Best horror movie character mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse picture

Character mistake: Jill states that a 5 kiloton nuclear weapon will sanitise the city, however, such a yield is far too small to destroy the city. (00:42:00)

More Resident Evil: Apocalypse character mistakes
More Pay the Ghost character mistakes
Saw V picture

Character mistake: When Erickson is telling Strahm that he no longer has any jurisdiction over the Jigsaw case, he mentions that over a dozen dead bodies were recovered at the meat packing plant, including two cops. There were in fact only 10 dead bodies: Danica Scott, Judge Halden, Timothy Young, Jeff Denlon, Lynn Denlon, Jigsaw, Amanda, Art Blank, Officer Rigg, and Detective Matthews. (00:20:28)

Phaneron

More Saw V character mistakes
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever picture

Character mistake: When John and Cassie are in the school library and look up about the disease, the book caption reads: "arm amuptation." The word amputation is misspelled.

More Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever character mistakes
Deadly Friend picture

Character mistake: Given how smart the lead is he doesn't seem to know the proper dosage of sleeping meds he put into his mother's coffee. He placed in enough to possibly cause an overdose.

Rob245

More Deadly Friend character mistakes
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me picture

Character mistake: Leland Palmer handles Laura's body without any gloves when wrapping her and disposing of the body. As with any respectable FBI investigation, upon finding her body and checking for fingerprints, they should've connected Leland to Laura's death within days. (02:05:00)

More Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me character mistakes
Remember Me picture

Character mistake: Doreen/Mom told Rose she'd be back from the store "in a jiffy." Rose asked, "How long is a 'jiffy'?" and Doreen replied "in about an hour." "Jiffy" typically means VERY fast (perhaps as short as a nanosecond) and, even if people have different perceptions of how much time a "jiffy" is, an hour is excessive by general standards and does not reflect its true meaning. (00:32:50)

KeyZOid

More Remember Me character mistakes
Megalodon: The Frenzy picture

Character mistake: The Captain of the USS Fragasso comes onto the bridge. A Petty Officer says, "Officer on deck," and salutes while looking out the forward windscreen. He should have said, "Captain on the bridge" and not saluted.

toroscan

More Megalodon: The Frenzy character mistakes
Under the Skin picture

Character mistake: Early in the film we are repeatedly shown the alien character flirting happily with various men, relaxed, confident, even socially forward, in fact often more articulate and socially at ease than the various Glaswegians she encounters. Yet later on, inexplicably, all this social nous mysteriously disappears and she is completely baffled and blindsided by the simplest of social interactions, almost a mute. Since the film has virtually no plot it's hard to see why this jarring turnaround should be so.

Sir John Danvers

More Under the Skin character mistakes
Oculus picture

Character mistake: In the scene discussing the provenance of the mirror, the girl stated that Sherman marched to the sea in 1865. It was actually 1864.

More Oculus character mistakes
Braindead picture

Character mistake: When nurse McTavish checks mum's pulse, she uses her thumb. Any nurse worth her salt knows that thumbs have their own pulse and that one needs to use the index and middle finger to get an accurate pulse. (00:30:10)

Knever

More Braindead character mistakes
Tomie: Replay picture

Character mistake: In the beginning scene, the doctor cuts his finger open while performing the operation. However, despite the high risk for infection, especially given the extraordinary circumstances of the procedure, and despite the fact he's a medical professional... he doesn't immediately run to rinse off his wound and change gloves. And you can't argue it's Tomie's supernatural influence, because they haven't even seen her yet.

More Tomie: Replay character mistakes
The Mummy picture

Character mistake: Henderson asks the guy as he's leaving the room to get him some bourbon. They already drank in the bar and spat it out when they found out that everything had turned to blood, so it would still be blood.

More The Mummy character mistakes
The Wolf of Snow Hollow picture

Character mistake: John shot at the "werewolf" but wasn't successful in hitting it. Instead of pursuing the werewolf, who he supposedly was determined to catch, he let it run away. Alcoholic or not, a sheriff's deputy should have done everything possible to try to capture the creature that was terrorizing the small town. By not even attempting to follow the werewolf, John missed the one opportunity he - or anyone else - had thus far to potentially put an end to the senseless and tragic murders of young ladies. (00:55:35)

KeyZOid

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Dude's daughter was attacked and bleeding from the head, of course he didn't pursue it.

Suggested correction: He didn't go after the wolf because his daughter was hurt, and his (albeit misguided) parental instincts took over. It's not at all a character mistake for him to prioritize making sure his daughter is all right over chasing a perp. Most parents would probably do the same thing.

TedStixon

More The Wolf of Snow Hollow character mistakes
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter picture

Character mistake: When Trish's car stops running, Tommy states that its the solenoid that is the issue. A starter solenoid is responsible for sending voltage to the starter when the ignition is engaged. 1st problem: The car would not stumble and stall because of a faulty solenoid. 2nd problem: The starter was already engaging while Trish was hitting the key. So bridging the solenoid was pointless. The only reason to bridge a solenoid is to create a connection from 12 volt to the starter when the internal system is compromised due to wear. But that wasn't the case because when she was trying to start it, the starter was turning the engine. Plus the solenoid has nothing to due with the way an engine will perform (running, misfiring, not running).

More Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter character mistakes
More The Texas Chainsaw Massacre character mistakes
My Best Friend Is a Vampire picture

Character mistake: When Modoc is suggesting what type of blood to drink, he suggests pigs blood B-. Swine don't have B blood. They have A and O blood only.

More My Best Friend Is a Vampire character mistakes
The Black Phone picture

Character mistake: In the very beginning at the baseball game the runner is running to second base and the fielder doesn't even try to tag him out. Just runs right by him and gets the ball to the pitcher. (00:00:53)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The center fielder missed the ball and the right fielder got it. The second baseman was at the border of the infield and outfield and the right fielder may not have noticed that the short stop moved to cover second base. By this time, the players might have been more concerned over the opposing team scoring a run because a player had advanced to third base. It was a "revealing" mistake or overall "stupidity" by the team as each player was playing "musical positions" more so than good baseball.

KeyZOid

With regard to "revealing", the players may have been instructed to be active on the field and cover bases for each other as needed and this was the "mess" they produced.

KeyZOid

Suggested correction: Baseball players make mental errors all the time, even major leaguers.

wizard_of_gore

I've watched the scene a few times and can't agree or disagree with the mistake, but it certainly doesn't look like a mental error one would see in a game, even a little league game. It just looked like two kids were given directions what to do and the timing might have been off and the director on set didn't bother changing it. (I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with the correction either, just making a statement to help others decide).

Bishop73

More The Black Phone character mistakes
Tell Me a Creepy Story picture

Character mistake: [Story 1: Hungry Joe] It isn't clear what blood test results the doctor receives for Joe, but Laura pleads that she "really needs to know what's wrong with her son" because "He eats, he eats, and he eats, and he never stops." The doctor dismisses Laura's concern and replies, "Growing boys eat... we'll see you in six months." The doctor should order additional tests. Blood tests can show "false negatives" and the appropriate blood tests may not have been ordered in the first place. (00:04:25 - 00:05:18)

KeyZOid

More Tell Me a Creepy Story character mistakes
The Return of the Living Dead picture

Character mistake: When Burt, Ernie and Spider go into the hall after questioning the zombie Burt says his own name instead of Ernie or Spider.

More The Return of the Living Dead character mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.