human or more grotesque supernatural entity, set themselves on their own fateful path.

Through a distinct act, these horror movie villains were doomed, whether brutally murdering the hero's loved one, drunkenly experimenting upon themselves, or just straight-up running their mouth when they should've kept it shut.

These are the moments that set these antagonists on an irreversible track towards the void, where all it took was the hero piecing things together and carrying out the next logical steps.

Had these villains thought things through a little better or just been a tad more modest, they might've actually got away with it, but each consigned themselves to death by taking things too damn far...

10. Hoffman Kills Jill - Saw: The Final Chapter

Scream 4 Jill
Lionsgate

John Kramer aka Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) may ultimately be the instigating antagonist of the Saw franchise, though following his demise his successor, Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), was revealed to be an altogether nastier piece of work.

While Kramer's traps largely played "fair" despite their inherent sadism, Hoffman's traps became increasingly dubious over the course of the franchise, and by the time of The Final Chapter he was straight up murdering anyone who threatened to expose him.

This included not only his fellow police officers but also Kramer's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), who he brutally killed by placing her in a reverse-bear trap, tearing her skull to pieces.

However, this ultimately turned out to be the very act that sealed his fate, as a final twist revealed that, prior to his demise, Kramer had left instructions for a final secret apprentice to get revenge if anything happened to Jill.

That secret apprentice is then revealed to be Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) from the original Saw, who with some accomplices kidnaps Hoffman, chains him up in the very grotty bathroom where he himself was once held, and then leaves him to die.

While we've never actually seen Hoffman's corpse, he's clearly dead. Though Jill was the one person left standing who could expose him, in killing her Hoffman basically signed his own death warrant.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.