20 Horror Movie Characters Everyone Underestimated
These characters had far more going on than anyone expected.
The sheer nature of most horror movies means that a large number of the characters we're introduced to are destined to be served up to the masked killer or grotesque monster, because that's how body counts work.
And where most horror films are concerned, it's incredibly easy to sniff out the victims ahead of time - the snarky douche, scantily-clad woman, stoner, and prankster, for example, are just a few of the archetypes we expect to see die every single time.
But not all horror movies are created equal, and sometimes filmmakers go out of their way to show that characters can defy a kneejerk categorisation. One way or another, they can be more.
And that's absolutely true of these 20 horror movies characters, most of whom audiences figured they had pegged in about a split second, but it turns out they had far more going on than expected.
These character seemed meek, defenseless, and otherwise destined to die, but each subverted expectations in their own way.
Some got their hands dirty with hugely surprising heroism, while others revealed themselves to be secret villains nobody saw coming.
Either way, there's a clear lesson here - judge a book by its cover at your own peril...
20. Lynn Peltzer - Gremlins
All hail the most badass of horror movie mothers - Lynn Peltzer (Frances Lee McCain) in Gremlins.
The sweet, nurturing mother of protagonist Billy (Zach Galligan), Lynn seems like she doesn't have physical violence in her no matter the situation, but she proved us all categorically wrong when the gremlins ran amok in her kitchen.
Cue Lynn single-handedly killing three of them - pureeing one with a blender, stabbing another to death with a kitchen knife, and forcing a third into a microwave where it was exploded into gooey chunks.
Does it really get cooler than shouting "Get out of my kitchen!" while repeatedly driving a blade into the soft flesh of a gremlin?
Most viewers likely expected Lynn to be a damsel-in-distress who Billy has to save, but she instead took an active role in battling the gremlins and ultimately killed more of the critters on-screen than any other human character in either movie.