10 More Horror Final Girls Who Didn't Survive Their Movie
2. Anna D'Antoni - Maniac
2012's Maniac is an especially interesting instance of the Final Girl unexpectedly dying, because in the original movie the same character actually ends up surviving.
In the 1980 version of Maniac, Anna D'Antoni (Caroline Munro) - the beautiful photographer preyed upon by deranged serial killer Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) - manages to fend off Frank before he kills himself at film's end, though the remake's equivalent isn't quite so lucky.
In the remake, it seems like Anna (Nora Arnezeder) is again going to fight Frank (Elijah Wood) off and escape to safety, but after fleeing to a passing car, the driver runs over Frank before crashing the car.
As Anna hadn't yet been able to put on her seatbelt, she's promptly catapulted through the windshield and mortally wounded. In her final moments, she's "comforted" by Frank, who promptly scalps her and attaches said scalp to a mannequin dressed in a bridal gown in his apartment.
But Frank certainly doesn't "win," as he succumbs to his injuries from being run over shortly after returning home.
As much as horror fans tend to viewer major storytelling changes in horror remakes with a fair degree of skepticism, in this case it was a savage reworking of the original story that succeeded beyond mere shock value.