8 Horror Movies Where The Killer Was Meant To Be Someone Else

5. Happy Death Day - Stephanie Butler

Happy Death Day Thumb
Universal Pictures

While she would ultimately end up being revealed as one of the killers behind the chaos of Happy Death Day 2U, the character of Laura Clifton's Stephanie Butler originally had a pivotal part to play in that 2019 sequel's predecessor.

In that movie, Jessica Rothe's Tree Gelbman ends up in a slice 'n' dice version of Groundhog Day. Being killed by a masked killer, waking up to live the same day again, only to be murdered once more, Tree eventually pieces together that it's her roommate Lori who is pulling the strings behind all of this.

For the planned ending of Happy Death Day, Tree killing Lori was only the tip of the iceberg. Due to the cumulative injuries picked up throughout her lather, rinse, repeat terrors, Tree was taken to the hospital in the original close of Christopher Landon's picture.

There, the nurse looking after her would be Stephanie Butler - the husband of the man who both Tree and Lori had been having affairs with - and Roth's character would be killed yet again, plummeting her into another time loop scenario.

Test audiences hated the ending, and thus Stephanie's involvement in the final act was removed.

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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 dayjob, 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.