10 Horror Movie Characters Who Didn't Really Have To Die
They should've made it...
The horror genre has a well-tested formula on who gets snuffed out. The promiscuous woman who belittles everyone? Yeah, she's a goner. The idiot who makes everything worse? Well, it was nice knowing ya. The smug jackass you can't stand? He was doomed from the beginning.
Even though there is a system on who lives or dies, deep down, you know the genre doesn't follow it to the letter. Sometimes, the characters you think are going to make it are the first ones to be hacked up, decapitated, or eaten. The innocent child. The virgin. The paradoxically-named Final Girl. So, while watching a slasher, a paranormal flick, or a body horror, you have to accept the fact anybody can wind up dead.
And yet, there are some deaths that feel unjust. If a character did nothing wrong, you can't help feeling angry when they end up on a meat-hook. When the protagonist sacrifices themselves for no reason, they come across as stupid, not heroic. When someone suffers a grisly fate for the sake of shock value, you wonder why the filmmakers bothered.
Going into a horror, you know not everybody's going to make it out alive. But there was no real reason why these characters had to die.
10. Paola - Zombi 2
In Zombi 2 (which is the first in the series), Anne Bowles heads to the Caribbean island of Matul, after learning her father developed a mysterious illness there. Shortly after consulting her father's doctor, the island is attacked by flesh-craving zombies. When one of the revenants tries to break through the door, the doctor's wife, Paola, holds it at bay.
Although Paola's attempt is initially successful, things take a dark turn, bringing us to Zombi 2's most memorable scene. As the ghoul punches through the door, it grabs Paola's head, gradually dragging her face towards a pointed splinter. Unable to free herself, Paola screams helplessly as the jagged piece of wood rams through her eye socket.
Although it's unbearable to watch, Paola only has herself to blame. The splinter is coming towards her at two miles per hour, yet she makes no effort to turn her head. If she was unable to wriggle out of the creatures's grasp, she could've avoided having her eyeball skewered simply by tilting her neck. With that done, she would've suffered nothing more than a cut nose or a gash on the cheek.