Top 50 Smartest Decisions in Horror Movies
The dumb ones never survive! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most intelligent choices and plans made by characters in horror films.
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00:00Now I'll show you what I already know.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most intelligent choices
00:06and plans made by characters in horror films.
00:10Good.
00:11Good.
00:12You got it quick.
00:13Good on you.
00:16Number 50, Ripley sets off the fire alarm.
00:19Aliens.
00:20Poor Ripley and Newt find themselves in a waking nightmare, surrounded by live facehuggers,
00:25completely defenseless and unable to cry for help.
00:28Help!
00:29Help!
00:30Help!
00:31Help!
00:32Help!
00:33Help us!
00:34Break the glass!
00:35They're trapped in the station's medical bay, and none of the other marines can hear their
00:38scuffle with the facehuggers.
00:40Fortunately, Ripley thinks on her feet.
00:42She takes a lighter and puts the flame next to the room's fire suppression system, causing
00:46an alarm to go off.
00:47Seeing the alarm, the marines rush to the medical bay, just in time to save Ripley and
00:51Newt.
00:52All clear.
00:53Nailed the other one.
00:54It's history, man.
00:5549, making a newspaper curtain.
00:59Featuring uncommonly smart characters for a horror film, Train to Busan follows a group
01:04of people stuck on a train with bloodthirsty zombies.
01:07These zombies are of the 28 Days Later variety, screechy, speedy, and highly aggressive.
01:13In one scene, a horde of zombies are looking through a glass door at our heroes, and Seok-Woo
01:18realizes that they're attracted to movement.
01:20I don't think they know how to open the door.
01:24Speaking fast, Song-Kyung grabs a water bottle and a newspaper.
01:28She splashes the water onto the glass and sticks the newspaper to the water, effectively
01:32making a curtain that prevents the zombies from seeing them.
01:35And with that, the threat is neutralized.
01:38For now.
01:39그만해!
01:40다들 겁나니까 그런거야.
01:41Number 48, Selina kills Mark, 28 Days Later.
01:47Speaking of 28 Days Later, this film revolutionized the zombie genre, introducing fast runners
01:52and new rules.
01:53In most zombie movies, characters have a couple of days from when they're infected until
01:57they turn.
01:58In 28 Days Later, it's 20 seconds.
02:00So you have to act fast, and that's exactly what Selina does.
02:04Were you bitten?
02:06A no-nonsense character, focused purely on survival, she quickly deduces that Mark has
02:10been infected in the house attack.
02:12She simply reads the panic on Mark's face, grabs her machete, and gets to work.
02:17Mark?
02:19Wait.
02:22It's horrifically brutal, but it has to be done, and Selina is the one to do it.
02:29Number 47, Setting the Room on Fire, 1408.
02:33Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and Mike Enslin takes that literally.
02:38Mike finds himself trapped in a haunted hotel room that plays tricks on his mind and taunts
02:42him with the ghost of his deceased daughter.
02:51Having no other means to escape, and nearing the end of his sanity, Mike makes a Molotov
02:55cocktail and burns the room down.
02:57This not only kills its malevolent spirit, but also allows firefighters to enter the
03:01gutted room and rescue him from the inferno.
03:04He reunites with his estranged wife, and all is well.
03:07Of course, Mike doesn't make it out in the director's cut, but he's still content with
03:10having defeated the room and freeing its trapped souls.
03:23Number 46, Getting Distance from the Entity, It Follows.
03:26You're being followed by a deadly entity.
03:28It doesn't sleep, no one else can see it, and when it touches you, you die.
03:32So what do you do?
03:33That's the question at the heart of It Follows.
03:36And while some of the plans are pretty silly, others are surprisingly smart.
03:39One of the best ideas comes from Jeff, a student who had previously been infected by
03:44the entity.
03:45If it kills her, it gets me, and goes straight down the line to whoever started it.
03:51Jay, I'm sorry.
03:55He implores that the group drive to a remote location and simply hide out.
03:59The entity has to walk, so it would be days before it arrives, giving them time to hide
04:03and think of more permanent solutions.
04:15The answer is so simple, yet so effective.
04:19Number 45, Using the Environment, The Black Phone.
04:22A kidnapping drama with a supernatural twist, The Black Phone sees young Finny getting taken
04:26by the Grabber and held inside his basement.
04:29I'm not strong enough.
04:30You have to be.
04:31You're getting out of here.
04:32If you can't do it for you, do it for me.
04:33Why does it matter?
04:34Because I don't want to die for nothing.
04:38But in this basement, he accesses the titular Black Phone, some kind of supernatural device
04:43that allows him to talk to the Grabber's past victims.
04:46They all give him various pieces of advice for escaping the room, and Finny utilizes
04:50them all in a climactic battle to fantastic success.
05:03Watching all of the pieces fall into place is incredibly satisfying, as are the various
05:08ingenious ways that Finny uses his tools to defeat the Grabber.
05:12Number 44, Playing the Baby, Barbarian.
05:15Tess thinks she has it bad when her Airbnb is double-booked with Keith, but she has no
05:19idea that it's about to get so much worse.
05:22So there's a bed, and a what, a bucket, and a camera?
05:25Yeah.
05:26I'm just gonna go back.
05:27No, no, no, no, please don't, please don't, there was like a handprint on the wall.
05:30Tess, calm down.
05:31She and Keith find a secret room in the basement of the house, and inside this room is a feral
05:36creature who kills Keith and takes Tess prisoner.
05:39Tess quickly deduces that the creature is a deformed woman who desperately wants a child,
05:43so she decides to play along and act as her baby.
05:46You can't get upset.
05:48If you get upset, she gets upset.
05:51She?
05:52Who's she?
05:53It's deeply uncomfortable, watching Tess be embraced and stroked by the creature, but,
05:58hey, it kept her alive up until this point, so good for her.
06:02Number 43, Not Looking at the Alien, Nope.
06:05Jordan Peele's Nope has many thematic ambitions, but it's also a terrifying invasion film
06:10in the vein of classic Spielberg.
06:12Daniel Kaluuya's O.J. is a smart man, and he alone figures out the alien.
06:16Make a name for yourself.
06:20What is that?
06:21My bad, man.
06:23It's he who realizes that it's a living organism, and not a UFO, and having experience with
06:29trained animals, he realizes that the alien only attacks those who look directly at it.
06:34Yeah, he didn't like that, did he?
06:36He then helps devise a plan to capture the alien on film, which is ultimately successful
06:41thanks to the help of M and Holst.
06:43Number 42, Sacrificing Herself, Alien 3.
06:47The third entry in the Alien franchise is often criticized for being too dark, and that
06:51extends to the somewhat dour ending.
06:54What guarantee do I have?
06:58Once you've taken it out, you'll destroy it.
07:02Ripley learns that she's carrying an alien embryo, and that Weyland-Yutani plans on turning
07:07it into a biological weapon.
07:09So Ripley has a choice, give birth to an alien that will be used for further violence, or
07:14sacrifice herself and end the vicious battle for good.
07:25She chooses the latter, throwing herself into a vat of molten lead.
07:29It's certainly not a happy ending, and we were sad to see Ripley go, but we suppose
07:33she made the right, and smart, choice.
07:36Number 41, Hiding in the Mall, Dawn of the Dead.
07:39In the zombie apocalypse, it's everyone for themselves, and if that means taking over
07:43a mall and stealing all the goods for yourself, then so be it.
07:51This is what the heroes of Dawn of the Dead realize when they fly upon the empty mall
07:55while escaping Philadelphia.
07:57Deciding that it would be the perfect place to hide out for a while, they land on the
08:00roof, clear the mall of zombies, and make themselves a nice little nest from the store's
08:05contents.
08:06Of course, it's only a matter of time before raiders come a-calling, but this plan worked
08:21splendidly for months.
08:22Who else was living this comfortably while the world fell apart around them?
08:26Number 40, Blowing Up the House, Fright Night.
08:29We all know the major no-no's that come with being a vampire.
08:33Can't go out in sunlight, can't eat garlic, can't touch crosses, and can't enter someone's
08:38home without an invitation.
08:40But what if there is no home?
08:43Colin Farrell's Jerry finds a clever workaround to that last one in this fun remake.
08:59After realizing his neighbor Charlie is wise to his undead nature, Jerry pays a visit.
09:04But his ploy to get invited in is rebuffed.
09:07Undeterred, Jerry takes a shovel to their backyard and digs up the gas line.
09:12From there, little exposure and a spark are all it takes to blow up the house from the
09:16inside.
09:17The occupants are okay, but that's one way to flush out potential victims.
09:22You'll need an invitation if there's no house.
09:24Number 39, Calling a Cab, Scream 2.
09:28Do you ever watch a horror movie and think to yourself, there's nothing keeping them
09:31there, why don't they just leave?
09:33Well, Joel has the common sense to do just that in Scream 2.
09:45After finding out what happened to Gale's camera operator in the first film, Joel is
09:49none too pleased to be on campus with a killer running around.
09:52So when Randy gets killed in his news van, he decides he's had enough and skips town.
09:58See ya?
09:59Wouldn't want to be here.
10:00Joel, I need you!
10:01No, no, you need to have your head examined.
10:06Due to a script leak, Joel's entire character had to be reworked, leaving him without a
10:10death or a resolution.
10:12It was reportedly actor Dwayne Martin's idea to add in this scene.
10:16Wes Craven obliged, but brought back Joel for the ending anyway.
10:20I'm- I'm back.
10:22I was thinking maybe we could get to scoop like in the old days.
10:26You're Gale Weathers, at Windsor College.
10:30Number 38, Shredding Michael, Halloween Ends.
10:33While the so-called ending of Halloween received a mixed reception at best, you can't deny
10:38that the town's handling of Michael Myers isn't 100% the right call.
10:43After we've seen Michael get knocked down and impossibly up again for decades, it seems
10:48like Laurie has finally ended the shape.
10:50But she too has seen this horror movie before.
10:53So with the help of the authorities, she leads Michael on one last tour of Haddonfield.
10:57Time for Haddonfield to start healing.
11:00Let's show them all.
11:06This is not how it works.
11:09It is tonight.
11:10With the townsfolk joining the therapeutic funeral procession, it all ends at the salvage
11:15yard where they dispose of Michael's body in an industrial shredder.
11:19Yeah, no resurrections this time, we think.
11:22Number 37, Burying Mia, Evil Dead.
11:25This movie takes its metaphor of getting clean to the utmost extreme.
11:29After Mia is possessed by the evil and two of their friends are killed, David feels resigned
11:34to simply set the cabin on fire with his sister in it.
11:37But his brotherly nature gets the better of him and he hatches a plan to save her.
11:41With the help of his best friend Eric, David is able to sedate Mia and drag her outside.
11:46There, he enacts a live burial.
11:48I can't move.
11:50I can't breathe.
11:52David!
11:54Help me!
11:56Help me!
11:58David!
12:00You're not hurt.
12:01Mia technically dies, but so too does her possession end.
12:05David immediately exhumes her body and resuscitates her, effectively saving Mia's life.
12:10Thanks for not leaving me, David.
12:13It's just too bad that David ends up burning in that cabin after all.
12:18Number 36, Destroying the Cameras, Escape Room.
12:21What are you doing?
12:22Quantum Zeno effect.
12:24Atoms won't change if you take continuous measurements, so as long as they're watching us,
12:27we can't change our state.
12:29The game is designed so they always win.
12:32Upon realising that the shadowy company Minos stays in control as long as they can see the contestants,
12:37Zoe takes to smashing all the cameras in the hospital-themed room.
12:41While Jason and Ben are able to escape the old-fashioned way,
12:44Zoe remains resolute in her plan.
12:47Come on, there's a way out!
12:48This is the way out.
12:50You'll suffocate! Come on!
12:52Just go!
12:54At first, it seems like Zoe suffocates to death after being exposed to the poisonous gas,
12:59but without any eyes on her, she's now able to breathe through an oxygen mask undetected.
13:04The clean-up crew thus thinks she's dead, only to get a rude awakening.
13:08The oxygen mask.
13:10What the hell was she going to do with that?
13:11Breathe, b****!
13:15It's thanks to Zoe's four-dimensional thinking
13:17that she and Ben are able to turn the tables on the Game Master and escape for good.
13:23Number 35, Leg Upgrade, Planet Terror.
13:26Losing a leg to a zombie horde would pretty much spell doom to any other survivor,
13:30but not Cherry Darling.
13:32Sure, she's a little down on herself at first,
13:34but a quick fix from her ex-boyfriend El Rey helps her escape.
13:39I have no leg!
13:50What do you do? What do you think?
13:53While the table leg is also a smart decision and helps Cherry take names,
13:57it's the next upgrade that earns its spot on our list.
14:00When the chips are down and the wooden leg is broken,
14:03El Rey replaces it with an assault rifle with a rocket launcher attachment.
14:07I believe it. You could be better. You deserve better.
14:12Even better than me.
14:15Right now, I need you to become who you're meant to be.
14:22Stand.
14:23Don't ask us how it works without Cherry's finger on the trigger,
14:26but in a Grindhouse movie, all that matters is how undeniably badass she becomes.
14:42Number 34, Goading the Demon, The Exorcist.
14:45Upon possessing the young Regan and reducing her to a grotesque husk of her former self,
14:50the demon Pazuzu effectively saps the hope of all those close to her.
14:54Father Keris and Father Merrin do everything they can to exorcise Pazuzu,
14:59but this proves futile and results in the latter's death.
15:02Incensed as the demon and his inability to save the little girl,
15:06Keris flies into a rage.
15:08You son of a bitch!
15:10Take this! Come into me! Goddamn you! Take this!
15:23He beats Pazuzu senselessly, challenging it to take him instead.
15:27Pazuzu obliges, and Keris, already feeling its influence,
15:31hurls himself out a window to present himself from harming Regan.
15:35Keris may die, but Regan is safe. Until the sequels, of course.
15:39Number 33, Swimming Through the Coral, Old.
15:43The characters in this M. Night Shyamalan thriller are faced with a peculiar predicament.
15:48They're trapped on a beach that causes them to age the equivalent of a year every 30 minutes.
15:53Trouble is, they can't leave the beach else they lose consciousness,
15:57which can be fatal depending on their situation.
15:59After everyone else has died of physical or natural causes,
16:02siblings Maddox and Trent find themselves middle-aged,
16:06having been children just the day before.
16:08Thankfully, a secret message makes them believe a nearby coral reef
16:13may shield them from blacking out if they swim through it.
16:16The coral might protect us from the effects of the rocks.
16:19Maybe that's like our metal tube.
16:23Maybe we're just making up what we want to hear.
16:25Maybe he heard they took people to this beach.
16:28It's a big gamble, as they risk drowning if they're wrong.
16:31But they're not, as they ultimately make it out and expose those responsible.
16:37Your aunt will be waiting for you when you land.
16:39How's she handling things?
16:41How would you feel if a 50-year-old man called and told you he was your 6-year-old nephew?
16:46Number 32. Checking into a psychiatric ward. Final Destination 2
16:51It doesn't matter how good you are at reading the signs,
16:53cheating death in this franchise will only get you so far.
16:57And eventually, it will get you.
16:59This is what Clear comes to realise after losing fellow Flight 180 survivor Alex between films.
17:05Rather than continue to roll the dice,
17:07Clear has since committed herself to a psych ward
17:10where she spends her days in a padded cell where nothing can actually kill her.
17:14You gotta help me.
17:16I don't have to do anything.
17:18But you beat it.
17:19Take a look around.
17:21What did I beat, Kimberly?
17:23Since this is a story with character growth, however,
17:25Clear ultimately decides to check herself out in order to help other survivors.
17:30And as you might guess, it finally catches up to her in a hospital explosion.
17:42Number 31. Muddying Up. Predator
17:52This sci-fi action horror film is full of smart decisions,
17:55mostly by the titular creature.
17:57But we ultimately have to award the move that decides this game of cat and mouse.
18:01After his entire rescue team is picked off one by one by the Predator,
18:05Dutch is chased to a riverbank to seemingly meet his end.
18:08However, the Predator fails to see him,
18:11and Dutch realises the mud inexplicably covering his body
18:14is masking him in his adversary's heat vision.
18:17With time to prepare, Dutch becomes a hunter himself
18:20by setting a series of traps,
18:22making sure to muddy himself up real good in the process.
18:25It's still a struggle, but Dutch's keen insight into his enemy helps him win the day.
18:37Number 30. Backing Up. Us
18:40Another instance of knowing thy enemy,
18:42this one sees a family plagued by their evil doppelgangers.
18:45The youngest, Jason, gets time to observe and understand his, Pluto,
18:50realising that his double mirrors his actions.
18:53After Jason's father and sister dispose of their doppelgangers,
18:56the family is ambushed on the road by a flaming car.
18:59It's a trap.
19:02Get out!
19:04Upon seeing Pluto, Jason realises it's a trap and turns the tables.
19:09Before Pluto can cause a deadly explosion,
19:11Jason starts backing up, knowing Pluto will do the same.
19:14While Jason may back up directly into the arms of his mother's doppelganger,
19:18Pluto backs directly into the flaming vehicle,
19:21catching himself alight and ending his tiny reign of terror.
19:24Number 29. Infecting Himself. World War Z
19:28The zombies featured in this apocalyptic action-horror flick
19:31are some of the deadliest put to screen.
19:33They're incredibly fast, and infection spreads even faster,
19:36turning a human within seconds of being bitten.
19:39However, their overzealous predatory nature also turns out to be their downfall.
19:44I believe these things have a weakness.
19:47And that weakness is weakness.
19:49Our weakness.
19:50Throughout the film, Brad Pitt's Jerry Lane is able to observe them out in the wild,
19:55so to speak,
19:56and comes to believe the zombies will deliberately ignore anyone who's terminally ill,
20:00wanting only healthy hosts.
20:02But even if you're right, I mean, infecting the populace with a lethal illness is not exactly a cure.
20:07It's not a cure. It's camouflage.
20:10To prove this theory, Jerry fights his way through a research facility
20:13and injects himself with a lethal yet curable disease.
20:17Not only does it work, but Jerry also gives humanity a fighting chance
20:21against the undead scourge.
20:2328. Going All Survivalist
20:26You're next.
20:27When it comes to smarts, there are few final girls quite like Erin.
20:31Unbeknownst to her adversaries, she was raised in a survivalist compound,
20:35so when masked assailants arrive to terrorize her boyfriend's family,
20:38she doesn't waste a second in setting herself up for success.
20:41She sets a slew of traps all over the house,
20:44severely injuring the intruders, whether they're just trying to enter
20:47or whether they think they have her cornered.
20:50Seriously, Erin does so many things right that it'd be easier to list the things she does wrong.
20:55Thanks for the help, by the way.
20:57Hey, you seem to have a handle on it.
21:00She might even be too lethal for her own good,
21:02as even after the killers and their conspirators are dead,
21:05an arriving police officer gets a wicked surprise.
21:0927. Electrocuting the Shark, Jaws 2
21:12Shoving a scuba tank into a shark's mouth before blowing it up with a gunshot is ingenious,
21:17but Chief Brody might just outdo himself in the sequel.
21:29After some local kids find themselves stranded in the ocean with a vicious Great White,
21:33Brody again comes to the rescue.
21:35He tracks them down to an island that's home to a relay station,
21:38but getting them to safety proves exceedingly difficult.
21:41He inadvertently uncovers a power cable,
21:44but when others' lives hang in the balance, he uses it to his advantage.
21:48He whacks the cable repeatedly with an oar, gaining the shark's attention,
21:52before getting the beast to bite down on the wiring.
22:01The electrocution is so severe that the shark immediately catches fire, absolutely roasted.
22:0826. Pipe Bomb Fake Out, Tremors
22:12What do you do when you're being hounded by giant sand-dwelling worms?
22:16Use pipe bombs, of course.
22:29When the group of survivors find themselves pinned down towards the end of the film,
22:32they get the idea to not only distract the graboids with pipe bombs, but to fish with them too.
22:38They successfully blow up one graboid, but another gets wise and spits it back at them.
22:43Scattered, they're forced to improvise,
22:45before a graboid pins a few of them down at the edge of a cliff.
22:49With just one pipe bomb left, Val tries not to blow it up, but to scare it.
22:54After he does so, the thing panics to the point that it shoots right out the cliffside.
22:59And graboids cannot fly.
23:03Can you fly, you sucker? Can you fly?
23:0925. Using Audio Feedback, A Quiet Place
23:13Every villain has a weakness, even aliens in a fun and original horror movie.
23:17A Quiet Place concerns a species of aliens with super-duper hearing.
23:21The creatures are able to detect even the slightest bit of noise from miles away,
23:25and will devour whoever and whatever made the sound.
23:33But this type of extraordinary hearing comes with a cost,
23:36and young Regan utilises it to her advantage.
23:39Realising that her cochlear implant emits a high-pitched screech when disrupted,
23:43she puts it up to the microphone and amplifies the whine,
23:46causing an alien to react in enormous pain.
23:48This allows Regan's mother Evelyn to kill the creature,
23:51and with their major weakness exposed, she pumps the shotgun and prepares for battle.
23:5624. Threatening Chucky, Child's Play
23:59Of course, we as the audience know that Chucky is an evil living doll,
24:03but any rational person in that universe would never come to that conclusion.
24:07So, when all signs point to her young son Andy being behind the recent killings,
24:12Karen doesn't know what to believe.
24:14Chucky's alive, really, he is.
24:17Andy, Chucky, Chucky.
24:20He's made of plastic and stuffing. Look at him, look at him.
24:23Now, does he look like anything else to you?
24:25Thanks to her mother's intuition, however, a part of Karen hears Andy when he says Chucky did it.
24:30With nothing to lose, Karen ignites the fireplace and tells Chucky
24:34that if he doesn't come alive, she'll toss him in.
24:37Out of options, Chucky obliges.
24:40I said talk to me, dammit, or else I'm gonna throw you in the fire.
24:44Granted, Karen's got a whole new problem now,
24:46but at least she knows who the real enemy is.
24:4923. Powerloading, Aliens
24:52Ellen Ripley has to be one of the most resourceful heroines in horror.
24:56In the same movie that sees her save herself from sabotage by activating the alarm,
25:01she also has the perfect answer for the Alien Queen, an exosuit powerloader.
25:06While the powerloaders are, of course, designed to move heavy objects,
25:10with the lack of an appropriate mech suit, it definitely works in a pinch.
25:23While the Queen definitely has the upper hand in terms of arsenal,
25:26she's also got a lot of power.
25:28In the movie, she's got a lot of power.
25:31While the Queen definitely has the upper hand in terms of arsenal,
25:36Ripley has the wherewithal to drop it in the airlock.
25:39Sure, she takes the tumble with it too,
25:41but from there, all it takes is a pulling of a switch and holding on for dear life.
25:5422. Using the Mask, Prey
25:57Much like Dutch from the original Predator film,
26:00Naru too obscures her scent by eating the orange totesier flower and dropping her body temperature.
26:06But it's what she does afterwards that's really brilliant.
26:09After getting the drop on the Predator, she steals its mask and leads it to a trap.
26:14Sure, there's still a physical battle to be had, but Naru's picked up a thing or two.
26:19For one, she knows that its projectiles use a targeting system attached to its mask.
26:23When the Predator's stuck in the mud, it fires directly at Naru.
26:27However, Naru's positioned the mask to train its crosshairs right at the thing,
26:32and the projectile whips around and takes the Predator out instead.
26:45Looks like the Predator becomes the prey.
26:4721. Nullifying the Reverse Bear Trap, Saw VI
26:52Mark Hoffman is a pretty detestable villain,
26:55but even we can't help but be impressed when he beats the seemingly unbeatable Reverse Bear Trap.
27:11Ex-wifed the deceased John Kramer, Jill enacts his last will and testament by dealing with his rogue accomplice.
27:18After ambushing him, Jill straps Hoffman to a chair and outfits him with the iconic Reverse Bear Trap.
27:24But this time around, there's no key, and no game to be played.
27:35Having to think fast, Hoffman uses the device's weight to break his own hand and free himself from the restraint.
27:41Then he shoves his face between two metal bars to open the door's window,
27:45preventing the trap from opening completely.
27:47It mangles his face, but he also lives to see another movie.
28:01Is there a villain, let alone a horror movie villain, smarter than Hannibal Lecter?
28:05Seriously, we could not have concocted such a dastardly escape plan if given an eternity to come up with it.
28:11Through his dealings with FBI trainee Clarice Starling,
28:14Lecter's able to upgrade his prison digs, only he's more interested in escaping from them.
28:31After picking his handcuffs and incapacitating the guards, Lecter does the unthinkable.
28:36He feigns his own escape by surgically removing one of their faces and throwing it over his own,
28:42tricking first responders into thinking they're saving one of the victims.
28:46By the time the authorities find the real body, Lecter's already in an ambulance ensuring his freedom.
28:56Stabbing yourself in the wrist doesn't seem like a great idea on the surface,
28:59but when you've got an invisible foe, you have to think outside the box.
29:02Knowing her tormentor wants her alive, Cecilia stabs herself with a pen,
29:06faking her own death to catch the invisible man's attention.
29:13Lo and behold, he pops up right beside her, close enough for Cecilia to get in some solid jabs at the suit.
29:20The attack proves effective enough to get Cecilia out of the mental institution,
29:24and all it took was drying a little bit of blood.
29:31When your big bad has its own legend, it's best to use that to your advantage.
29:36In this return to the found footage legend of the Blair Witch, our heroes made sure to do their homework first.
29:42As James and Lisa arrive at the original Blair Witch House,
29:45they find themselves at a considerable disadvantage against the vastly overpowering witch.
29:54According to legend, however, she can only kill them if they look right at her,
29:58so they stare at the corner to stay alive, even using their camcorder to look around without getting killed.
30:04Although they're eventually outsmarted back, at least they managed to temporarily outsmart her.
30:15When you're dealing with the literal personification of fear of the dark, there's not much you can do when it's nighttime.
30:21Diana can only be seen in the dark, and that's where her power comes from.
30:25Brett is thwarted and attacked at every turn in his attempts to escape the nightmare creature.
30:32Just before he bites the dust, however, he uses his phone as a light to ward Diana away, only to be caught again outside.
30:41This time, however, his car is parked in front of him, and he activates the headlights with his keys.
30:47Quick thinking, Brett.
30:49Good things come in small packages.
30:51On her own against the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, Erin has virtually no way to fight back,
30:56so she runs into a nearby slaughterhouse to hide.
30:59Tucking herself away in a hall full of lockers, Erin covers her mouth and tries to remain silent.
31:05But she also has a four-legged friend, who can help her out.
31:08When she's about to give up on her life, she hears a scream.
31:11Tucking herself away in a hall full of lockers, Erin covers her mouth and tries to remain silent.
31:17But she also has a four-legged friend along to help.
31:23Murderer approaching, Erin desperately holds her breath before Leatherface hears a noise and opens a locker.
31:29Distracted by the pig inside, Leatherface doesn't even see Erin until she comes down at him with a meat cleaver,
31:35taking his arm and chainsaw off in one clever switcheroo.
31:42Misery.
31:45There's only so much you can do when you're immobilized, and no one knows you've been kidnapped.
31:50Sure, Paul's last attempt at escape isn't as elaborate as his previous ideas, but it works.
31:56Trapped and forced to write a sequel to his captor's favorite story,
31:59Paul ends up burning it right after he's finished it, destroying all the answers it had to any unanswered questions.
32:11While Annie desperately tries to remedy the situation, Paul uses the distraction to finally end the nightmare he's endured.
32:26To be honest, it would be pretty cool if we could be transported into our favorite movies, wouldn't it?
32:31Well, unless it's a horror movie and you could actually die.
32:34Die.
32:40Trapped inside the silver screen, Max and her friends must find a way to defeat their masked terrorizer, Billy.
32:47They decide to set a trap for him, making weapons, luring him out, and attacking him.
32:55While it is a good plan involving flaming arrows and a bucket of gasoline, a lot of friendlies die.
33:00But, at least we get the kick-ass, self-referential slow-mo escape scene.
33:18Surviving a horror movie means being able to turn anything into a weapon.
33:22Chased down by the menacing Michael Myers, Laurie finds herself in the hardest babysitting job of her life.
33:29Having to protect herself and the children from the seemingly invincible lunatic.
33:33Thinking quickly, she fashions a blade out of a coat hanger and stabs Myers in the eye, injuring him long enough for him to get shot by Dr. Loomis.
33:42When you've lost a limb, there's no need to completely lose hope.
33:57Forced to chop off his own possessed hand, Ash makes the most out of the situation.
34:01After all, he still has to face off against the Deadites, right?
34:04When a demonic force is physically and psychologically destroying you, you're gonna have to be a little unhinged yourself to fight back.
34:12And sometimes, that means sticking the stump of your own hand into a freaking chainsaw.
34:16Let's hope he doesn't get an itch.
34:28It's rare to call anyone smart for stabbing themselves in the neck, but it might just save your life in a pinch.
34:34Hunting the Jigsaw Killer, FBI agent Strom stops one killer only to be caught by another.
34:40Finding himself in his own disturbing trap in the process.
34:43Waking up in one of the few unbeatable traps of the series, Strom is seemingly doomed as the box encasing his head quickly fills with water.
34:52Already beating one Jigsaw Killer, Strom uses the pen in his pocket to perform a tracheotomy on himself, allowing him to breathe until he's saved.
35:00Talk about thinking outside the box.
35:04Setting fireworks. A quiet place.
35:06When the killer you're avoiding is hypersensitive to noise, the last thing you wanna be doing is giving birth.
35:12After stepping on a nail on her way to the basement, Evelyn's presence is exposed to the nearby creatures.
35:17Thankfully, her husband Lee has a solution prepared for just this occasion.
35:24With his son Marcus at the ready, fireworks are ignited to create an auditory diversion, masking Evelyn's cries as she gives birth to their new son.
35:32While their troubles were far from over, this clever solution saved almost the entire family and made for possibly the most thrilling moment of the entire movie.
35:47Escaping a madman takes a lot more preparation than a spur-of-the-moment idea.
35:51Realizing Howard will almost definitely kill her, Michelle has to find a way out of this crazy bunker.
35:57After discovering a second exit hatch while fixing their ventilator, Michelle devises a plan to get out.
36:03She gets the upper hand on Howard long enough to crawl through the vents and climb to the hatch.
36:08Using compressed air to freeze and shatter the lock, Michelle dons her makeshift hazmat suit and rises to the surface to see the outside world once again.
36:17Norman Bates, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, all the best horror movie villains have mommy issues.
36:33However, there are ways to use that to your advantage to beat the bad guy.
36:37Ginny is being chased around Camp Crystal Lake by Jason, as per usual, when she finds herself an altar dedicated to his dead mother.
36:44Ginny ingeniously decides to psychologically mess with a mask-wearing killer by convincing him that she is Mrs. Voorhees by donning her sweater,
36:52persuading him to let his guard down for what she hopes is enough time for her to administer a killing blow.
37:01Unfortunately, he realizes it's just a ruse, but he meets his end shortly thereafter anyway. Or does he?
37:14The gang in the Scream series knows how to survive a horror movie, even using internet calls as far back as the 90s to save themselves.
37:24However, one thing the group was particularly ignorant of the first time around was making sure the killers were even dead.
37:30But, in the sequel, Sidney Prescott does not mess around.
37:34Consider it done.
37:39After seemingly killing Mickey and Mrs. Loomis, Sidney and Cotton take a breath before Mickey comes back, getting immediately shot by Sidney and Gail.
37:48Learning her lesson, Sidney shoots Loomis in the head just to be safe.
37:56When she's terrorized in her home by a crossbow-wielding invader, Maddie uses everything she can grab to defend herself.
38:02The killer assumes that because she's deaf and unable to speak, she's helpless.
38:06But that's far from the case, as he soon learns.
38:20In the final scuffle, she sprays insecticide in his face and uses a smoke alarm to rob him of his sight and hearing.
38:27She lands the final blow with a corkscrew.
38:30As a writer, Maddie is always reworking scenarios in her head.
38:34Luckily for her, she found the one where the hero lives in the end.
38:43Home field advantages can work two ways.
38:45With her friends getting murdered around her, Nancy decides she has to take the fight against Freddy Krueger into her own hands.
38:52Realizing she can bring him out of her dream, Nancy booby traps her house and asks Dawn to help her once she gets Freddy on her turf.
39:00Managing to pull him out, Nancy gets Freddy into the real world and even lures him into her traps long enough to set him on fire.
39:08Not so easily defeated, however, Krueger of course returns.
39:23This movie contains almost every horror movie cliche in the book, and it's damn entertaining for that exact reason.
39:30After Dana and Marty find themselves pinned down by a dozen armed and dangerous security forces, there's only one thing left to do.
39:37Push the system purge button.
39:42Sure, in retrospect, it doesn't seem like a great alternative, but it appears to work out okay for them.
39:48The button releases all the captive monsters, and boy did they have a great time tearing everyone to pieces, giving Dana and Marty time to escape.
39:57It begs the question though, why does this button even exist in the first place?
40:06The researchers in this claustrophobic horror classic are faced with quite the conundrum.
40:11How do you find a monster that can look like your friends?
40:13Using their brains, however, the surviving members of the Arctic facility go about revealing the alien in the most rudimentary way possible, a simple blood test.
40:23This is pure nonsense. Doesn't prove a thing.
40:26Knowing the creature's blood will try to protect itself, R.J. McCready takes a sample of everyone's blood and heats it with a copper wire.
40:33We'll do you last.
40:35As he dips the wire in Palmer's blood, the sample jumps from the dish and flees, revealing the alien among them.
40:49Get Out's critical reception was well deserved.
40:52The film delves into issues of racism as well as themes typical to the horror genre, while featuring a main character that is far from clueless in almost every regard.
41:02Right from the get-go, Chris has a strange feeling about the family he's staying with.
41:06When your possible future mother-in-law is a hypnotist who wants to make you docile enough for a brain transplant, there's only one thing you can do.
41:13Make sure you don't listen to her.
41:15Chris literally picks cotton to keep himself alive by using his chair's stuffing to block his ears, and then breaks free to take his revenge.
41:24Ingenious.
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41:47Never doubt the resourcefulness of a kid at death's door.
41:51Running for his life from his deranged and homicidal father, Danny heads for the hedge maze at the snowed-in and very haunted Overlook Hotel.
41:59Knowing he can't outrun his father forever, Danny realizes he has to throw his dad off the scent and ditches running for a better plan.
42:07Backtracking through his own steps and hiding, his father reaches the end of his trail and proceeds to search aimlessly for him in the giant maze.
42:15You can't get away!
42:17Following his own prince out of the maze, Danny runs into his mother's arms, leaving dad to suffer in the cold.
42:24Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!
42:31Do you think you would have made these decisions? Let us know in the comments below.
42:35How are we supposed to know that you were really good at killing people?
42:40Which is actually sort of weird, by the way.
42:43Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo.
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