10 Smartest Decisions In Slasher Horror Movie History

4. Learning From Your Mistakes - Scream 2

Scream 2 Mrs. Loomis Laurie Metcalf
Dimension Films

Like so many slashers of decades past, the first Scream movie finds Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott positioned as the A-typical 'final girl' who is thrust into a nightmare scenario that sees her stalked and tormented by a mysterious masked figure.

Of course, part of the charm of Scream is how it flips the traditions of the slasher subgenre on its head, with Sidney's smarts coming to the fore in her battle against Ghostface. In a movie that pokes fun at so many familiar horror tropes, the film's closing minutes deliver the age-old trick of the killer (Billy Loomis) not being as dead as we were to believe.

Startling our survivors, Billy rears up for one final scare, which is soon cut down by Sid shooting him in his forehead.

Learning from this - and also from having just put bullets in a resurrected Mickey Altieri - Sidney takes no chances at the end of Scream 2. With Mrs. Loomis believed to be dead, Sidney unleashes an extra bullet into her head just to be safe.

Whether Mrs. Loomis would've perked back up for another crazed attack, we'll never know. But in firing that extra shot into the fallen Loomis, Sidney smartly makes sure that Billy's mother is well and truly as dead as a dodo.

Senior Writer
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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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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.