10 Movies That Chose The Wrong Lead Character

I Know What You Did Last Summer's protagonist is Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a smart, sensible, beautiful young woman but ultimately a rather boring and dead-ordinary choice for the slasher flick's Final Girl.

Many fans of the movie believe that there was a far better lead character waiting in the wings, and that's Julie's good pal Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar).

The fact that Helen has her own Wikipedia page, while Julie doesn't, really says everything that needs to be said about their respective impact on the audience and general pop-culture.

At first glance, Helen seems to be a stereotypical horror movie beauty queen, defined by vapid self-interest and little else, yet there's a surprising depth to Helen that exposes her deep running vein of emotional vulnerability.

Helen is evidently racked with guilt over the fatal car accident she was involved in, and has a fraught home life to boot.

We're compelled to root for Helen to survive, and so it's such a crushing let down that she's ultimately killed off at the end of an unforgettable chase sequence, despite surviving in the novel no less.

Julie's fate was never really in doubt, which could've made it such a fantastic surprise to kill the prototypical Final Girl and have Helen make it to the end instead.