10 Horror Movie Characters Who Were SECONDS Away From Surviving

Horror movies sure wouldn't mean much without death - how could we possibly be scared of the antagonist or root for the Final Girl without a trail of bodies to first mourn?

And while the supporting characters fed to the killer usually don't stand a chance in hell of surviving, every so often they actually do get shockingly close to coming out of the movie unscathed.

These 10 characters, whether through sheer luck or their own resourcefulness, got within a whisker of surviving their respective encounters, and if things went differently for just a couple of seconds they absolutely would have.

From characters who were moments away from avoiding a fatal confrontation, to those who had the villain dead to rights but dropped the ball, and those who needed some precious extra seconds to make their safe exit, they were all on the cusp of getting out alive.

These are the horror movie deaths that left audiences hurling infuriated abuse at their TVs, wondering why the characters didn't do that one little thing differently and save their own lives in the process...

Scream's Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) may catch plenty of flak for her ill-advised attempt to escape Ghostface by crawling through the garage's tiny doggy door, but she very nearly made it out alive.

After knocking Ghostface out with the fridge door, she runs to press the button which opens the motorised garage door.

But seeing Ghostface start to stumble to his feet, she instead runs back to the main garage area and starts pelting him with beer bottles in a blind panic.

Had she held her cool for literally another second and just pressed the button, she would've been able to get the garage door open, then hit Ghostface with bottles and make a clean sprint for the street.

Slasher movies obviously wouldn't exist without dubious character decisions, but considering how ably Tatum fought off Ghostface to begin with, it's a shame she got felled by a single moment of non-thought.