12 Horror Movie Victims Who Deserved To Live

saddest horror movie deaths — Tatum meets her untimely demise in *Scream.* Photo: Dimension Films

Most horror movie characters aren’t particularly well developed. After all, why invest in characters that are minutes away from being decapitated, blown up, or hacked to pieces?

Of course, there are exceptions. Whether it’s because of an endearing performance, skillful writing, or a combination of the two, we can’t help but root for them to survive. Of course, this makes it extra painful when they bite the dust. Here are twelve horror movie victims that deserved to live.

12. Lizzy (Leatherface) (2017)

horror movie characters that should have lived — Lionsgate

Lizzy is a kind and devoted nurse who works in mental institution for troubled youths in 1960s Texas. Lizzy is taken hostage by a group of escaped inmates, one of whom is Jedidiah Sawyer, the future Leatherface. Lizzy’s hopes of escape are put to an end when Jed fully transforms into Leatherface and kills her despite her pleas for mercy. All she wanted to do was help Jed, and she ends up paying for it with her life.

11. Greta (A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child) (1989)

The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise has had no shortage of likeable victims, but Greta stands above the rest. Final girl Alice’s good-natured and caring friend is constantly getting badgered to stay thin by her overbearing and shallow mother. Freddy uses this against her by force-feeding her to death. Greta’s demise is the most disturbing death in the entire franchise. It’s especially grotesque in the uncut version. Freddy literally feeds Greta her own stomach! She deserved so much better.

10. Larry Cotton (Hellraiser) (1987)

Larry is a well-meaning but naive guy who is betrayed by his wife and sibling. He is unaware that his spouse Julia had a tryst with his drifter brother, Frank. After an encounter with the demonic Cenobites, Frank returns in a desiccated form and convinces Julia to kill for him so that he can appear human again. Ultimately, Frank kills Larry and wears his brother’s face as a mask in an attempt to assume his identity. Larry truly cared for his wife, and it’s disturbing to see her turn on him and conspire to bring him down.

9. Vera (Friday the 13th Part 3) (1982)

Vera is a charismatic, pretty, and easygoing girl who just wanted to have a fun weekend camping with her friends. Sadly, it was not to be. First, she has disturbing run-ins with a racist shop clerk and a dangerous biker gang. Later, nerdy prankster Shelly calls her a bitch after she politely rebuffs his advances. If that wasn’t bad enough, Jason shoots her in the eye with a harpoon gun, killing her nearly instantly. Talk about a rough weekend!

8. Jenna (Friday the 13th) (2009)

Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) is a cute and kind-hearted college girl who helps Clay (Jared Padalecki) find his missing sister. Jenna barely knows Clay, but she nevertheless puts her life in danger in order to assist him in his desperate search. She seems like final girl material, but sadly she doesn’t quite make it to the end. After they break into Jason’s underground lair, Jenna is brutally impaled, leaving Clay and his sister as the only survivors.

7. Tatum (Scream) (1996)

Tatum is the fiercely loyal friend of Sydney Prescott. She is supportive and kind, but also brutally honest when she needs to be. She is killed by Ghostface after an attempt to escape through a hole in a garage door goes awry. Tatum is most remembered for giving Ghostface his name, with her immortal line: “Please don’t kill me Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!”. Sadly, Ghostface doesn’t answer her plea.

Related: The Scream Movies Ranked

6. Ben (Night of the Living Dead) (1968)

After a sudden zombie attack, Ben shacks up in a remote cabin with a gang of other survivors. They board up the windows and argue about what to do next. Ben is notable for being one of the first Black protagonists in an American movie. He is generally the most sensible and level-headed person in the group. Sadly, Ben survives the onslaught only to be killed by a gang of vigilantes who mistake him for a zombie.

5. Helen (Candyman) (1992)

Helen (Virginia Madsen) is a Chicago college student studying urban legends. Her work puts her in the crosshairs of Candyman (Tony Todd), a supernatural specter who haunted a local housing project. Candyman frames her for the murder of her friend Bernadette. After escaping from jail, she discovers that her husband Trevor is cheating on her with another woman. Helen dies attempting to save a young boy from Candyman and becomes a specter that haunts the housing project.

4. Miss Collins (Carrie) (1976)

Miss Collins is a caring and protective high school teacher who tries to help Carrie White, a bullied girl who has no friends. Collins is unaware that Carrie has dangerous telekinetic powers. After a cruel prank at the prom, Carrie hallucinates that Miss Collins is laughing at her and believes that she was against her all along. Although Collins hasn’t done anything wrong, Carrie kills her by impaling her with a basketball backboard.

3. Tara (Terrifier) (2016)

Tara is a fun-loving gal who just wants to have some Halloween fun with her friend Dawn. Unfortunately, they encounter Art the Clown. Tara is tougher and smarter than Dawn, so it’s no surprise that she lives longer than her friend. She puts up a great fight against Art, but ultimately he gets the better of her by playing dead and then fatally shooting her. She would have been a cool final girl, but unfortunately it was not to be.

2. Rachel (Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers) (1989)

Rachel successfully protected her young stepsister Jamie from Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. She’s a cute and down to earth young woman who is mature beyond her years. In part 4, she helps finish off Michael by ramming him with a pickup truck. Sadly, Myers returns a year later and dispatches her with a pair of scissors. This briefly leaves Rachel’s insufferable friend Tina as Jamie’s protector, until Michael takes mercy on the viewers by killing her too. The original plan was to have Rachel stabbed in the throat, but actress Elie Cornell nixed that idea.

1. Randy (Scream 2) (1997)

Randy is the horror movie expert of the Scream franchise. Well, the first 1.5 movies, anyway. Randy successfully survives Ghostface’s initial onslaught, but he dies in the middle of Scream 2 after being pulled into a van and stabbed repeatedly by Mrs. Loomis. Randy should have at least made it to Scream 3.

I remember internet speculation that Randy faked his death and would be the killer in the third installment! Wouldn’t that have been interesting? Sadly, his only appearance in Scream 3 is in a videotape that he made shortly before dying. He warns the surviving characters about the rules of a trilogy.