10 Smartest Decisions In Recent Horror Movies

Because not every character in a horror movie is a total idiot these days.

Barbarian Tess Mother
20th Century Studios

How many times have you been left screaming at your TV or a cinema screen at the utterly baffling decisions made by certain horror characters? Likely too many to count, we're sure.

It may not be as prevalent these days - largely thanks to something like Scream poking fun at such idiocy - but for the longest time, horror movies were overflowing with total fools. Thankfully, not everyone in one of these pictures is a total tool, and it's on those smarter folks that the spotlight shines today.

Where that "shines" is concerned, it's time to put some focus on the figures who made quite the genius decisions in recent horror films.

In terms of recent, that's a word that can absolutely be open to interpretation. To some, recent would maybe mean the last 12 months, while for others that word would relate to the past decade. As such, we'll go with the last five years as a nice middle ground for what classifies as recent where it pertains to the films featured here - meaning anything from 2018 onwards is fair game.

With that in mind, then, here are ten extremely wise characters who have been served up by horror across these past five years.

10. The Faked Suicide - Halloween Ends

Barbarian Tess Mother
Universal Pictures

Halloween Ends was nothing if not opinion-splitting when it sliced its way to the silver screen last year, but one of the things most viewers could agree on, was that Laurie Strode was positioned as extremely smart.

Granted, the biggest gripe about Halloween Ends is that it features such minimal Laurie vs. Michael Myers action - with Rohan Campbell's Corey Cunningham taking centre-stage on the villain front - but the way in which Strode tricks Corey was fantastically done.

To be fair, this whole situation tricked a fair few moviegoers upon a first watch, with Jamie Lee Curtis' iconic character seemingly at such a low point that she was about to take her own life. Of course, Laurie's daughter Karen was murdered by Michael in Halloween Kills, Laurie's granddaughter Allyson had now distanced herself from Strode as she looked to runaway with Corey, and Laurie even called 911 to report her impending suicide before putting a gun to her head.

So, when we hear a gunshot and see a splatter of something, it's easy to see why the lurking Corey would presume Laurie had shot herself. Only she hadn't, and instead it was Cunningham who was soon shot by the wily veteran.

Also, y'know, it was also extremely smart of Laurie, Allyson and the people of Haddonfield to put Michael's dead body through a shredding machine at the film's close.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.