10 Horror Movie Douchebags Who Actually Survived

9. Mayor Vaughn - Jaws

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Universal Pictures

Horror movie a**holes don't get much more cut and dried than Jaws' Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), whose economic anxiety drives him to keep Amity Island's beaches open all while a hungry shark prowls in the midst.

Even with the bodies mounting up, Vaughn refuses to close the beaches for Fourth of July weekend - a classic example of a scheming politician prefacing money over human lives.

Vaughn does admittedly express guilt later in the film and agrees to hire Quint (Robert Shaw) to hunt the shark down, but by then so much unnecessary damage has already been done.

Vaughn also re-appears in Jaws 2 where he once again doubts the presence of a shark in the waters, though is the only member of the Amity Town Council who doesn't vote for Chief Brody's (Roy Scheider) removal.

While the Jaws novel fleshes Vaughn out as a man being pressured to keep the beaches open by the Mafia, in the film he's far more of a straight-forward greedy stuffed shirt who can't bring himself to do the right thing until it's too late.

And true to the history of politicians never getting fair comeuppance for their harmful decisions, Vaughn isn't ever gnawed on by a great white for his troubles, as would've satisfied so many.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.