10 Horror Movie Survivors Who Vanished From Sequels

Surviving one movie, only to never be seen again...

Friday the 13th Part II Ginny Field
Paramount Pictures

When looking across the pantheon of great (or not so great) horror movies, it usually takes a hell of a fight to make it out of these films alive and well. Well, alive, at least, for usually the lasting effects of these events can tend to leave someone feeling far from "well".

For some of these survivors, they may find themselves lucky enough to be brought back for a sequel or two. Sure, those sequel appearances may often result in that character's eventual demise - see: Alice in Friday the 13th Part II, Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Rachel in Halloween 4, Randy in Scream 2, etc - but at least these figures managed to get at least two outings.

On the other side of the fence, there are those other horror characters who successfully navigated a horror movie, only to bafflingly be left out in the cold for any subsequent sequel.

Whether it was by design, by a turn of fate, or some other factor, there are those sorts who are completely absent from any follow-up movies, despite said follow-ups continuing on the same narrative, canon and larger path as their predecessors.

So with that in mind, here are ten such horror survivors who vanished by the time a sequel rolled around.

10. Joel Jones - Scream 2

Friday the 13th Part II Ginny Field
Miramax

Duane Martin's Joel Jones is a smart, smart man.

Unlike 99% of horror movie characters, Joel sees what's going down in Scream 2 and simply opts to get as far away as possible from the piling bodies of this sequel.

When we're reintroduced to Gale Weathers in this Scream follow-up, Joel is shown to be her new cameraman, having taken over that gig from namesake Kenny Jones; a character who was brutally offed in Wes Craven's iconic 1996 picture.

For Joel, reading Gale's The Woodsboro Murders book - and realising the fate of Weathers' last cameraman - has him already weighing up his options, and it's the murder of Randy Meeks that fully pushes Joel towards the exit door.

Telling Gale how she needs her head examined, Duane Martin's character makes the wise call to leave Scream 2's central protagonists to it, for he has zero intentions of becoming one of Ghostface's victims.

Having been absent for the majority of the second half of the movie, Joel would rock up during the final minutes to pick up his spot as Gale's cameraman once more. But still, the character wasn't seen or heard from in either of Scream 3 or Scream 4.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.