The entirety of the horror movie genre thrives off of showing audiences the most hopeless, terrifying ways for victims to meet their untimely end. Whether it be a gory kill for a slasher flick or a creepy or spine-tingling death for a paranormal found-footage film, showing the harrowing fates of the unlucky cast of characters is the genre's bread and butter.
However, every so often, in an attempt to keep things fresh and creative, kills that are meant to be terrifying and unique, end up being more laughable instead; making for some lame deaths. While some characters get honorable (or even cool) deaths with chainsaws or bloodthirsty ghosts, others get bizarre and downright humiliating demises. Here are some of the most embarrassing ways characters have died in horror movies through the years.
7 Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers – Shotgunned To Death?
Half the fun of a slasher flick is seeing all the over-the-top, bloody ways each new victim is killed. It wouldn't be entertaining seeing the same thing over and over again, right?
However, this particular moment in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers took things a little too far. Poor Kelly Meeker finds herself cornered by an angry Michael Myers with a shotgun in hand. Many audience members would assume this would be a regular old trigger-happy kill, but to subvert expectations, he opts for stabbing Kelly right through her torso with the shotgun barrel instead! To be hunted down by a bloodthirsty killer, just to be impaled by a completely blunt object is goofy more than anything else!
6 Bride Of The Monster – The Lifeless Octopus
Bride Of The Monster isn't a very well-known horror movie and is even a bit notorious for lacking in quality and production value. The film follows the mad Dr. Eric Vornoff as he spends most of the film pursuing his dream of achieving superhuman strength with the use of nuclear experiments while allowing all those who stand in his way to perish at the hands of his giant octopus.
However, come the end of the film when the mad doctor is finally rewarded with what he deserves, the film's low budget really begins to hurt its fear factor. Without a proper budget for an animatronic octopus and the inability to turn to CGI at the time, the creators had to opt for a simple puppet.
This final scene is disappointing, to say the least, with the doctor wailing and flailing about, panicking about a giant octopus that was clearly not moving on its own accord and instead, being tossed around by the doctor himself!
5 Troll 2 – Oh My God!
Troll 2 is one of the most famous horror films on the internet but not for its ability to strike fear in the hearts of viewers. Troll 2 isn't formally listed as a full horror film but instead as a comedy-horror, so it's only fitting that there would be a kill or two in there that would be more hilarious than anything else. The flick is about terrifying goblins (goblins, not trolls) that are vegetarians but wish to turn humans into plants to be able to consume them.
In one infamous scene, a frightened Arnold is forced to witness a woman being eaten alive by a murderous group of goblins. While her death is justifiably horrifying, it's Arnold's reaction that makes it laughable. The beloved "oh my god" meme that the internet knows and loves spawned from this very scene, born from the film's overall poor acting skills. Maybe actor Darren Ewing's laughable attempt at acting scared was for the better as it truly put Trolls 2 on the map.
4 Deadly Friend – The Ball's In Your Court
Deadly Friend focuses on the teenage Paul and his friends, Tom, Samantha, and a robot Paul built on his own named BB. After BB is one day destroyed by their grumpy neighbor, Elvira, and Samantha is rendered brain-dead after being pushed down the stairs by her abusive father, Paul and Tom devise a plan. They take BB's microchip and insert it into Samantha's brain, thus reviving BB's brain in Samantha's body. This new Samantha-BB hybrid is then dead-set on a revenge-fueled rampage to kill all those that wronged her.
As Elvira had confiscated the kids' basketball, Samantha-BB decides to finally take back what was rightfully hers. Poor Elvira is offed by having a basketball launched at her face, somehow hard enough to explode her entire head. Just the sentence "death by basketball" is ridiculous in and of itself!
3 Day Of The Dead – Zombie Sharpshooter
In just about any zombie movie, it can safely be assumed that most of the deaths will be at the hands of hungry zombies. While that's mainly true throughout 1985's Day Of The Dead, there are also many bouts of tension between human parties as well as the living and undead. The film focuses on military personnel and scientists that have taken refuge in an underground bunker in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead.
After Bub, a docile zombie, finds the dead body of Dr. Logan (essentially his caretaker and teacher), he goes off to seek revenge on Captain Rhodes who killed the doctor in a confrontation. However, the way that Bub decides to finally kill Rhodes is the most embarrassing way for any victim to die in a zombie film. Imagine being surrounded by terrifying hungry zombies, only to meet one's end by a single civilized zombie wielding a gun. Not only that, but after being shot, Rhodes then runs into a horde of more zombies, forced to be eaten while Bub mockingly salutes the captain as he finally walks away.
2 Maximum Overdrive – Getting Canned (For Good)
Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive is yet another horror-comedy film and tells the story of inanimate machinery all over planet Earth suddenly coming to life, gaining autonomy, and becoming hostile towards humankind. While some kills, like appliances electrocuting people to death, can send shivers down audiences' spines, there is one specific death that is just too ridiculous to be taken seriously.
At the end of a little league baseball game, a coach decides to treat the team to some sodas from the nearby vending machine. However, instead of simply eating his change or dispensing the wrong item, the bloodthirsty vending machine decided to violently spew out cans of soda, bludgeoning the poor coach to death!
In a world where people are being maimed and brutally murdered by dangerous machines like chainsaws and gas dispensers, being taken out by a simple vending machine couldn't be any more embarrassing.
1 Sleepwalkers – Death By Corn
Sleepwalkers centers around two powerful vampires that shape-shift and feed off the life forces/energy of virgin women. Charles Brady and Mary Brady aren't only mother and son but also lovers and begin their hunt for the young Tanya Robertson who happens to be in Charles' creative writing class.
After Charles unsuccessfully tries to feed off Tanya's life force, Mary attacks the Robertson household, wounding both Tanya's parents. After a deputy arrives at the bloody scene, he rushes to the closest phone to call for reinforcements. While the deputy is on the phone, Mary approaches, and out of all the terribly powerful means the vampire had at her disposal to get rid of the poor deputy, she chose a cob of corn.
Charles and Mary are capable of shape-shifting, creating illusions, and even telekinesis, yet Mary decided the best way to kill her prey in this situation was by stabbing him in the back with a partially eaten cob of corn. What a terribly corny way to die.