Top 20 MORE Of The Smartest Decisions in Horror Movies

“Fright Night” (2011)
We all know the major no-nos that come with being a vampire: can’t go out in the sunlight; can’t eat garlic; can’t touch crosses; and can’t enter someone’s home without an invitation. But what if there is no home? Colin Farrell’s Jerry finds a clever workaround to that last one in this fun remake. After realizing his neighbor Charley is wise to his undead nature, Jerry pays a visit. But his ploy to get invited in is rebuffed. Undeterred, Jerry takes a shovel to their backyard and digs up the gas line. From there, a little exposure and a spark are all it takes to blow up the house from the inside. The occupants are okay, but that’s one way to flush out potential victims.

“Scream 2” (1997)
Do you ever watch a horror movie and think to yourself, “There’s nothing keeping them there; why don’t they just leave?” Well, Joel has the common sense to do just that in “Scream 2.” After finding out what happened to Gale’s camera operator in the last film, Joel is none too pleased to be on campus with a killer running around. So when Randy gets killed in his news van, he decides he’s had enough and skips town. Due to a script leak, Joel’s entire character had to be reworked, leaving him without a death or a resolution. It was reportedly actor Duane Martin’s idea to add in this scene. Wes Craven obliged, but brought back Joel for the ending anyway.

“Halloween Ends” (2022)
While the so-called “ending” of “Halloween” received a mixed reception at best, you can’t deny that the town’s handling of Michael Myers isn’t 100% the right call. After we’ve seen Michael get knocked down and impossibly up again for decades, it seems like Laurie has finally ended the shape. But she too has seen this horror movie before. So with the help of the authorities, she leads Michael on one last tour of Haddonfield. With the townsfolk joining the therapeutic funeral procession, it all ends at the salvage yard where they dispose of Michael’s body in an industrial shredder. Yeah, no resurrections this time, we think.

“Evil Dead” (2013)
This movie takes its metaphor of getting clean to the utmost extreme. After Mia is possessed by the evil and two of their friends are killed, David feels resigned to simply set the cabin on fire with his sister in it. But his brotherly nature gets the better of him as he hatches a plan to save her. With the help of his friend Eric, David is able to sedate Mia and drag her outside. There, he enacts a live burial. Mia technically dies, but so too does her possession end. David immediately exhumes her body and resuscitates her, effectively saving Mia’s life. It’s just too bad that David ends up burning in that cabin after all.

“Escape Room” (2019)
Upon realizing that the shadowy company Minos stays in control as long as they can see the contestants, Zoey takes to smashing all the cameras in the hospital-themed room. While Jason and Ben are able to escape the old-fashioned way, Zoey remains resolute in her plan. At first, it seems like Zoey suffocates to death after being exposed to the poisonous gas. But without any eyes on her, she’s now able to breathe through an oxygen mask undetected. The cleanup crew thus thinks she’s dead, only to get a rude awakening. It’s thanks to Zoey’s four-dimensional thinking that she and Ben are able to turn the tables on the gamemaster and escape for good.

“Planet Terror” (2007)
Losing a leg to a zombie horde would pretty much spell doom to any other survivor, but not Cherry Darling. Sure, she’s a little down on herself at first, but a quick fix from her ex-boyfriend El Wray helps her escape. While the table leg is also a smart decision and helps Cherry take names, it’s the next upgrade that earns its spot on our list. When the chips are down and the wooden leg is broken, El Wray replaces it with an assault rifle with a rocket launcher attachment. Don’t ask us how it works without Cherry’s finger on the trigger, but in a grindhouse movie, all that matters is how undeniably badass she becomes.

“The Exorcist” (1973)
Upon possessing the young Regan and reducing her to a grotesque husk of her former self, the demon Pazuzu effectively saps the hope of all those close to her. Father Karras and Father Merrin do everything they can to exorcise Pazuzu, but this proves futile and results in the latter’s death. Incensed at the demon and his inability to save the little girl, Karras flies into a rage. He beats Pazuzu senselessly, challenging it to take him instead. Pazuzu obliges, and Karras, already feeling its influence, hurls himself out a window to prevent himself from harming Regan. Karras may die, but Regan is safe - until the sequels, of course.

“Old” (2021)
The characters in this M. Night Shyamalan thriller are faced with a peculiar predicament: they’re trapped on a beach that causes them to age the equivalent of a year every thirty minutes. Trouble is, they can’t leave the beach else they lose consciousness, which can be fatal depending on their situation. After everyone else has died of physical or natural causes, siblings Maddox and Trent find themselves middle-aged, having been children just the day before. Thankfully, a secret message makes them believe a nearby coral reef may shield them from blacking out if they swim through it. It’s a big gamble, as they risk drowning if they’re wrong. But they’re not, as they ultimately make it out and expose those responsible.

“Final Destination 2” (2003)
It doesn’t matter how good you are at reading the signs - cheating Death in this franchise will only get you so far, and eventually it will get you. This is what Clear comes to realize after losing fellow Flight 180 survivor Alex between films. Rather than continue to roll the dice, Clear has since committed herself to a psych ward where she spends her days in a padded cell where nothing can actually kill her. Since this is a story with character growth, however, Clear ultimately decides to check herself out in order to help other survivors. And as you might guess, it finally catches up to her in a hospital explosion.

“Predator” (1987)
This sci-fi action horror film is full of smart decisions, mostly by the titular creature, but we ultimately have to award the move that decides this game of cat and mouse. After his entire rescue team is picked off one-by-one by the Predator, Dutch is chased to a riverbank to seemingly meet his end. However, the Predator fails to see him, and Dutch realizes the mud inexplicably covering his body is masking him in his adversary’s heat vision. With time to prepare, Dutch becomes a hunter himself by setting a series of traps, making sure to muddy himself up real good in the process. It’s still a struggle, but Dutch’s keen insight into his enemy helps him win the day.

“Us” (2019)
Another instance of knowing thy enemy, this one sees a family plagued by their evil doppelgangers. The youngest, Jason, gets time to observe and understand his, Pluto, realizing that his double mirrors his actions. After Jason’s father and sister dispose of their doppelgangers, the family is ambushed on the road by a flaming car. Upon seeing Pluto, Jason realizes it’s a trap and turns the tables. Before Pluto can cause a deadly explosion, Jason starts backing up, knowing Pluto will do the same. While Jason may back up directly into the arms of his mother’s doppelganger, Pluto backs directly into the flaming vehicle, catching himself alight and ending his tiny reign of terror.

“World War Z” (2013)
The zombies featured in this apocalyptic action horror flick are some of the deadliest put to screen. They’re incredibly fast, and infection spreads even faster, turning a human within seconds of being bitten. However, their overzealous predatory nature also turns out to be their downfall. Throughout the film, Brad Pitt’s Gerry Lane is able to observe them out in the wild, so to speak, and comes to believe the zombies will deliberately ignore anyone who’s terminally ill, wanting only healthy hosts. To prove his theory, Gerry fights his way through a research facility and injects himself with a lethal yet curable disease. Not only does it work, but Gerry also gives humanity a fighting chance against the undead scourge.

“You’re Next” (2011)
When it comes to smarts, there are few final girls quite like Erin. Unbeknownst to her adversaries, she was raised in a survivalist compound. So when masked assailants arrive to terrorize her boyfriend’s family, she doesn’t waste a second in setting herself up for success. She sets a slew of traps all over the house, severely injuring the intruders whether they’re just trying to enter or when they think they have her cornered. Seriously, Erin does so many things right that it’d be easier to list the things she does wrong. She might even be too lethal for her own good, as even after the killers and their conspirators are dead, an arriving police officer gets a wicked surprise.

“Jaws 2” (1978)
Shoving a scuba tank into a shark’s mouth before blowing it up with a gunshot is ingenious. But Chief Brody might just outdo himself in the sequel. After some local kids find themselves stranded in the ocean with a vicious great white, Brody again comes to the rescue. He tracks them down to an island that’s home to a relay station, but getting them to safety proves exceedingly difficult. He inadvertently uncovers a power cable, but when other lives hang in the balance, he uses it to his advantage. He whacks the cable repeatedly with an oar, gaining the shark’s attention, before getting the beast to bite down on the wiring. The electrocution is so severe that the shark immediately catches fire, absolutely roasted.

“Tremors” (1990)
What do you do when you’re being hounded by giant, sand-dwelling worms? Use pipe bombs, of course! When the group of survivors finds themselves pinned down toward the end of the film, they get the idea to not only distract the Graboids with pipe bombs, but to fish with them, too. They successfully blow up one Graboid, but another gets wise and spits it back at them. Scattered, they’re forced to improvise, before a Graboid pins a few of them down at the edge of a cliff. With just one pipe bomb left, Val tries not to blow it up, but to scare it. After he does so, the thing panics to the point that it shoots right out the cliffside. And Graboids cannot fly…

“Child’s Play” (1988)
Of course, we as the audience know that Chucky is an evil, living doll. But any rational person in that universe would never come to that conclusion. So when all signs point to her young son Andy being behind the recent killings, Karen doesn’t know what to believe. Thanks to her mother's intuition, however, a part of Karen hears Andy when he says Chucky did it. With nothing to lose, Karen ignites the fireplace and tells Chucky that if he doesn’t come alive, she’ll toss him in. Out of options, Chucky obliges. Granted, Karen’s got a whole new problem now, but at least she knows who the real enemy is.

“Aliens” (1986)
Ellen Ripley has to be one of the most resourceful heroines in horror. In the same movie that sees her save herself from sabotage by activating the alarm, she also has the perfect answer for the alien queen: an exosuit power loader. While the power loaders are of course designed to move heavy objects, with the lack of an appropriate mech suit, it definitely works in a pinch. While the queen definitely has the upperhand in terms of arsenal, Ripley has the wherewithal to drop it in the airlock. Sure, she takes a tumble with it, too, but from there all it takes is pulling a switch and holding on for dear life.

“Prey” (2022)
Much like Dutch from the original “Predator” film, Naru too obscures her scent by eating the orange totsiyaa flower and dropping her body temperature. But it’s what she does afterwards that’s really brilliant. After getting the drop on the Predator, she steals its mask and leads it to a trap. Sure, there’s still a physical battle to be had, but Naru’s picked up a thing or two. For one, she knows that its projectiles use a targeting system attached to its mask. When the Predator’s stuck in the mud, it fires directly at Naru. However, Naru’s positioned the mask to train its crosshairs right at the thing, and the projectile whips around and takes the Predator out instead. Looks like the predator becomes the prey.

“Saw VI” (2009)
Mark Hoffman is a pretty detestable villain. But even we can’t help but be impressed when he beats the seemingly unbeatable reverse bear trap. Ex-wife to the deceased John Kramer, Jill enacts his last will and testament by dealing with his rogue accomplice. After abmushing him, Jill straps Hoffman to a chair and outfits him with the iconic reverse bear trap. But this time around, there’s no key and no game to be played. Having to think fast, Hoffman uses the device’s weight to break his own hand and free himself from the restraint. Then, he shoves his face between two metal bars in the door’s window, preventing the trap from opening completely. It mangles his face, but he also lives to see another movie.

“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
Is there a villain - let alone a horror movie villain - smarter than Hannibal Lecter? Seriously, not even we could’ve concocted such a dastardly escape plan if given an eternity to come up with it. Through his dealings with FBI trainee Clarice Starling, Lecter’s able to upgrade his prison digs. Only he’s more interested in escaping from them. After picking his handcuffs and incapacitating the guards, Lecter does the unthinkable. He feigns his own escape by surgically removing one of their faces and throwing it over his own, tricking first responders into thinking they’re saving one of the victims. By the time the authorities find the real body, Lecter’s already in an ambulance ensuring his freedom.