Sometimes a hero's origins are a complete mystery to the character AND readers.
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00:00 While plenty of horror viewers spend their time hoping the cast won't get chopped up,
00:04 it's safe to say you'd be pretty disappointed if you left the theatre with a kill count of
00:09 zero. Thus, there's always a guarantee that plenty of characters are about to meet their maker.
00:14 But sometimes, you get a slap in the face as someone who you expected to bite the bullet
00:19 makes it out alive. Now, there will be big spoilers for these movies ahead, so be warned.
00:24 And with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with 10 unexpected horror movie survivors.
00:31 10. The Mother in The Mist
00:34 As far as Stephen King adaptations go, The Mist is one that stands tall as pretty decent. It told
00:39 the story of a collection of people seeking refuge in a supermarket from a terrifying mist that
00:44 engulfed their town and brought with it some terrifying beasties. This character was so
00:48 destined for the chopping block that she didn't even get a name. Her fate seemed set after she
00:53 left the safety of the grocery store and ventured out into the titular mist to find her kids.
00:57 Anyone used to horror knew the drill here. She was D to the E to the A to the D.
01:02 But then, that ending came along. If you don't already know The Mist's gruelling ending,
01:07 then you're in for a doozy. It showed as the protagonist, his kid, and a few survivors decided
01:13 their situation was hopeless. Rather than being eaten by monsters, the hero decided to use a gun
01:18 to end their suffering. But just after this happened, The Mist cleared and out popped this
01:23 lady, kids in hand, having survived the whole ordeal and brought the cavalry to help. Oh dear
01:29 God. So not only did she become an unexpected survivor, but she also became the catalyst for
01:35 one of horror's bleakest finales. 9. Carla Wilson in I Still Know What You
01:41 Did Last Summer When Carla came along in the less than
01:44 favourable follow-up to the classic slasher hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, viewers could only
01:49 think one thing. Damn, this girl is toast. This is because she had not one, not two, but three
01:55 classic horror tropes working against her. Yet, somehow, she pulled through with only some major
02:01 scrapes. Carla was brought in to act as the protagonist's new best friend after she lost
02:06 all her closest pals in the previous film. This was her first sign of danger, as the leading
02:10 character's best friend almost always bites the bullet. Then there was the fact that she was a
02:14 black woman. Let's just say, statistically speaking, horror tends to get a little unfair
02:19 when it comes to picking its victims in that regard. And finally, there's the fact that she
02:24 was played by the famous musician Brandy. Typically, once a mainstream performer enters
02:28 the horror movie fray, you can expect they won't get the same kind of royalties as in the music
02:33 industry. To add insult to all those injuries, she even suffered some, well, injuries. She took a
02:39 fishhook to the foot and even fell through a glass door. Still, once Julie returned to her hotel,
02:44 she found Carla safe and sound, albeit sporting a nasty limp.
02:48 8. Tennessee in Alien Covenant
02:52 The man made goofy jokes, wore a cowboy hat, and was played by the popular comedian Danny McBride.
02:57 He had cannon fodder written all over him. The Alien franchise is one that's gone through heights
03:03 as high as a spaceship and lows as deep as the Mariana Trench. Alien Covenant sits there mostly
03:09 in between the two, as a not-so-great-but-not-too-terrible chapter in the saga.
03:13 Danny McBride's Tennessee Farris was a welcome sight in the film, proposing a slightly more
03:18 serious role for McBride and adding a bit of variety to the cast. Still, it seemed rather
03:23 obvious that he would find himself dead at the hands of a rogue android or the terrifying
03:28 Praetomorph. His character was never shown to be particularly savvy with survival. Hell, he was
03:33 even the one who put everyone in danger after getting hyped up on the transmission of someone
03:37 singing "Country Roads." But when the finale came, he and Daniels made it off-world.
03:42 Of course, the implication of the ending, with him stuck in hypersleep under the terrifying David,
03:47 did spell bad news for his future. But still, the fact that Kenny Powers made it all the way
03:52 through the runtime of an Alien movie is a miracle in itself.
03:56 7. Shigeharu Aoyama in Audition
04:00 If you've not had the chance to watch Takashi Miike's unsettling masterpiece Audition yet,
04:05 then you'd better get on it. It tells the story of a widowed man who lets his friend set up a mock
04:10 movie audition with the purpose of finding him a new wife, because that's not creepy at all.
04:15 This search results in him meeting the mysterious yet alluring Asami, who seems perfect, but of
04:20 course, things aren't always how they appear. Watching Audition seems like an inevitable
04:24 tumble into a gruesome murder, as it's clear Asami is gearing up for a brutal kill here,
04:29 with Aoyama as the target. As their relationship sours and her sordid past reveals itself,
04:35 you begin thinking he'd better start putting his affairs in order.
04:38 The movie culminates with a shocking torture scene where the unfortunate,
04:42 if still creepy, auditioner gets drugged with a paralytic agent,
04:46 then has needles shoved in his face and his foot sawed off with a wire.
04:49 When watching this for the first time, you'd think you'll write on the money in predicting
04:53 Aoyama's grisly end. But his son returns home, and after a struggle, Asami is left dead.
04:59 Now that was unexpected.
05:01 6. Davey in Summer of '84
05:05 If you're sick and tired of the 80s nostalgia-heavy horror trend that has
05:08 overtaken Hollywood in the last decade, then you might look at this flick as one to throw
05:13 into the bargain bin. But if you did that, you'd be missing out on a stunning scary movie with a
05:18 well-executed mystery and a finale that will leave you reeling. While other kids his age were off
05:23 skateboarding or wasting quarters at the arcade, Davey obsesses over the macabre. This leads him
05:28 to suspect that his neighbour is a serial killer, so he and a group of friends spend their summer
05:33 investigating him. Wow, talk about memories. It's eventually revealed that Davey's neighbour
05:38 is, in fact, a serial killer. The film does a great job of keeping the mystery, though,
05:43 and he responds to his exposure by kidnapping Davey and his friend Woody and playing a game
05:48 of manhunt with them. It seems obvious that the movie will suffer a harrowing ending,
05:52 with Davey meeting his maker, but it's somehow even worse. Rather than killing him,
05:57 the villain kills Woody and forces Davey to live, spending the rest of his life feeling guilt and
06:02 paranoia that he might return. It's utterly devastating, takes you by surprise, and makes
06:08 you wonder if, in some twisted way, he might have been better off dead.
06:11 5. Kazan in Cube Cube is a dizzyingly sick and slick sci-fi
06:18 horror that throws gore games and an eye-catching aesthetic your way. It's also an incredibly
06:22 subversive movie that plays with the archetypal roles viewers have come to expect from the horror
06:28 genre, especially by tricking you into rooting for a hero who eventually becomes the villain.
06:33 Still, despite how many tropes the movie challenges, it still surprised everyone to
06:37 see this character become the sole survivor. When trapped inside the titular cube, the characters
06:42 were forced to complete games and trials to survive. Eventually, they stumbled across a
06:46 young man with learning difficulties. This character, Kazan, ended up being both a blessing
06:51 and a curse, as his ability to perform high-concept maths helped them navigate the cube.
06:57 But his condition also hindered the group's involvement in the games and caused plenty
07:01 of tension. Thanks to this, it seemed clear that he would struggle to make it out alive,
07:05 not just because the games were challenging, but because the terrifying Quintin seemed to
07:09 have it in for him. But in the end, not only did he miraculously escape, but he was the only one.
07:15 Viewers were surprised but also pretty delighted, as he was a genuinely likeable character.
07:21 4. Gabe in Us
07:23 A sweet, caring, funny, and likeable dad. Oh yeah, that guy's dead. He's dead before the
07:29 opening credits even start rolling. Wait, he survives? Wow, fair play, Gabe, fair play.
07:35 It's common in horror to create a likeable figure to kill and use as a catalyst for character
07:40 development. Not only did Gabe have the vibe of a dead dad floating all around him, but he even
07:45 made a slew of mistakes that seemed to be leading up to his demise. For example, in one scene,
07:50 he left his family behind in the house to approach the creepy strangers outside.
07:54 Has this man ever seen a horror film? Of course, in the end, every family member survived,
07:59 which was a huge surprise. It seemed clear that at least one of them would perish,
08:03 as that's what you expect from horror, and Gabe seems like the most likely candidate.
08:08 3. Crystal May in The Hunt
08:12 Sometimes, being outside the 1% can make it feel like the odds are stacked against you.
08:16 So imagine a movie where wealthy elites hunt down the working class. You probably shouldn't
08:21 expect to come out of that day trip with your head intact. That's where Crystal May comes in.
08:26 Played impressively by Betty Gilpin, Crystal is the Rambo-like hero of this thriller,
08:31 as she takes the fight to the hunters and shows they've bitten off more than they can chew.
08:35 Although she's undeniably badass, it was still a surprise when she reached the end credits.
08:40 She's an unexpected survivor on two counts. The first is that the film deliberately suckers you
08:45 in with fake-out protagonists. You follow Emma Roberts at first, assuming she's the lead,
08:50 then boom, bullet in the head. The same thing happens with Ike Barinholtz's character afterwards.
08:55 Thus, everyone expected to have the rug pulled out from under them again after Crystal took over.
09:00 But she was not such a weakling. The other unexpected survival factor came during her
09:05 savage showdown at the film's climax. She and the villain Athena tore the place down,
09:10 and both suffered fatal wounds, implying mutually assured destruction. But once the
09:15 dust had settled, she managed to hop up, fix her injuries, and stroll away with a
09:19 nice bottle of champagne. Crystal, you earned those bubbles.
09:23 2. Jon Pass in Possessor
09:26 There are a lot of things you need to suspend your disbelief for in a sci-fi movie like this.
09:30 You've got technology capable of letting assassins possess people near their targets,
09:35 secret organizations, and all sorts of sci-fi elements that you've got to believe for the
09:39 film to work. Still, while all of that stuff is easy, the toughest pill to swallow
09:44 is having to believe that Sean Bean, of all people, survives this horror movie.
09:49 What?
09:49 The film follows an assassin called Vos, and the role Bean plays is Vos's prime target.
09:55 So not only does Jon Pass have the Sean Bean death stink running against him,
09:59 but he's also the sole focus of the protagonist's death gaze for a good chunk of the movie.
10:04 Things seem as if they're geared for another Lord of the Rings or Golden Eye for Bean,
10:08 as Vos brutally attacks him with a fire poker, causing buckets worth of blood and seeming like
10:13 the end for him. But in a shocking turn of events, it's revealed later on that he somehow
10:18 survived this attack. It's almost as if Sean Bean stood up and said, "Nope, I'm done. This time,
10:23 I refuse to die."
10:24 1. Ted Bowen in Friday the 13th Part 2
10:29 This guy might as well have a sign over his head saying, "Come on, Jason, don't be shy!"
10:34 He was goofy, geeky, and a real jokester, all the hallmarks of a future member of the Friday
10:40 the 13th body count. Yet against all the odds, he made one wise decision and managed to make it out
10:45 alive. The sequel to the first Friday the 13th movie needed fresh meat to quench the thirst
10:50 of Jason's debuting machete. It was his first time taking on the major slaying duties for himself,
10:56 which is why the crew of Cannon Fodder, alongside the returning Alice Hardy,
11:00 were served up on a plate. Ted seemed like he'd be top of the menu on that crew,
11:05 but he got out of dodge at the right time. Had Ted actually remained in Camp Crystal Lake,
11:10 he likely would have found himself meeting a grisly end. But the last you ever saw of the
11:14 character was him asking about bars in the local area before sauntering off to get wasted.
11:20 From there, he never returned, and it's safe to assume he probably didn't run into Jason in the
11:25 bathroom of a run-down late-night bar. He survived thanks to his need to party.
11:29 Now that's certainly one way to do it.
11:32 And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments
11:36 below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:41 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:45 just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
11:49 I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
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