- 7 months ago
The dumb ones never survive — but these characters broke the mold.
Welcome to watchmojo.world, where today we’re counting down the most intelligent and clever decisions made by characters in horror movies. From quick thinking survivors to brilliant plans that saved lives, these moments prove brains can beat terror.
Our countdown features scenes from:
Aliens 🚀
28 Days Later 🧟♂️
Tremors 🐛
…and many more!
💬 Think you could’ve made these smart moves?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to follow watchmojo.world for more epic countdowns!
Welcome to watchmojo.world, where today we’re counting down the most intelligent and clever decisions made by characters in horror movies. From quick thinking survivors to brilliant plans that saved lives, these moments prove brains can beat terror.
Our countdown features scenes from:
Aliens 🚀
28 Days Later 🧟♂️
Tremors 🐛
…and many more!
💬 Think you could’ve made these smart moves?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to follow watchmojo.world for more epic countdowns!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Now I'll show you what I already know.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:06intelligent choices and plans made by characters in horror films.
00:10Good. Good. You got it quick. Good on you.
00:16Number 50. Ripley sets off the fire alarm. Aliens.
00:20Poor Ripley and Newt find themselves in a waking nightmare, surrounded by live facehuggers,
00:24completely defenseless and unable to cry for help.
00:30Help! Help us!
00:33Break the glass!
00:34They're trapped in the station's medical bay, and none of the other marines can hear their scuffle
00:39with the facehuggers. Fortunately, Ripley thinks on her feet. She takes a lighter and puts the flame
00:43next to the room's fire suppression system, causing an alarm to go off. Seeing the alarm,
00:48the marines rush to the medical bay, just in time to save Ripley and Newt.
00:52All clear. Nailed the other one. It's history, man.
00:5549. Making a newspaper curtain. Train to Busan.
00:59Featuring uncommonly smart characters for a horror film, Train to Busan follows a group of
01:04people stuck on a train with bloodthirsty zombies. These zombies are of the 28 Days Later variety.
01:10Screechy, speedy, and highly aggressive. In one scene, a horde of zombies are looking through a
01:15glass door at our heroes, and Sok Woo realizes that they're attracted to movement.
01:24Thinking fast, Song Kyung grabs a water bottle and a newspaper. She splashes the water onto the glass
01:30and sticks the newspaper to the water, effectively making a curtain that prevents the zombies from
01:34seeing them. And with that, the threat is neutralized. For now.
01:39That's it! Everyone's scared, so that's it.
01:42Number 48. Selina Kills Mark. 28 Days Later.
01:46Speaking of 28 Days Later, this film revolutionized the zombie genre, introducing fast runners and new
01:52rules. In most zombie movies, characters have a couple of days from when they're infected until they
01:57turn. In 28 Days Later, it's 20 seconds. So you have to act fast, and that's exactly what Selina does.
02:03Were you bitten? A no-nonsense character, focused purely on survival, she quickly deduces that Mark
02:10has been infected in the house attack. She simply reads the panic on Mark's face, grabs her machete,
02:15and gets to work. Mark? Wait.
02:24It'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. Mike finds
02:38himself trapped in a haunted hotel room, the place tricks on his mind, and taunts him with
02:42the ghost of his deceased daughter. Are you ready to check out, Mr. Enslin?
02:50No. Having no other means to escape, and nearing the end of his sanity, Mike makes a Molotov cocktail,
02:55and burns the room down. This not only kills its malevolent spirit, but also allows firefighters
03:00to enter the gutted room and rescue him from the inferno. He reunites with his estranged wife,
03:05and all is well. Of course, Mike doesn't make it out in the director's cut, but he's still content
03:10with having defeated the room and freeing its trapped souls.
03:13Number 46. Getting distance from the entity. It follows. You'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. So, what do you do? That's
03:33the question at the heart of It Follows. And while some of the plans are pretty silly, others are
03:38surprisingly smart. One of the best ideas comes from Jeff, a student who had previously been
03:43infected by the entity. If it kills her, it gets me, and goes straight down the line to whoever
03:49started it. Jay, I'm sorry. He implores that the group drive to a remote location and simply hide out.
03:58The entity has to walk, so it would be days before it arrives, giving them time to hide and think of
04:04more permanent solutions. Walking straight for you, but it is walking. If you drive far enough,
04:10you could buy yourself some time to think, decide if you want to give it to someone else.
04:15The answer is so simple, yet so effective.
04:18Number 45. Using the environment. The black phone. A kidnapping drama with a supernatural twist,
04:24the black phone sees young Finney getting taken by the grabber and held inside his basement.
04:29I'm not strong enough. You have to be. You're getting out of here. If you can't do it for you,
04:34do it for me. What does it matter? Because 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 them to talk to the grabber's past victims. They all give him various pieces of advice
04:47for escaping the room, and Finney utilizes them all in a climactic battle to fantastic success.
04:53It's for you. Welcome to the nightmare end of your pathetic little life. You don't have much time.
05:03Watching all of the pieces fall into place is incredibly satisfying,
05:07as are the various ingenious ways that Finney uses his tools to defeat the grabber.
05:11Number 44. Playing the baby. Barbarian.
05:15Tess thinks she has it bad when her Airbnb is double-booked with Keith,
05:18but she has no idea that it's about to get so much worse.
05:22So there's a bed, and a what? A bucket and a camera?
05:26How much is it?
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,
05:34and inside this room is a feral creature 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.
05:49If you get upset, she gets upset.
05:51She who she.
05:53It's deeply uncomfortable watching Tess be embraced and stroked by the creature,
05:58but hey, it kept her alive up until this point, so good for her.
06:02Number 43. Not looking at the alien.
06:04Nope.
06:05Jordan Peele's Nope has many thematic ambitions,
06:08but it's also a terrifying invasion film in the vein of classic Spielberg.
06:12Daniel Kaluuya's OJ is a smart man, and he alone figures out the alien.
06:16Make a name for yourself.
06:20What is that?
06:22My bad, man.
06:23It's he who realizes that it's a living organism, and not a UFO.
06:28And having experience with trained animals, he realizes that the alien only attacks those
06:32who 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,
06:39which is ultimately successful thanks to the help of M and Holst.
06:43Number 42. Sacrificing herself.
06:45Alien 3.
06:46The third entry in the Alien franchise is often criticized for being too dark,
06:50and that extends to the somewhat dour ending.
06:53What guarantee do I have?
06:58Once you've taken it out,
06:59then you'll destroy it.
07:02Ripley learns that she's carrying an alien embryo,
07:05and that Weyland-Yutani plans on turning it into a biological weapon.
07:09So Ripley has a choice. Give birth to an alien that will be used for further violence,
07:13or sacrifice herself and end the vicious battle for good.
07:17It's the chance of a lifetime. You must let me have it. It's a magnificent specimen.
07:24She chooses the latter, throwing herself into a vat of molten lead.
07:28It's certainly not a happy ending, and we were sad to see Ripley go,
07:32but we suppose she 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.
07:42And if that means taking over a mall and stealing all the goods for yourself, then so be it.
07:46Wait a minute, they can't get up here.
07:48Yeah, and we can't go down there. Let's check it out.
07:51This is what the heroes of Dawn of the Dead realise when they fly upon the empty mall while
07:56escaping Philadelphia. Deciding that it would be the perfect place to hide out for a while,
08:00they land on the roof, clear the mall of zombies,
08:02and make themselves a nice little nest from the store's contents.
08:05There's an awful lot of stuff down there that we could use.
08:11I know it.
08:12It's a big place.
08:13It's a big place. But they're pretty spread out down there.
08:17Of course, it's only a matter of time before raiders come a-calling,
08:20but this plan worked splendidly for months.
08:23Who else was living this comfortably while the world fell apart around them?
08:26Number 40. Blowing up the house.
08:28Fright Night.
08:29We all know the major no-nos that come with being a vampire.
08:32Can't go out in sunlight, can't eat garlic, can't touch crosses,
08:36and can't enter someone's home without an invitation.
08:40But what if there is no home? Colin Farrell's Jerry finds a clever workaround to that last one
08:46in this fun remake.
08:48Look, we're alright as long as we stay inside, because obviously you can't get in without an invitation.
08:55Like a vampire.
08:56Yeah, really. Like a vampire.
08:58After realising his neighbour Charlie is wise to his undead nature, Jerry pays a visit.
09:03But his ploy to get invited in is rebuffed. Undeterred, Jerry takes a shovel to their backyard
09:09and digs up the gas line. From there, a little exposure and a spark are all it takes to blow up
09:15the house from the inside. The 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.
09:27Do you ever watch a horror movie and think to yourself,
09:29there's nothing keeping them there? Why don't they just leave?
09:33Well, Joel has the common sense to do just that in Scream 2.
09:36I should have read your book before I took this job, but I'm reading it now and
09:42I read what happened to your last cameraman. The guy got gutted.
09:45After finding out what happened to Gail's camera operator in the first film,
09:49Joel is none 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? Wouldn't want to be ya.
10:00Joel?
10:01I need you!
10:02No. No, you need to have your head examined.
10:05Due to a script leak, Joel's entire character had to be reworked,
10:09leaving him without a death 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 back. You know, I was thinking maybe we could get the scoop like in the old days.
10:24You're Gail Weathers, at Windsor College.
10:3038. Shredding Michael – Halloween Ends
10:33While the so-called ending of Halloween received a mixed reception at best,
10:38you can't deny that 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,
10:47it seems like Laurie has finally ended the shape.
10:50But she too has seen this horror movie before, so with the help of the authorities,
10:54she leads Michael on one last tour of Haddonfield.
10:58Time 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 yard,
11:16where they dispose of Michael's body in an industrial shredder.
11:19Yeah, no resurrections this time, we think.
11:2237. Burying Mia – Evil Dead
11:26This movie takes its metaphor of getting clean to the utmost extreme.
11:30After Mia is possessed by the evil, and two of their friends are killed,
11:33David feels resigned to simply set the cabin on fire with his sister in it.
11:38But his brotherly nature gets the better of him, and he hatches a plan to save her.
11:42With the help of his best friend, Eric, David is able to sedate Mia and drag her outside.
11:47There, he enacts a live burial.
11:49I can't move! I can't breathe!
11:52I can't breathe!
11:53David!
11:54I can't breathe!
11:55I can't breathe!
11:56I can't breathe!
11:57I can't breathe!
11:58I can't breathe!
12:00You're not hurt.
12:01I can't breathe!
12:02Mia technically dies, but so too does her possession end.
12:06David immediately exhumes her body and resuscitates her,
12:10effectively saving Mia's life.
12:12Thanks for not leaving me, David.
12:15It's just too bad that David ends up burning in that cabin after all.
12:1936. Destroying the Cameras – Escape Room
12:23What are you doing?
12:24Quantum Xeno effect.
12:25Atoms won't change if you take continuous measurements,
12:27so as long as they're watching us, we can't change our state.
12:31The game is designed so they always win.
12:32Upon realizing that the shadowy company Minos stays in control as long as they can see the contestants,
12:38Zoe takes to smashing all the cameras in the hospital-themed room.
12:42While Jason and Ben are able to escape the old-fashioned way,
12:45Zoe remains resolute in her plan.
12:47Come on, there's a way out!
12:49There's a way out!
12:50You'll suffocate! Come on!
12:53Just 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.
13:05The clean-up crew thus thinks she's dead, only to get a rude awakening.
13:09The oxygen mask.
13:10What the hell was she gonna do with that?
13:12Breathe!
13:16It's thanks to Zoe's four-dimensional thinking
13:18that she and Ben are able to turn the tables on the Game Master and escape for good.
13:2335. Leg Upgrade – Planet Terror
13:27Losing a leg to a zombie horde would pretty much spell doom to any other survivor,
13:31but not Cherry Darling.
13:33Sure, she's a little down on herself at first,
13:35but a quick fix from her ex-boyfriend, El Rey, helps her escape.
13:39I have no leg!
13:51Now you're doomed. What do you think?
13:54While the table leg is also a smart decision and helps Cherry take names,
13:58it's the next upgrade that earns its spot on our list.
14:01When the chips are down and the wooden leg is broken,
14:03El Rey replaces it with an assault rifle with a rocket launcher attachment.
14:08I believe that you could be better. You deserve better. Even better than me. Right now,
14:17I need you to become who you're meant to be. Stand.
14:24Don't ask us how it works without Cherry's finger on the trigger,
14:27but in a grindhouse movie, all that matters is how undeniably badass she becomes.
14:4334. Goading the Demon – The Exorcist
14:46Upon possessing the young Regan, and reducing her to a grotesque husk of her former self,
14:51the demon Pazuzu effectively saps the hope of all those close to her. Father Keras and Father
14:56Merrin do everything they can to exorcise Pazuzu, but this proves futile and results in the latter's
15:02death. Incensed as the demon and his inability to save the little girl, Keras flies into a rage.
15:08He beats Pazuzu senselessly, challenging it to take him instead. Pazuzu obliges, and Keras,
15:30already feeling its influence, hurls himself out a window to present himself from harming Regan.
15:35Keras may die, but Regan is safe. Until the sequels, of course.
15:4033. Swimming through the Coral – Old
15:44The characters in this M. Night Shyamalan thriller are faced with a peculiar predicament. They're
15:48trapped 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, which can be fatal depending on
15:59their situation. After everyone else has died of physical or natural causes, siblings Maddox and
16:04Trent find themselves middle-aged, having been children just the day before. Thankfully, a secret
16:10message makes them believe a nearby coral reef may shield them from blacking out if they swim
16:16through it. It's a big gamble, as they risk drowning if they're wrong. But they're not, as they ultimately
16:34make it out, and expose those responsible.
16:37Your aunt will be waiting for you when you land.
16:40How's she handling things?
16:42How would you feel if a 50-year-old man called and told you he was your 6-year-old nephew?
16:4732. Checking into a psychiatric ward – Final Destination 2
16:52It doesn't matter how good you are at reading the signs, cheating death in this franchise will only get
16:56you so far. And eventually, it will get you. This is what Clear comes to realise after losing
17:02fellow Flight 180 survivor Alex between films. Rather than continue to roll the dice, Clear has
17:08since committed herself to a psych ward where she spends her days in a padded cell where nothing
17:13can actually kill her. Since this is a story with character growth, however, Clear ultimately decides
17:27to check herself out in order to help other survivors. And as you might guess, it finally
17:33catches up to her in a hospital explosion.
17:3531. Muddying Up – Predator
17:52This sci-fi action horror film is full of smart decisions, mostly by the titular creature. But
17:58we ultimately have to award the move that decides this game of cat and mouse. After his entire rescue
18:03team is picked off one by one by the predator, Dutch is chased to a riverbank to seemingly meet his
18:08end. However, the predator fails to see him, and Dutch realises the mud inexplicably covering his body
18:15is masking him in his adversary's heat vision. With time to prepare, Dutch becomes a hunter himself
18:20by setting a series of traps, making 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.
18:3330. Backing Up – Us
18:41Another instance of knowing thy enemy, this one sees a family plagued by their evil doppelgangers.
18:46The youngest, Jason, gets time to observe and understand his, Pluto, realising that his
18:52double mirrors his actions. After Jason's father and sister dispose of their doppelgangers,
18:56the family is ambushed on the road by a flaming car.
18:5930. It's a trap!
19:0030. Get out!
19:0331. Upon seeing Pluto, Jason realises it's a trap, and turns the tables. Before Pluto can
19:10cause a deadly explosion, Jason starts backing up, knowing Pluto will do the same. While Jason may
19:16back up directly into the arms of his mother's doppelganger, Pluto backs directly into the flaming
19:21vehicle, catching himself alight and ending his tiny reign of terror.
19:2529. Infecting Himself – World War Z
19:28The zombies featured in this apocalyptic action horror flick are some of the deadliest put to
19:33screen. They're incredibly fast, and infection spreads even faster,
19:37turning a human within seconds of being bitten. However,
19:40their overzealous predatory nature also turns out to be their downfall.
19:4430. I believe these things have a weakness. And that weakness is weakness. It's our weakness.
19:5131. Throughout the film, Brad Pitt's Jerry Lane is able to observe them out in the wild,
19:56so to speak, and comes to believe the zombies will deliberately ignore anyone who's terminally ill,
20:01wanting only healthy hosts.
20:0331. But even if you're right, I mean,
20:04infecting the populace with a lethal illness is not exactly a cure.
20:0731. It's not a cure. It's camouflage.
20:10To prove this theory, Jerry fights his way through a research facility,
20:14and injects himself with a lethal yet curable disease. Not only does it work,
20:19but Jerry also gives humanity a fighting chance against the undead scourge.
20:2428. Going All Survivalist – You're next
20:28When it comes to smarts, there are few final girls quite like Erin. Unbeknownst to her adversaries,
20:33she was raised in a survivalist compound. So when Mars' assailants arrive to terrorize her
20:38boyfriend's family, she doesn't waste a second in setting herself up for success.
20:42She sets a slew of traps all over the house, severely injuring the intruders,
20:46whether they're just trying to enter or 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.
20:56Thanks 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,
21:03as even after the killers and their conspirators are dead,
21:06an arriving police officer gets a wicked surprise.
21:0927. Electrocuting The Shark – Jaws 2
21:13Shoving a scuba tank into a shark's mouth before blowing it up with a gunshot is ingenious,
21:18but Chief Brody might just outdo himself in the sequel.
21:22Smile, you son of a…
21:30After some local kids find themselves stranded in the ocean with a vicious great white, Brody again
21:35comes to the rescue. He tracks them down to an island that's home to a relay station,
21:39but getting them to safety proves exceedingly difficult. He inadvertently uncovers a power
21:44cable, but when others' lives hang in the balance, he uses it to his advantage. He whacks the cable
21:49repeatedly with an oar, gaining the shark's attention, before getting the beast to bite
21:54down on the wiring.
22:02The 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? Use pipe bombs, of course.
22:1827. What if we throw one that way, the way we want to go? Then when it explodes,
22:22I mean, if it drives them away, we run like goddamn bastards!
22:2627. Pardon my French.
22:29When the group of survivors find themselves pinned down towards the end of the film,
22:33they get the idea to not only distract the Graboids with pipe bombs, but to fish with them too.
22:3828. They successfully blow up one Graboid, but another gets wise and spits it back at them.
22:4429. Scattered, they're forced to improvise, before a Graboid pins a few of them down at the edge of a
22:49cliff. 29. With just one pipe bomb left, Val tries not to blow it up, but to scare it. After he does so,
22:55the thing panics to the point that it shoots right out the cliff side. And Graboids cannot fly.
23:0229. Can you fly, you sucker? Can you fly?
23:0825. Using audio feedback. A Quiet Place.
23:14Every villain has a weakness, even aliens in a fun and original horror movie. A Quiet Place
23:19concerns a species of aliens with super-duper hearing. The creatures are able to detect even
23:24the slightest bit of noise from miles away, and will devour whoever and whatever made the sound.
23:3630. But this type of extraordinary hearing comes with a cost, and young Regan utilises it to her
23:43advantage. Realising that her cochlear implant emits a high-pitched screech when disrupted,
23:48she puts it up to the microphone and amplifies the whine, causing an alien to react in enormous
23:53pain. This allows Regan's mother Evelyn to kill the creature, and with their major weakness exposed,
23:58she pumps the shotgun and prepares for battle.
24:03Number 24. Threatening Chucky. Child's Play.
24:06Of course, we as the audience know that Chucky is an evil living doll,
24:10but any rational person in that universe would never come to that conclusion.
24:14So, when all signs point to her young son Andy being behind the recent killings,
24:19Karen doesn't know what to believe.
24:21Chucky's alive. Really, he is.
24:23Andy. Chucky. Chucky is a doll. He's made of plastic and stuffing. Look at him. Look at him.
24:30Now, does he look like anything else to you?
24:32Thanks to her mother's intuition, however, a part of Karen hears Andy when he says Chucky did it.
24:37With nothing to lose, Karen ignites the fireplace and tells Chucky that if he doesn't come alive,
24:43she'll toss him in. Out of options, Chucky obliges.
24:46I said talk to me, dammit, or else I'm gonna throw you in the fire!
24:50You stupid!
24:51Granted, Karen's got a whole new problem now, but at least she knows who the real enemy is.
24:57Number 23. Power Loading. Aliens.
25:00Ellen Ripley has to be one of the most resourceful heroines in horror.
25:03In the same movie that sees her save herself from sabotage by activating the alarm,
25:08she also has the perfect answer for the Alien Queen, an exosuit power loader.
25:13Get away from her, you b****.
25:17While the power loaders are, of course, designed to move heavy objects,
25:21with the lack of an appropriate mech suit, it definitely works in a pinch.
25:30Come on! Come on!
25:33While the Queen definitely has the upper hand in terms of arsenal,
25:36Ripley has the wherewithal to drop it in the airlock.
25:40Sure, she takes a tumble with it too, but from there,
25:42all it takes is a pulling of a switch and holding on for dear life.
25:55Number 22. Using the Mask. Prey.
25:58Much like Dutch from the original Predator film,
26:00Naru too obscures her scent by eating the orange totsia flower and dropping her body temperature.
26:07But it's what she does afterwards that's really brilliant.
26:10After getting the drop on the Predator, she steals its mask and leads it to a trap.
26:15Sure, 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.
26:24When the Predator's stuck in the mud, it fires directly at Naru.
26:28However, Naru's positioned the mask to train its crosshairs right at the thing,
26:33and the projectile whips around and takes the Predator out instead.
26:36Looks like the Predator becomes the prey.
26:48Number 21. Nullifying the Reverse Bear Trap.
26:51Saw 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.
27:01So when's your test, detective?
27:03I don't need one.
27:05Oh yeah?
27:06Yeah, because I can take my life for granted.
27:12Ex-wife to the deceased John Kramer, Jill enacts his last will and testament by dealing with his rogue
27:18accomplice. After ambushing him, Jill straps Hoffman to a chair and outfits him with the iconic
27:24Reverse Bear Trap. But this time around, there's no key, and no game to be played.
27:29Game over!
27:35Having to think fast, Hoffman uses the device's weight to break his own hand and free himself
27:41from the restraint. Then, he shoves his face between two metal bars to open the door's window,
27:46preventing the trap from opening completely. It mangles his face, but he also lives to see another
27:52movie.
27:53Number 20. Face Off. The Silence of the Lambs.
28:00Good evening, gentlemen.
28:01Is there a villain, let alone a horror movie villain, smarter than Hannibal Lecter?
28:06Seriously, we could not have concocted such a dastardly escape plan if given an eternity to
28:11come up with it. Through his dealings with FBI trainee Clarice Starling, Lecter's able to upgrade
28:16his prison digs. Only, he's more interested in escaping from them.
28:24Jimmy, watch it! He's got it!
28:32After 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,
28:43tricking first responders into thinking they're saving one of the victims. By the time the
28:47authorities find the real body, Lecter's already in an ambulance ensuring his freedom.
28:52Number 19. Drawing Blood. The Invisible Man.
28:56Stabbing yourself in the wrist doesn't seem like a great idea on the surface, but when you've got
29:00an invisible foe, you have to think outside the box. Knowing her tormentor wants her alive,
29:05Cecilia stabs herself with a pen, faking her own death to catch the Invisible Man's attention.
29:14Lo and behold, he pops up right beside her, close enough for Cecilia to get in some solid jabs at the
29:19suit. The attack proves effective enough to get Cecilia out of the mental institution,
29:24and all it took was drying a little bit of blood.
29:32When 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
29:41homework first. As James and Lisa arrive at the original Blair Witch House, they find themselves
29:46at a considerable disadvantage against the vastly overpowering Witch.
29:54According to legend, however, she can only kill them if they look right at her, so they stare at the
30:00corner to stay alive, even using their camcorder to look around without getting killed. Although
30:04they're eventually outsmarted back, at least they manage to temporarily outsmart her.
30:09Number 17. Turning On The Car Lights. Lights Out.
30:12All right, Bex, hold on.
30:13When you're dealing with the literal personification of fear of the dark, there's not much you can do when
30:20it's nighttime. Diana can only be seen in the dark, and that's where her power comes from. Brett is
30:26thwarted and attacked at every turn in his attempts to escape the nightmare creature.
30:31Just before he bites the dust, however, he uses his phone as a light to ward Diana away,
30:39only to be caught again outside. This time, however, his car is parked in front of him,
30:44and he activates the headlights with his keys. Quick thinking, Brett.
30:49Good things come in small packages. On her own against the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface,
31:06Erin has virtually no way to fight back, so she runs into a nearby slaughterhouse to hide. Tucking
31:12herself 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
31:28opens a locker. Distracted by the pig inside, Leatherface doesn't even see Erin until she comes
31:34down at him with a meat cleaver, taking his arm and chainsaw off in one clever switcheroo.
31:40Number 15. Burning the book as a distraction. Misery.
31:43This time we'll need two glasses.
31:46There's only so much you can do when you're immobilized and no one knows you've been kidnapped.
31:51Sure, Paul's last attempt at escape isn't as elaborate as his previous ideas,
31:55but it works. Trapped and forced to write a sequel to his captor's favorite story,
32:00Paul ends up burning it right after he's finished it, destroying all the answers it
32:04had to any unanswered questions. While Annie desperately tries to remedy this situation,
32:14Paul uses the distraction to finally end the nightmare he's endured.
32:18Number 14. Setting a trap. The final girls.
32:22Ready. Ready. Ready. Ready.
32:26Totem pole. Ready.
32:27To be honest, it would be pretty cool if we could be transported into our favorite movies,
32:31wouldn't it? Well, unless it's a horror movie and you could actually die.
32:34Why?
32:40Wow!
32:41Trapped inside the silver screen, Max and her friends must find a way to defeat their masked terrorizer,
32:46Billy. They decide to set a trap for him, making weapons, luring him out and attacking him.
32:52While it is a good plan involving flaming arrows and a bucket of gasoline, a lot of friendlies die.
33:01But, at least we get the kick-ass, self-referential slow-mo escape scene.
33:10Number 13. Using a hanger as a weapon. Halloween.
33:14Hey, I can't kill the boogeyman.
33:15Surviving a horror movie means being able to turn anything into a weapon.
33:23Chased down by the menacing Michael Myers, Lori finds herself in the hardest babysitting job
33:28of her life. Having to protect herself and the children from the seemingly invincible lunatic.
33:34Thinking quickly, she fashions a blade out of a coat hanger and stabs Myers in the eye,
33:39injuring him long enough for him to get shot by Dr. Loomis.
33:45Number 12. Giving himself the chainsaw hand. Evil Dead 2.
33:54When you've lost a limb, there's no need to completely lose hope.
33:58Forced to chop off his own possessed hand, Ash makes the most out of the situation.
34:02After all, he still has to face off against the deadites, right?
34:05When a demonic force is physically and psychologically destroying you,
34:09you'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.
34:17Let's hope he doesn't get an itch.
34:18Groovy.
34:20Number 11. Using a pen to stab a hole in your throat.
34:24Saw 5.
34:24Hey!
34:28It's rare to call anyone smart for stabbing themselves in the neck,
34:32but 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.
34:44Waking up in one of the few unbeatable traps of the series,
34:47Strom 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,
34:58allowing him to breathe until he's saved.
35:01Talk about thinking outside the box.
35:04Number 10. Setting fireworks. A quiet place.
35:07When the killer you're avoiding is hypersensitive to noise,
35:10the last thing you want to be doing is giving birth.
35:13After stepping on a nail on her way to the basement,
35:15Evelyn's presence is exposed to the nearby creatures.
35:18Thankfully, her husband Lee has a solution prepared for just this occasion.
35:25With his son Marcus at the ready, fireworks are ignited to create an auditory diversion,
35:29masking 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,
35:37and made for possibly the most thrilling moment of the entire movie.
35:41Number 9. The Escape Plan. 10 Cloverfield Lane.
35:45Michelle, why is this loose?
35:47Escaping a madman takes a lot more preparation than a spur-of-the-moment idea.
35:52Realizing Howard will almost definitely kill her, Michelle has to find a way out of this crazy bunker.
35:58After 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
36:13and rises to the surface to see the outside world once again.
36:21Number 8. Putting on the Sweater. Friday the 13th Part 2.
36:24You've done your job well and mommy is pleased.
36:27Norman 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,
36:41when she finds herself an altar dedicated to his dead mother.
36:44Ginny ingeniously decides to psychologically mess with the mask-wearing killer
36:49by convincing him that she is Mrs. Voorhees by donning her sweater,
36:53persuading him to let his guard down for what she hopes is enough time for her to administer a killing blow.
36:59That's a good boy.
37:01Unfortunately, he realizes it's just a ruse.
37:04But he meets his end shortly thereafter anyway.
37:07Or does he?
37:08Number 7. Shoot the bad guy in the head to make sure.
37:11Scream 2.
37:13Cotton, give me the gun.
37:15The gang in the Scream series knows how to survive a horror movie,
37:18even 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
37:28was making sure the killers were even dead.
37:31But in the sequel, Sidney Prescott does not mess around.
37:35Consider it done.
37:39After seemingly killing Mickey and Mrs. Loomis,
37:42Sidney and Cotton take a breath before Mickey comes back,
37:46getting immediately shot by Sidney and Gale.
37:48Learning her lesson, Sidney shoots Loomis in the head just to be safe.
37:52Number 6. Turning household objects on a killer.
37:56Hush.
37:56When she's terrorized in her home by a crossbow-wielding invader,
37:59Maddie uses everything she can grab to defend herself.
38:02The killer assumes that because she's deaf and unable to speak,
38:06she's helpless.
38:07But that's far from the case, as he soon learns.
38:10I can come in anytime I want.
38:13And I can get you anytime I want.
38:17But I'm not going to.
38:19Not until it's time.
38:21In the final scuffle, she sprays insecticide in his face
38:24and uses a smoke alarm to rob him of his sight and hearing.
38:28She lands the final blow with a corkscrew.
38:30As a writer, Maddie is always reworking scenarios in her head.
38:35Luckily for her, she found the one where the hero lives in the end.
38:38Number 5. Setting up booby traps and waking up.
38:42A nightmare on Elm Street.
38:43Home field advantages can work two ways.
38:46With her friends getting murdered around her,
38:48Nancy decides she has to take the fight against Freddy Krueger into her own hands.
38:53Realizing she can bring him out of her dream,
38:55Nancy booby traps her house and asks Don to help her once she gets Freddy on her turf.
39:01Managing to pull him out, Nancy gets Freddy into the real world
39:04and even lures him into her traps long enough to set him on fire.
39:08Not so easily defeated, however, Krueger of course returns.
39:16Number 4. Pushing the system purge button.
39:19The cabin in the woods.
39:20Forgive us and let us get it over with.
39:23This movie contains almost every horror movie cliche in the book
39:27and 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,
39:35there's only one thing left to do.
39:38Push the system purge button.
39:39Let's get this party started.
39:42Sure, in retrospect, it doesn't seem like a great alternative,
39:45but it appears to work out okay for them.
39:48The button releases all the captive monsters and boy,
39:52did they have a great time tearing everyone to pieces.
39:55giving Dana and Marty time to escape.
39:58It begs the question though,
39:59why does this button even exist in the first place?
40:02Number 3. Scientific method. The Thing.
40:04Well, I'll show you what I already know.
40:07The 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?
40:14Using their brains, however, the surviving members of the Arctic facility
40:18go about revealing the alien in the most rudimentary way possible.
40:22A simple blood test.
40:23This is pure nonsense. Doesn't prove a thing.
40:26Knowing the creature's blood will try to protect itself,
40:29R.J. McCready takes a sample of everyone's blood
40:32and heats it with a copper wire.
40:34We'll do you last.
40:36As he dips the wire in Palmer's blood,
40:40the sample jumps from the dish and flees, revealing the alien among them.
40:45Number 2. Picking cotton out of the chair.
40:48Get Out.
40:48This is crazy.
40:50Get Out's critical reception was well deserved.
40:52The film delves into issues of racism as well as themes typical to the horror genre,
40:57while 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
41:10for 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 stuffing to block his ears,
41:21and then breaks free to take his revenge. Ingenious.
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41:41Number 1. Danny Stopping His Snow Footprint Trail. The Shining.
41:46Danny!
41:48Never doubt the resourcefulness of a kid at death's door.
41:51Running for his life from his deranged and homicidal father,
41:55Danny heads for the hedge maze at the snowed-in and very haunted Overlook Hotel.
42:00Knowing he can't outrun his father forever, Danny realizes he has to throw his dad off the scent,
42:05and ditches running for a better plan.
42:08Backtracking through his own steps and hiding, his father reaches the end of his trail
42:12and proceeds to search aimlessly for him in the giant maze.
42:15You can't get away!
42:18Following his own prince out of the maze, Danny runs into his mother's arms,
42:22leaving Dad to suffer in the cold.
42:24Daddy! Daddy! 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?
42:41Which is actually sort of weird, by the way.
42:44Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
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