10 Horror Movie Characters Given Last Minute Deaths
7. Principal Himbry - Scream
Our first of two Scream entries on this list now. Shortly before Wes Craven's original 1996 film started shooting, producer Bob Weinstein noted that 30 pages of the script went by without anybody dying, and so instructed writer Kevin Williamson to plug the gap with an additional death scene.
And so, just ahead of shooting, Williamson decided to put Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) on the chopping block - a minor character initially introduced as a red herring suspect, who is killed by Ghostface roughly half-way through the movie.
Considering that without Himbry's death an entire 55 minutes would pass between the opening death of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) and subsequent demise of Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan), this might be a rare case where the meddling producer actually had a point.
Scream is so much more than its blood 'n' guts of course, but for the gore-hounds getting impatient for another kill, the last-minute addition of Himbry's death likely sated their bloodlust for a while.