10 Horror Movie Characters Who Die In The Very Last Scene

So close, and yet so far for these horror characters.

Unfriended 2014 Ending 1280x720
Universal Pictures

For the most part, being a horror movie character means spending a lot of your time just trying to stay alive.

Whether it's dodging murderers or fighting monsters or avoiding food poisoning at the catering truck, these people must undertake a lot of different tasks in order to keep their hearts beating. Some lucky few will survive all the way to the end, whilst others get perilously close to the finale, only to have their legs cut out from them at the last second. Sometimes literally.

There have been plenty of examples of characters making it to the very last scene of a film before finally getting done in. This can be done for a number of reasons, but usually to end the movie with a big dramatic moment or to make an audience feel more sympathetic towards a character who has been through such hardship only to fall at the last hurdle.

Obviously there are massive spoilers ahead on this list, so read on at your peril, but remember - never get too attached to a character in a horror. You never know when they might get it. 

10. Agent Strahm - Saw V

Unfriended 2014 Ending 1280x720
Lionsgate

FBI Agent Peter Strahm was nearly on this list for Saw IV, which ends with him and his colleague Rigg being locked in a meat factory by Jigsaw’s apprentice, left to die. 

That was, until, the writers realised they needed a hero for their next movie.

The fifth Saw film, which came out in 2008, reveals that Strahm (Scott Patterson) survived his ordeal. He also manages to escape a trap where his head gets put in a box that is being filled up with water. Basically, the first 15 minutes of Saw V are not kind to this guy. 

Unfortunately, it somehow gets worse. 

Strahm ends up pursuing the man who tried to kill him at the factory, another law enforcement officer called Hoffman. During the movie’s climax, he thinks he has the murderous trap-maker dead to rights, when he gets him inside a box in a sealed room. Come on, Strahm, have you not seen a Saw movie before?

The walls of the room slowly close in, and the box descends into the floor. Hoffman watches on as Strahm is crushed to death.

 
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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.