These characters all made big brain moves in these horror film sequels.
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00:00If there's one thing horror movie characters are known for, it's being on the stupid side.
00:05An abandoned house, you say?
00:07Let's break into it in the middle of the night.
00:09A Ouija board?
00:10Ooh, let's play with it.
00:12A book of ancient spells that says don't read this under any circumstances ever?
00:16Well, you get the idea.
00:17This is why it's so surprising when a character in horror actually does something halfway
00:22intelligent, like escaping a villain's trap or turning their own strengths against them.
00:27Believe it or not, there are enough examples of this to make a list, even when we're just
00:31focusing on horror sequels.
00:33So with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture, and these are the 10 smartest decisions made
00:39in horror movie sequels.
00:4110.
00:42Heading for the mall, Dawn of the Dead
00:44Though it doesn't feature any of the same characters from George A. Romero's 1968 Night
00:49of the Living Dead, 1978's Dawn of the Dead is considered a spiritual sequel, as well
00:55as being the second in a large series of Of the Dead films made by the horror maestro.
00:59In the wake of a zombie apocalypse, four survivors team up to find a safe haven.
01:04Whilst flying around in their commandeered helicopter, the group spot the perfect place
01:07to hide out, an abandoned shopping mall.
01:10In terms of zombie refuges, it doesn't get much better than this.
01:14Large building with a fortified entrance?
01:16Check.
01:17Good supply of food, drink and other necessities?
01:19Check.
01:20Chance to run around all the stores you weren't allowed in as a kid?
01:23That is also a check.
01:25Holing up in the mall was a genius idea that has been copied many times in subsequent zombie
01:30fiction, and one that keeps the group safe for a majority of the film.
01:33Sure, it all backfires on them when a group of bikers break in, but before that, things
01:38were going swell.
01:399.
01:40No gun, no problem.
01:42Zombieland Double Tap
01:43Speaking of malls, that's precisely where the subject of this entry joins the party
01:48in this horror comedy sequel.
01:50In Zombieland Double Tap, the follow-up to the excellent Zombieland from 2009, Columbus
01:55and Tallahassee discover a new survivor named Madison hiding out in a shopping complex.
02:01Madison is your stereotypical dumb blonde, more focused on looking good than staying
02:05alive, and with about as much brainpower as a reanimated corpse, if not less.
02:10Still, at a key point in the movie, she shows that she's not a total lost cause.
02:15Later in the film, Wichita is under attack from an undead assailant.
02:18Despite being the only member of the gang without a gun, Madison wades into battle and
02:23distracts the zombie with a can of pepper spray she had in her bag.
02:27This gives Wichita time to escape her grisly fate.
02:30So there you have it, the so-called bimbo wasn't actually as stupid as she looked.
02:34Well, actually, she was still pretty stupid.
02:36This was kind of just a one-off, but still, don't judge a book by its cover.
02:408.
02:41Using the camcorders, Blair Witch
02:44After Book of Shadows, Blair Witch 2 wiped out pretty much all of the goodwill generated
02:48by the first movie, a new movie was released to try and resurrect the iconic franchise.
02:53Spoilers, it did not succeed.
02:55Whilst Blair Witch from 2016 turned out to be nothing more than a diluted re-run of the
03:00first film, at least it gave fans this moment of horror protagonists using their resources
03:05to their advantage.
03:06Lisa Arlington is the last surviving member of a group of teenagers who set out to discover
03:11what happened during the original film.
03:14Lisa realises that anyone who has looks at the evil spirit has been killed, so cleverly,
03:19she uses the camcorder of a fallen group member to spy on the creature without directly engaging
03:24with it.
03:25The plan goes really well, as Lisa is able to walk backwards around the room without
03:29being attacked.
03:30Sadly, the spirit uses the voice of one of her friends to get her to turn around, leading
03:34to her demise.
03:35But, that being said, the original camcorder idea was pretty smart.
03:397.
03:40Keeping a gun handy, Curse of Chucky
03:43The sixth instalment of the Child's Play franchise, Curse of Chucky, is largely separate from
03:47the rest of the series, with a few exceptions.
03:50However, when the post-credits scene rolls around, the movie is taken back to where it
03:53all began.
03:54After the main events of the film, which begin with Chucky being sent in the mail to his
03:59next victim, the murderous doll once again packages himself up and arrives in the home
04:03of an unsuspecting man.
04:05The poor fella in question is a grown-up Andy Barkley, Chucky's owner in the first Child's
04:10Play film.
04:11The red-headed menace thinks he finally got one over on his former foe, but just before
04:14Chucky attacks him with a knife, Andy turns around and blasts the doll with a shotgun.
04:19How many horror characters have survived one movie only to take their eye off the ball
04:23and then get splattered in a sequel?
04:25Andy knew that Chucky wasn't going to go away, and so he kept himself armed in case his past
04:29returned to haunt him.
04:30This might seem a little pessimistic, but without this attitude, Andy would have definitely
04:35been dead meat.
04:366.
04:37Take a Chainsaw Hand – Evil Dead 2
04:40When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
04:43Or in the case of Ash Williams, when life takes away your hand, you make a badass weapon.
04:48After the critical success of the first Evil Dead film, Bruce Campbell returned to the
04:51role of the quip-spitting hero to take on even more deadites in the middle of a secluded
04:56wood.
04:57Unfortunately for our hero, his right hand gets infected by the demon's evil curse.
05:02Knowing that it will spread to the rest of his body if he's not careful, Ash grabs a
05:05nearby chainsaw and severs it, leaving a bloody stump in its place.
05:09Still, let's try and look on the bright side, eh?
05:12Not wanting to be at a disadvantage against the Horde, and having seen what the garden
05:16tool can do, Ash decides to modify the chainsaw so it can be fitted to the end of his arm.
05:21With a boomstick in one hand and the saw in place of the other, Ash is now a bonafide
05:25deadite-killing machine.
05:26Now, whilst this idea is very cool within the realms of fiction, please do not try this
05:31at home.
05:325.
05:33Battling Michael – Halloween Ends The third and final instalment of the recent
05:38Halloween trilogy, which smartly ignores most of the guff that followed John Carpenter's
05:42original, is called Halloween Ends, an apt title for the movie that finally finished
05:47off Michael Myers.
05:49After battling both Michael and her granddaughter Allison's murderous new boyfriend, Laurie
05:53Strode is finally able to defeat the masked monster that has haunted her for so long,
05:58slicing his wrist and letting him bleed out, and also cutting his throat.
06:03Michael is dead, but Laurie is no fool and decides to finish the job once and for all.
06:09Laurie and Allison take Michael's corpse to the local salvage yard, where, accompanied
06:13by the residents of Haddonfield, all of whom have suffered at Michael's hand, they chuck
06:17the demented killer's body into an industrial shredder.
06:20Yep, that ought to do it.
06:22So many horror movie villains have come back from near death, including Myers himself,
06:26so Laurie was incredibly wise to go that extra mile to ensure the shape never returns.
06:324.
06:33Checking into a Psychiatric Ward – Final Destination 2
06:37Surviving murderers, demons, and ghouls is one thing, but when the enemy chasing you
06:41down is death itself, that's a whole different ballgame.
06:44That's the dilemma faced by the characters of the Final Destination franchise, which
06:48somehow managed to get five films out of the exact same premise.
06:53Person has a premonition, person plus others survive an accident, death picks them off
06:57in various gruesome ways until they get even.
07:01Lather, rinse, repeat.
07:02At the end of the first movie, audiences think that Alex, Claire, and Carter are safe, until
07:07death claims Carter by dropping a sign on him, Alex is killed off-screen by a falling
07:12brick, leaving Claire to take some pretty drastic action to avoid the same fate.
07:17As shown in Final Destination 2, Claire commits herself to a psychiatric ward, which might
07:22be the one place on Earth where death can't get her.
07:25A padded cell, round-the-clock supervision, little contact with the outside world, Claire
07:30made a very good choice here.
07:32Unfortunately, she decides to try and help a new group of survivors, which ends up getting
07:36her killed.
07:37Well, that's what you get for being nice.
07:403.
07:41Putting on the Sweater, Friday the 13th Part 2
07:44He might be the most famous character in the whole franchise, but Jason Voorhees doesn't
07:48become the main villain in the Friday the 13th series until its second film.
07:53Out to avenge the death of his beloved mother, Jason puts on his best burlap sack and goes
07:58on his first of what would become many killing sprees.
08:01Towards the climax of Friday the 13th Part 2, Jason has a girl named Ginny cornered in
08:06the shack where he keeps an altar to his mother.
08:09Staring death straight in the face, or lack thereof, Ginny makes a big brain play.
08:14She puts on a sweater that used to belong to Pam, which tricks Jason into thinking Ginny
08:19is his mother.
08:20Though he eventually catches on, this buys Ginny enough time to escape and eventually
08:24survive the ordeal.
08:26Jason was so attached to his dear old mum that the thought of her somehow returning
08:30was enough to quell his murderous rage.
08:32It's quite cute in a way, once you look past all the killing, that is.
08:362.
08:37The Pentracheotomy, Saw 5 The whole point of the traps that inhabit
08:41the Saw universe is to test the victim's will to live, to see how far they're able
08:45to go in order to keep themselves alive.
08:48For one poor soul, this meant stabbing himself in the neck.
08:52Saw 5 carries on the story of Agent Strahm, who was left to die at the end of the previous
08:57film.
08:58Strahm may have escaped that predicament, but he quickly finds himself in another.
09:01His head is encased in a box that is rapidly filling up with water.
09:06Realising he wasn't going to evolve a set of gills in time, Strahm knows he needs to
09:10find another way to breathe.
09:12Using nothing but a pen, he performs an amateur tracheotomy on himself, which allows him to
09:16survive.
09:17Sure, he's now got a massive hole in his throat, but Strahm didn't die, which is a pretty
09:21good trade-off.
09:22Oh wait, never mind, he ends up getting smushed to death in a trick room at the end of the
09:26film.
09:27Eh, better luck next time, buddy.
09:291.
09:30Leaving Town – Scream 2 What's the one thing that horror victims
09:34have in common?
09:35They would have survived had they just kept their noses out and walked away.
09:39This is precisely what Joel Jones does in Scream 2.
09:42Joel is the replacement cameraman for reporter Gale Weathers after the death of Kenny in
09:46the first film.
09:48Gale is on the case when a new ghost face emerges, with Joel in tow to capture all the
09:52big moments on film.
09:54But it soon becomes clear that the new murderer is following the same pattern as the original
09:58ghost face, killing people with the same names as the first Woodsboro victims.
10:01And whilst there were no Joels in the first film, this one realises that he'll probably
10:06be the stand-in for Kenny.
10:08Fearing the worst, he gets out of town.
10:10And you know what?
10:11He lives.
10:12It's not a particularly heroic thing to do, nor does it make for compelling cinema,
10:17but Joel's decision to leave while he still could saved his life, and that's what counts.