15 A list stars killed in horror movies (+Photos)

Stars Killed: There’s a theory among horror movie fans that big stars don’t really matter. That horror movies can succeed much better when they don’t have huge names among the cast but base themselves off the actual plot and writing to provide the right thrills to succeed. That’s been born out as the most successful horror movies are low-budget efforts that earn far more thanks to their critical acclaim and power. While some horror movies benefit a bit from a star, the majority are better off without them.

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So, it’s notable when a horror movie does feature a big star being killed off. In most cases, these are actors who were in the early part of their careers, before becoming the major names we know today. However, every now and then, a major star is cast in a movie just so they can be killed off, a good way to show “no one is safe” and help push the thrills more. Some of them were big names when cast, others future stars but they all have in common dying in rather brutal ways on screen. Here are 15 major Hollywood names that bit it in horror movies and show how wild they can get.

Note: While it should be obvious, SPOILERS for several of these movies.

15. Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Halloween H2O

via buzzfeed.com

The 1998 revival of the classic horror franchise has Gordon-Levitt (still on the NBC sitcom 3^rd Rock From the Sun) as one of the local teens helping Marion Chambers (original cast member Nancy Stephens) when her house is broken into. There’s a fake scare with some noises before a shelf falls but Jimmy eventually gives the all clear to Marion that things are okay. However, she discovers that the file on Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has gone missing and that Michael Myers is alive and hunting. She races to warn Jimmy…only to find him seated in his chair with his own hockey skate buried in his face. It’s a shocking turn setting up Marion’s own death and the kick-off to the return of one of cinema’s most infamous slasher monsters.

14. The Scream Ensemble

via canada.com

Grouped together because of how daring the series has been in casting some pretty notable actors just to kill them off. One major exception has been saved for later this list but the number of deaths (and how they happened) have all been notable. Among the biggest: Rose McGowan (crushed by a garage in the first movie); Skeet Ulrich (the original killer, bumped off in the first film); Henry Winkler (the principal murdered in the first); Jerry O’Connell (set up as the killer in the second before murdered himself); Jada Pinkett (Stabbed to death in front of a movie theater audience); Timothy Olyphant (one of the killers in the second film); Laurie Metcalf (the true killer of the second movie); Parker Posey (the actress stabbed in the third film); Scott Foley (the killer in the third movie, shot to death); Jenny McCarthy (stabbed to death in the third film); Hayden Panettiere and Adam Brody as victims in the fourth; Allison Brie, tossed off a building in the fourth; and Emma Roberts who’s the killer in that last movie and ends up shot to death herself. That’s not to mention how the fourth film opens with cameos from Lucy Hale, Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin as victims themselves. The mantra of the movies has always been “no one is safe” and that’s been proven true which is a key reason it’s been so successful.