10 Exact Moments We Knew Horror Movie Characters Were Doomed To Die

Moments horror characters were doomed to die - Dawn of the Dead, Alien & more!

Midsommar Will Poulter
A24

Most horror movies are built around death.

While there are some flicks that work without offing their cast, the majority of time when putting on one of these films you expect to see someone meet a grisly end. Of course, that's all part of the fun, and entire sub-genres have been built on delivering the gnarliest, bloodiest kills ever committed to the silver screen.

However, it ain't easy to craft a memorable horror kill. The characters need to have connected with an audience, their deaths need to be imaginative, and more often than not, the audience is more impacted when they don't see it coming.

Not all movies get that last bit right though. Us fans are by now well attuned to the kind of cliches and conventions that usually signal a character's demise. As a result, we can occasionally pinpoint the exact moment we released they were doomed.

Of course that doesn't mean the deaths themselves are bad because of this - sometimes the anticipation of a kill is just as effective as a surprise - but it's still fun to be able to pinpoint the exact moment these horror characters times were up.

10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning - Eric Pretends To Be Dean

Midsommar Will Poulter
New Line Cinema

Out of eight movies about a cannibalistic family chainsawing and eating their way through countless victims, it's perhaps prequel The Beginning that's the franchise's most brutal, nastiest entry.

This prequel to the remake shows us how Leatherface came to be the iconic killer fans love him as, chronicling the first set of victims taken in by him and the murderous Hewitt family.

Among these are brothers Eric and Dean, who are actually on their way to enlist in the Vietnam War. Eric is gun-ho about re-enlisting, but the younger Dean is apprehensive, and actually planning on dodging the draft by burning his draft card.

This turns out to have unforeseen consequences when the group is hounded by fake sheriff and head of the Hewitt family, Hoyt. Not pleased with the idea of someone trying to dodge the draft, he demands to know which of the men is the "coward". Wanting to help his little brother, Eric takes the blame.

This, unsurprisingly turns out to be a huge mistake. With the subtly of a sledgehammer, Hoyt makes it clear that if the boys are lying he's not going to be happy. Of course, he eventually does find out the truth, and Dean suffers just about the worst death in the whole movie.

Contributor

Writer. Mumbler. Only person on the internet who liked Spider-Man 3