20 Horror Movie Characters Everyone Underestimated
1. Fool - The People Under the Stairs
Once again, nobody expects the kid to be a total badass.
In Wes Craven's criminally underrated The People Under the Stairs, our protagonist is Poindexter "Fool" Williams (Brandon Adams) - a 13-year-old boy who breaks into his gentrifying neighbours' house in order to steal their wares to pay for his mother's cancer surgery.
But as it turns out, said neighbours - the Robesons - have a penchant for abducting and torturing children, and also killing anyone who attempts to stop the abuse.
Kids in horror films rarely have much agency of their own, and given that Fool is literally nicknamed after the Tarot card of the same name, it doesn't exactly suggest him to be another outlier like Tommy Jarvis.
But Fool is awesome, touting an unexpected combination of smarts, caution, and quick-thinking to flip the tables on the Robesons at every turn.
He tricks Daddy Robeson (Everett McGill) into killing his own rabid dog, frees the kidnapped cannibal children in the basement who promptly kill Mommy (Wendy Robie), kills Daddy himself, and even makes off with enough money to save his dear mother.
Fool is therefore an all-timer child horror movie character - so much smarter and more resilient than anyone could've guessed at the start.