Welcome to Day 11! A couple of years ago, I started thinking about the horror characters who I wish didn’t die. Whether they showed the potential of being a final girl/guy, or I just feel they didn’t deserve to die, these are the characters who I wish were given a better ending. When I first created this series, I enforced my 5-year rule, where I couldn’t spoil movies unless they were at least 5 years old. I decided to change that to a 1-year rule. You won’t see any characters from movies released this year on this list, but anything from 2022 or older is now game. I hope you enjoy and let me know which character you wish didn’t die! (MAJOR SPOILERS!!!)

Bernadette Walsh – Candyman

While researching local myths and urban legends, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) and Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) were introduced to Candyman (Tony Todd), a vengeful spirit who terrorized anyone who dared to speak his name. While Bernadette was smart and compassionate enough to realize pursuing him was a bad idea, Helen fell deeper into the rabbit hole. After summoning him, Helen started losing all the people she cared about. Bernadette was sweet, caring, and she wasn’t afraid to give Helen a reality check once in a while. She was one of the few people smart enough to not summon Candyman, but she STILL met her end by his hook.

Sam – Ginger Snaps

When we’re first introduced to Sam (Kris Lemche), we saw just a laid back dealer who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. After sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) Fitzgerald were attacked by a werewolf that plagued the town, fate brought them together as Sam killed the beast with his van and unintentionally helped them escape with their lives. With Ginger turning into a werewolf herself, Brigitte and Sam tried their best to find a cure before it was too late. Let’s be honest here, Sam didn’t have to get involved in this situation at all. He could’ve just fixed his van and moved on with his life. He not only decided to help Brigitte and create a cure for Ginger, I believe he did it with selfless intent. He was very intelligent and he genuinely wanted to help, even when his own life was in danger. I wanted him to survive so badly!

Dale Murphy – Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

Deep in West Virginia, a reality show crew trying to create the next Survivor unfortunately located themselves in the middle of a backwoods, psychopathic family’s home. Among that crew was Colonel Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins). Dale definitely wasn’t just a tv host and this family found that out REAL quick! As the show’s cast and crew got picked off one by one, Dale was busy making his own body count. He singlehandedly killed almost the entire family and I thought he was going to make it to the very end. It was such a blow that he fought so hard to survive just to die at the very end, but he died saving our final girl and final guy and he died showing no fear!

Jennifer Hills – I Spit On Your Grave: Deja Vu

In 1978, Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) was assaulted multiple times and left for dead by a group of horrible men who deserved to die slowly. She got her revenge and killed each man brutally. All of this, to me, was for nothing because in 2019, she was brutally killed by the rapists’ families. She was one of the smartest and strongest characters in the horror genre and to have her not be prepared for possible repercussions for confessing to killing those men made absolutely no sense. Instead of getting the bada** mother-daughter fighting team I was hoping for, I got the passing of the torch-type story in the form of a brutal decapitation that Jennifer Hills didn’t deserve.

Allen Albright – Orphan: First Kill

After escaping from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Leena Klammer (Isabelle Fuhrman) found a family, the Albrights who had a missing daughter, Esther. Seizing the opportunity to lay low in luxury, Leena pretended to be Esther. The mother, Tricia (Julia Stiles) and the son, Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) had their own secret as years before, Gunnar actually killed Esther and Tricia covered it up. They also had to pretend Leena was Esther to keep the father, Allen (Rossif Sutherland) from knowing the truth. Allen Albright was the only decent member of his family. Esther’s disappearance tore him apart and all he wanted was to find her again. I understand he was happy again, but I really hate that he died never knowing that his psychopathic son killed his little girl and his wife covered it up and lied to him all those years.