10 Horror Movie Characters Who Got Undeservedly Brutal Deaths

Despite being one of only two deaths seen on screen during Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Dick Hallorann’s death really, really sucked to watch.

A figure for young Danny Torrance to look up to, as both a responsible adult and someone who shared his ability to ‘shine’, Dick was a light in the darkness that descended upon the Overlook Hotel.

The likeability of the character is also greatly credited to the performance of Scatman Crothers, which perfectly blended Hallorann’s cool authority and warm nature.

However, when he hurries to said hotel after picking up on a psychic distress call from Danny, Jack Torrance (now completely cuckoo for cocoa puffs at this point) attacks him with an axe and Dick is killed.

The kill itself is racially motivated, as well as being a very strange addition by Kubrick; in Stephen King’s novel, Hallorann survived. Not only contributing to the trope that a Black character usually dies first in a horror movie, but arguably unnecessary, this death was the definition of undeserving.