For what robust and nuanced strides the genre has made in the modern era, there were always be a part of the horror genre, however small, that will be unable to separate itself from some of the cornier connotations. And, in some ways, this is a blessing in its own right; for what crimes it commits in undermining the aim of horror as a genre, it makes up for it in some of the most over-the-top, gut-busting fatalities to ever be dreamed up.
But not everyone shares the positive experience that comes with nonsensical deaths, and some of the more pessimistic residents of r/horror have taken to calling out the most ridiculous kills to ever come out of the genre.
One user pointed to a pair of films in the Alien franchise, namely Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, both of which featured some characters that, somehow, passed basic training for dealing with apex predators from outer space, yet still pulled some awfully questionable stunts.
On the other end of the budget spectrum, one user called out a death from Demonic Toys in which a security guard suffers a fatal head injury after tumbling off a child’s tricycle. In all fairness, the film never gave us any reason to suggest that its content would go above “stupid,” but perhaps they still found a hole in the bottom of that barrel.
Some of this nonsense has even managed to creep its way into the 2020s, with one user not letting us forget about how one Halloween Kills character managed to squander her brain matter in one klutzy move.
It seems like the screen will remain a harmonious combination of stupidity and mortality at least once in while, and as hilarious (or infuriating) as they can be, you can’t help but feel sorry for some of these characters; who wants to be remembered as the guy who died in a tricycle accident?