10 Movie Characters Who Had To Die To Win

Could this be the most famous self-sacrifice in horror movie history? Poor Father Damien Karras leaps to his doom in order to secure a peaceful life for adorable but afflicted moppet Reagan MacNeill and in the process became a poster boy of religious horror. His is such an iconic death that actor Jason Miller’s own son went on to pen and shoot The Final Girls in 2015 as a way of processing the “something haunting, strange, confusing, and a little bit unnatural about seeing your parent constantly die in a film”.

Pazuzu, the demon inhabiting innocent Reagan, is strong enough to resist the titular procedure and off poor old Father Merrin in the process, so it seems there’s no light in sight for William Friedkin’s young star. Cue Father Karras inviting the demon to inhabit him instead before taking a quick jump out the second story bedroom window and down a flight of stairs neck first.

It’s a gruesome fate we wouldn’t wish on anyone and the rubber steps used by stunt performers during filming don’t make it look any less painful. But Karras’ sacrifice is successful and was the only way to intervene and save the life of an innocent, with the priest regaining his own wavering faith in the process.