Best horror movie character mistakes of all time

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

Re-Animator picture

Character mistake: When Cain is attempting CPR on the flatlined patient at the beginning of the film, he tells the other doctor, "She just needs a little more time for the drugs to circulate." Circulation stops at the moment of flatlining. (00:05:25)

Captain Defenestrator

More Re-Animator character mistakes
Child's Play 3 picture

Character mistake: When Chucky is looking up the information about Andy on the computer, the word juvenile is misspelled "juvinile."

More Child's Play 3 character mistakes
Identity picture

Character mistake: There's no way that using a regular needle and thread to sew up that wound would work the way it's shown. Anybody who knew what they were doing - which John Cusack is portrayed as knowing - would also know that using unsterilized materials and instruments without a sterile field from an uncleaned massive open wound is a great way to kill your patient.

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

Suggested correction: The main plot of this film takes place inside the head of a murderer with dissociative identity disorder. The fact that stitching up a wound in that matter wouldn't work is irrelevant to the fact that it is how Malcolm is playing out the scenario in his head.

Phaneron

You're making a good point to invalidate a "character mistake", but couldn't the entry be reclassified as a "factual mistake" and stand as written?

KeyZOid

I would say no, as it is still assigning a mistake to something that is happening in someone's imagination. Unless Jon disagrees, I don't think those types of factual errors in this instance count as movie mistakes.

Phaneron

If it was all being imagined, I'd have to agree.

KeyZOid

More Identity 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
The Fog picture

Character mistake: When the second fog bank rolls in, the weatherman says it is coming from the south-east, and the DJ says the same thing once; the second time, however, she says the south-west.

kh1616

More The Fog character mistakes
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
Dolly Dearest picture

Character mistake: In the very first scene, in the first shot you see a sign in Spanish that says "NO PASE por orden del departamento de arquiologia". The correct Spanish word is arqueologia.

zobook

More Dolly Dearest character mistakes
Black Cadillac picture

Character mistake: The Cadillac is identified by Robby as a '57 Eldorado. It's actually a '57 Series 75 Limousine.

More Black Cadillac character mistakes
The Exorcism of Emily Rose picture

Character mistake: When Ethan Thomas objects to Dr. Adanie's testimony, he does so on the grounds of "silliness." Silliness does not fall under the federal rules of evidence, and any lawyer worth their salt would know this.

Phaneron

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

Suggested correction: During the Manson trial in real life, the prosecutor objected to a completely pointless question the defense asked a witness on the grounds of being ridiculous. The judge agreed and sustained the question. In his book Helter Skelter, Bugliosi even acknowledges there's no such rule, but the judge sided with him. The prosecutor in this film is grasping at straws, since nothing that would fall under the rules of evidence would apply to his objecting to her scientific testimony.

dewinela

Not true, he can object on the grounds of relevance. The YouTube channel Legal Eagle, which is run by an actual lawyer, even stated so. The same logic applies to the Manson trial. If a lawyer feels that a question is ridiculous, they can object on the grounds of relevance.

Phaneron

In a case involving demonic possession as a central aspect of the defense, there's no way relevance could be grounds to object to her testimony. Her testimony dealt with possession from a scientific point of view, but he objected because it was for the defense. The judge in the film even allowed her testimony stating that they'd heard a lot of scientific evidence supporting the prosecution's case and it was fair to hear from an 'exorcism expert'.

dewinela

As for the Manson case, try reading the book written by the prosecutor. It even states in the transcripts that he objected on the grounds of a question being ridiculous (even if, in the end, it would actually be relevance).

dewinela

Just because a lawyer in real life was able to successfully object on the grounds of ridiculousness doesn't mean it would suddenly become a good practice. That would be like saying basketball players should just wantonly heave half court shots, because sometimes they go in. The premise of your suggested correction was also that the lawyer had no legal grounds to object on, and that is objectively false. As I mentioned, the lawyer behind the LegalEagle YouTube channel even said otherwise.

Phaneron

More The Exorcism of Emily Rose character mistakes
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte picture

Character mistake: When the sheriff confronts Charlotte after she has shot at the bulldozer operator, he tells her that her gun is unlicensed, but he will overlook it. Louisiana does not have, and never has had, any form of gun licensing or registration.

mdwalker

More Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte character mistakes
Hostel picture

Character mistake: When the main character follows the Dutch businessman down the stairs (the same scene the girl with the white jacket and white bag walks downstairs before we see her walking up the stairs) there is a commercial which reads "JETZT AUCH AM DVD" which is wrong and should be "JETZT AUCH AUF DVD." (01:22:45)

More Hostel character mistakes
Alligator picture

Character mistake: When Marisa leaves the diner, you can see the door has a "Push" tag. However, the door opens inwards, and in fact to go outside she has to pull. (01:08:00)

Sammo

More Alligator character mistakes
The Monster Squad picture

Character mistake: It doesn't occur to our heroes (admittedly kids) that you don't need to understand German at all in order to read it out loud. It's arguably easier to read than English! The only inscrutable letter would be "ẞ" but Scary German Guy's right there for help. (True, this is essentially what they end up doing in the end, but they still come about it through a "you don't need to be of age to be a virgin" realization rather than the even simpler "you don't need to know German.").

TonyPH

More The Monster Squad character mistakes
The Messengers picture

Character mistake: Roy says, "He thinks the wounds look self inflicted." But the doctor who said that was a female.

More The Messengers character mistakes
Resident Evil: Extinction picture

Character mistake: Alice shoots the henchmen, the black officer is attempting pull a gun from his shoe but in closeup his leg is white, then back. (01:06:25)

More Resident Evil: Extinction 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
Resident Evil: Afterlife picture

Character mistake: Chris explains about the APV being behind the door and specifically states it has 16 wheels. When we see the APV it has 4 wheels on each side. Meaning 8 in total. For it to have 16 wheels as stated, all the wheels will have to be doubled up. However its clear that at least 2 separate wheels are single. Since Chris is right with everything else he has said in regards to the prison, there's no reason he would be wrong about this one thing. (00:56:00)

Ssiscool

More Resident Evil: Afterlife character mistakes
Race With the Devil picture

Character mistake: When Frank is showing Roger around the RV, he refers to the RV's stereo system as having "four channels." A true stereo system only has two channels, while a four-channel system would be considered quadraphonic.

More Race With the Devil character mistakes
The Midnight Meat Train picture

Character mistake: When Leon goes to see Susan Hoff with his photography portfolio she tells him he needs improvement. After she leaves, Leon tells Jurgis that he thinks she hated his work and Jurgis tells Leon "when she hates somebody's work she gives them about a minute, you got three." In reality, she actually did give him one minute almost to the second. (00:06:58)

Jack Vaughan

More The Midnight Meat Train character mistakes
Texas Chainsaw 3D picture

Character mistake: The Sheriff calls for Drayton Sawyer to bring out his son Jed (Leather Face) in the movie's opening scene. But it's long been established that they're brothers.

Rob245

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

Suggested correction: This is meant to be a direct sequel to the original film, and ignores the other sequels. And if memory serves correctly, the first movie never made any mention of them being brothers. (I just checked and the Texas Chainsaw fandom Wiki backs this up - the original film makes no reference to them being brothers.) So therefore, it is not a mistake if this movie re-writes him as being Leatherface's father.

TedStixon

More Texas Chainsaw 3D character mistakes