10 Horror Movies Where NO ONE Is Safe

Ironically enough, given the title, nobody is safe from death in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. The film opens on Arlene, Shanna and Julia (Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd and Sydney Tamiia Poitier) heading out to celebrate Julia’s birthday at a Texas bar, where they are unknowingly stalked by Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) in his Hollywood stunt car.

Now, Tarantino is known for playing fast and loose with the mortality of his characters, but Death Proof is a different proposition altogether. Taking the Psycho template and twisting it in his signature style, Tarantino pays homage to the B-movies he and Robert Rodriguez named their Grindhouse double-bill for, by having all three women killed at the climax of the film’s first half in a head-on collision with Mike’s sweet ride, thereby giving the lie to their protagonism.

The connecting element is, in fact, Stuntman Mike himself, not the girls, despite the film being shot from the ladies’ perspective. And once we know that literally any character can die – including all three main characters in one gory, slow-motion car wreck – it introduces an entirely new kind of tension surrounding the fresh set of girls stalked by Mike in the second half.