10 Horror Movies That Totally Screwed Characters

1. Sgt. Neil Howie - The Wicker Man

But perhaps no horror movie character has ever been as utterly, cruelly screwed over as The Wicker Man's Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), who visits the remote Hebridean island Summerisle in order to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison (Gerry Cowper).

Howie comes to suspect that Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) is planning to sacrifice Rowan in the hope of ensuring their next harvest is bountiful, but the twist, of course, is that the islanders are actually planning to sacrifice Howie himself.

Worse than that, Howie was selected primarily because he could fit four required criteria: he came to the island of his own free will, he has the "power of a King" by being a police officer, he's dressed up in a fool costume for the island's May Day celebration, and most specifically of all, he's a virgin.

Quite how the pagans knew Howie was a virgin is anyone's guess, but without his devout nature, the islanders would've been unable to burn him to death inside the titular wicker effigy, as occurs in the film's incredibly disturbing final scene.

Had Howie simply succumbed to Willow's (Britt Ekland) attempt to seduce him earlier in the movie, he probably would've been allowed to investigate and then leave the island unharmed. Instead, he got burned to death as part of a psychotically misguided religious ritual. Poor guy.