10 More Horror Final Girls Who Didn't Survive Their Movie

6. Denise Willis - House Of 1000 Corpses

Maniac movie
Lionsgate

Trust Rob Zombie of all horror filmmakers to buck the established trend of letting the Final Girl get away unscathed - or rather, not too scathed.

In his wildly lurid 2003 cult fave House of 1000 Corpses, a group of teenagers are kidnapped, tortured, and killed by an infamous clan of serial killers known as the Firefly family.

After her three friends are systematically and brutally murdered, Denise Willis (Erin Daniels) is the teen left standing and our de facto Final Girl. Smart and resourceful, Denise eventually manages to use her wits to evade the family and escape their compound.

However, when she's picked up by a passing motorist, she fails to notice that it's the murderous patriarch of the Firefly family, Captain Spaudling (Sid Haig), without his signature makeup.

And so, after Denise passes out, she wakes up strapped to an operating table and surrounded by the Firefly family. And that's all she wrote for Denise, who if not killed by the family in the very least lived on in agonising pain as one of their grotesque experiments.

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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.