9 Horror Movie Heroes Killed By Their Own Vices

4. Karen White - The Howling

Dee Wallace The Howling
MGM

Managing to combine genuine terror with solid chuckles and fantastic special effects, 1981's The Howling is viewed as one of the better werewolf movies out there.

Headlined by genre favourite Dee Wallace as TV news anchor Karen White, Joe Dante's impressive picture finds Karen becoming all-consumed by Eddie Quist, a serial killer who's been stalking her.

Her determined, obsessive mission to take down Eddie leads to Karen getting amnesia, being sent to a strange countryside retreat, and suspecting that her husband Bill is keeping secrets from her. Those secrets would be that Bill was having an affair... and that he was a big ol' furball werewolf.

To make things worse, Eddie is back from the grave and likewise a werewolf - as, it turns out, are every other person in this Colony retreat.

By the end of the movie, Karen's digging on all things lycanthrope delivers a shocking reveal, as she turns herself into a werewolf during a final act TV broadcast. After it's revealed Karen was bit by Bill back at the Colony, she's then shot and killed live on international television.

Sadly, Karen's transformation - that she'd done to warn the world about the existence of werewolves - was merely viewed as a hoax by the watching masses.

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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 and Presenter, 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 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 and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.