24 Lovable Horror Characters Who Should Have Lived
Before we begin, yes, there will be SPOILERS below, so read at your own risk!
Let's face it: Eddie Munson fever is running wild in the pop culture conversation these days, with the consensus being that we wish we would have had more time with Hawkins' resident metalhead.
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With all the love for Eddie Munson in mind, this writer began to think back on some of the other lovable horror characters who kicked the bucket too soon, so I've put together a list of 24 horror movie and television characters who also rightfully deserved a spot next to the final girl.
1.Eddie Munson, Stranger Things
Of course, you have to start this list where it needs to begin: Eddie Munson, as played by Joseph Quinn. The metal-loving, drug-slinging Dungeonmaster of the Hellfire Club, Eddie rocked his way into our hearts over the course of Stranger Things’ epic fourth season, and his sacrificial death in the season finale remains one we all have yet to properly mourn. Though the hit Netflix series’ gallery of oddballs and misfits continues to near its maximum threshold, fans would agree that we would have always made room for more Eddie had he made it out the other side of the Upside Down.
2.Kate, Fear Street Part One: 1994
Kate, as played by Julia Rehwald, was colorful, brash, and brave, qualities that will endear any character to an audience and yet can become a recipe for disaster in the world of horror. As such, audiences were absolutely shocked when she met a far-more-gruesome-than-expected fate, especially considering her and her best friend, Simon, felt fairly safe to move on to the next chapter of Fear Street.
3.Alice, Fear Street Part Two: 1978
Speaking of the second entry into the Fear Street series, Ryan Simpkins absolutely killed it as Alice, the rebellious yet fiercely loyal camp spitfire who becomes a key figure in the film’s back half, and given the character’s specific personal turmoil, you can’t help but root for Alice when she comes face-to-face with an unstoppable killer and feel genuine pain when she bites the dust.
4.Derek Feldman, Scream 2
While most horror fans may default to Randy Meeks' shocking death in Scream 2 as the most regrettable in hindsight, I personally believe that Derek, Sidney's love interest in Scream 2, was done the dirtiest in the slasher sequel. A legitimately good guy who literally proclaimed his love for Sidney, his death at the hand of a gun-wielding sociopath and Sidney's trauma-boosted distrust feels the most tragic, and considering Sidney's eventual love interest in Scream 3 is awfully forgettable, it feels like Derek deserved a much happier ending.
5.Glenn Rhee, The Walking Dead
If you asked most people when they stopped watching The Walking Dead, they'll likely say it was the graphic murder of Glenn Rhee, an expecting father and moral compass within the hit zombie series who we all hoped would meet a different fate than his comic book counterpart. Sadly, he met an all-too-bloody end, and in the seasons since, Steven Yeun's presence has been missed on a real tangible scale.
6.J.C., Night of the Creeps
To this day, one of the most heartbreaking scenes in horror history has been J.C.'s dying message in Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps, hoping to help his friend as he is consumed from within by alien slugs, especially given that the quick-witted and proudly weird character feels like the more personable of the two and would have more potential within future installments.
7.Christine Brown, Drag Me to Hell
This one is an especially tricky selection because the whole crux of the film falls on its jaw-dropping ending, in which Drag Me to Hell lives up to its title. But after having spent the entirety of the film with Christine, who has gone above and beyond to make up for her wrongdoing, you can't help but feel that she deserves to have broken the curse. But in horror stories, deserve has got nothing to do with it, and Christine's hellbound fate remains a genuine "holy $#!*" moment many years later.
8.Sang-Hwa, Train to Busan
Introduced as a somewhat rude and brutish figure early into the film, Sang-Hwa ultimately reveals himself to be a selfless badass with a heart of gold who provides Train to Busan with some of its most memorable moments, including a death that you'll wish more than anything that the film could go back and retcon in any way, shape, or form.
9.Helen Shivers, I Know What You Did Last Summer
As one of the more remorseful characters in this '90s slasher, Helen is already sympathetic by the time she's put through an emotional gauntlet, having watched her boyfriend and sister die while helpless to do anything. In the film's scariest scene, however, you find yourself hoping against all hopes that someone might come to her rescue or she might somehow escape the grasp of the hook-handed killer.
10.Ben, Night of the Living Dead
This is another tricky entry into this list, as the character certainly deserves to live to fight another day after surviving the zombie-ridden hellscape throughout the previous night. Yet George A. Romero chooses a more devastating option, one which serves as an allegory for the racial divide in the country at the time and feels all the more prescient in this day and age, which is really upsetting.
11.Anya Jenkins, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
From her villainous beginnings to her full-fledged membership into "the Scooby Gang," Anya Jenkins was one of the more fun characters to watch evolve within the Buffyverse, especially given her contrasting worldview to many of the core characters on the show. So when the series finale hosted a battle that pitted our heroes against a horde of demons, Anya's sudden death felt like a painful and intentional blow to the audience more than the characters, as fans still wish to this day that she would have had the chance to conquer her demons (literally and figuratively) and walk off into the sunset alongside her friends.
12.Sheriff Hassan, Midnight Mass
By the time the finale of Midnight Mass comes to pass, viewers figure that the survivors on the island-wide onslaught would be very few and far between. Yet, while a number of sacrificial lambs would be necessary (or else it wouldn't be a Mike Flanagan project), the tragedies that befell Sheriff Hassan were hopefully punishment enough that he might make it through the night as the hero that the story deserved. Nevertheless, the soulful character does receive a hero's end and helps to stop the spread of the vampiric plague at the cost of his own life.
13.Taryn White, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
"In my dreams, I'm beautiful...and bad!" With that line, Taryn White immediately cemented herself in horror history as someone we rooted for to take down Freddy Krueger and wake up from her living nightmare. But her tragic demise serves as a double-edged sword, as even though her character would be no more in the Nightmare franchise, her death has served as one of the most unforgettable in the entire series.
14.Annie Brackett, Rob Zombie's Halloween II
Presumed dead at the end of Rob Zombie's Halloween, fans were shocked to learn the character had survived and would return for its sequel. They were even more shocked to see Annie Brackett transform into a highlight of the film, offering a pathos-laden performance that added a wealth of emotional weight to the proceedings. But who is Rob Zombie if not one to lift us up before sending us crashing back down to Earth, killing off the beloved character unceremoniously after we had seen her go to hell and back.
15.Private "Spoon" Witherspoon, Dog Soldiers
Almost all of the protagonists in Dog Soldiers could be defined as a sympathetic underdog, but there's none you wanted to see make it through such dire circumstances intact as "Spoon," the scrappy young lad who decides, in a final act of heroism and stupidity, to face off one-on-one against a hulking werewolf. While you're definitely cheering every time he lands a blow against the monster, you know the inevitable will eventually come (although he does deliver a parting line that deserves to be in the books of horror history).
16.Ollie Weeks, The Mist
In all fairness, you can probably add half a dozen names from The Mist to this list, and each would be equally worthy. But outside of the film's infamous gut-punch of an ending, one character that fright fans had been rooting to survive was the trigger-happy Ollie Weeks, a mild-mannered grocery store manager who decides to break out an equalizer once tensions get high between our heroes and a bloodthirsty religious cult. Weeks is humble, smart, and suffers no fools, which means in the Stephen King playbook, he's sadly bound to a grotesque and brutal doom.
17.Sam, Green Room
In Green Room, every death feels like a knife in the heart as you root for our plucky punks despite the sweat-inducing danger that permeates through every frame of the film. But there's a certain bond that the film creates with Sam, the guitarist of the Ain't Rights who is game to bring the fight to the skinheads, and ultimately receives a bitter ending that hurts twice as hard.
18.Frankenstein's Monster, The Monster Squad
This curious and lovable version of Frankenstein's Monster is a fantastic twist on the classic creature in this cult classic, but as the film goes full-steam-ahead toward its climax, The Monster Squad starts putting together the pieces for the Monster's affecting and bittersweet goodbye. As much as I wish we would have more time with the titular group in general, you'll be hard-pressed to find someone without a tear in their eye as Frankenstein's Monster bids his final farewell.
19.Dennis Rafkin, Thirteen Ghosts
In a part that's equal measures of comic relief and expository character, Dennis Rafkin's tormented ghost detector remains the high point and a figure of surprisingly high emotional significance in Thirteen Ghosts, and his sacrifice at the end of the film remains a gut-wrenching twist of fate.
20.Ludwig Dieter, Army of the Dead
A character that brings a shot of life to every scene in which he's included, Ludwig Dieter is undoubtedly the standout character in Army of the Dead, from his humorous introduction to his untimely and heartbreaking end. Oddly enough, Ludwig Dieter has carried on beyond his cinematic expiration, as the prequel Army of Thieves featured Matthias Schweighofer reprising the eccentric safecracker in a starring role, allowing audiences to spend a little more time with the fan-favorite character.
21.Roach, The People Under the Stairs
The People Under the Stairs features many horrors, both literally and figuratively, but it also asks the audience to look past the creepy visage of Roach, a friendly "person under the stairs" who aids our heroes in their escape from the house of horrors. It's easy for the audience to bond with the young, mistreated, and misunderstood Roach, and it's even easier for us to get behind the character to escape with Fool and Alice, even if the story decides he's not long for their world.
22.Billy Freeman, Doctor Sleep
One of the few characters to treat Danny Torrance with a modicum of respect in Doctor Sleep, Billy Freeman's selflessness and bravery allows the character to stand tall among our favorites in the film. While we know supporting characters in The Shining universe don't meet the best endings, you hope to have your expectations defied when it comes to Billy, making his foul death all the more reason to tug at your heart strings.
23.Evil Ed, Fright Night
An "Eddie Munson" prototype, if you will, this fan favorite from Fright Night captured an authentic "horror kid" energy, which makes his eventual villainous shift and ultimately sorrowful demise all the more poignant for the fright fans watching at home.
24.Bob Newby, Stranger Things
Yes, it all comes full circle, folks. You can argue that this spot should be reserved for Barb, who still has yet to get her justice, or Billy Hargrove, but there's no denying that the death that, prior to Eddie Munson, truly hurt the most within the Stranger Things universe was Bob Newby, the de-facto father figure of the Byers household with the heart of a lion that we hoped would become a permanent fixture in Hawkins. His heroic death near the end of Stranger Things Season 2 still resonates with fans to this day, and I'd bet that more than a few of you reading this are going to watch his on-screen demise through damp eyelids right about now.
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