10 Horror Movie Characters You Totally Expected To Die... But Didn’t
7. Ed Jr. - The Mutilator
Horror fans got a very big surprise this year when the long-awaited sequel to The Mutilator quietly found its way onto streaming after being shelved for nearly three years. Not only was the drop itself a surprise, but the fact that a sequel had been made to a semi-obscure 1980s slasher was news to a lot of people.
The original film set a grim tone when we see a young Ed Jr. accidentally kill his mother while cleaning one of his father's hunting rifles. Naturally, this event was highly traumatising for both Ed Jr. and his father, Big Ed. Skip ahead many years later, and Ed Jr. and his college friends are going to Big Ed's cabin to close it up. Unbeknownst to them, though, Big Ed is on the prowl after a psychotic break and plans to enact revenge on them all.
Given The Mutilator's revenge angle and the prevalence of the 'Final Girl' trope in slasher films of the time, many thought that Ed Jr. would succumb to his father's wrath, and we'd be left with a sole female survivor. However, Buddy Cooper's 1984 picture bucked that trend by having Ed Jr. come out victorious alongside his girlfriend Pam.