10 Iconic Horror Movie Characters Done Dirty

8. Kirsty Cotton

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Chop-Top Bill Moseley
Dimension Home Video/Miramax Films

Where Halloween had Laurie Strode or A Nightmare on Elm Street had Nancy Thompson, the central protagonist of the early Hellraiser movies was Ashley Laurence's Kirsty Cotton.

While the eventual returns of Jamie Lee Curtis (for Halloween H20) and Heather Langenkamp (for Wes Craven's New Nightmare) were well received and happened in some of the better pictures of their respective franchises, the same can't be said for Kirsty's big return in 2002's Hellraiser: Hellseeker.

Prior to that, Kirsty had battled her creepy Uncle Frank, her twisted stepmother Julia, and Pinhead and his Cenobites through the first two films, plus made a brief video appearance in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. So, when she returned for Hellseeker - the sixth entry in the series - hope was high that bringing Kirsty back could represent a high point for the property.

Sadly, the end result was a stinker of a film which took a giant dump on a once-revered character.

Many were left in disbelief when Hellseeker killed off Kirsty in an opening moments car crash, leaving her abusive husband Trevor to be the film's main focus. If that wasn't bad enough, Hellseeker ends by revealing Trevor, not Kirsty, had perished in that car wreck, and that Kirsty had made a deal with Pinhead which saw her responsible for the deaths of Trevor, his best pal, and Trevor's three mistresses.

 
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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.