"We could use a couple of bad guys in this town," Carpoza (Tommy Dreamer) said just before he met the worst type of bad guys in the history of Salem County. He was the second character to join the Army Of The Damned although he was brave and cautious. The same can't be said for the likes of Jackson and Rhodes whose arrogance and stupidity led to their deaths.
Low budget horror doesn't get any better than Army of The Damned, a film many fans see as a perfect bridge between horror and reality TV. Like any other horror film, every character needed more than just muscle and caution to survive. Only the most intelligent got out alive, but even so, not all of them were so lucky.
Jackson
Jackson (Tony Todd) was supposed to be the leader of the cavalry for the living but he ended up strengthening the dead. He ignored Roger Earl's warning, only seeing him as a coward that messed up his career and assumed that all local police were either corrupt or afraid.
He then foolishly dismissed Bridge and his team as unfit for the job. Even while looking at a dead body with blackened eyes, he didn't seem to find it strange. The least he could do was investigate the threat properly and call for backup before going in but he was too proud to do that.
Rhodes
Bridge would have had one less body to deal with if Rhodes didn't hide his blackened eyes behind his 'prescription' sunglasses. Rhodes was also the man tasked with calling for backup, but all radios were down so he borrowed Kayla's phone instead.
However, he didn't know any other numbers in the world except the office phone which wasn't going through either. Then instead of releasing Donald and sending any of the available civilians to notify Janice for backup, he chose to go back inside and join his dying colleagues before contacting support.
Sobecheck
Rhodes and Sobecheck made fun of the whole crisis until Bridge put them in line but even then, they weren't the best wingmen for the sheriff. While Sobecheck was smarter than Rhodes, he wasn't of much help.
When he heard the loud noise, he dropped both his torch and his gun to cover his ears leaving him unarmed when whatever killed him finally came. He was the least helpful of all the local cops.
Janice
Janice was eager to get into the action and shoot something but she was too busy shooting at virtual enemies while her colleagues died. She was left in the office, meaning she was in charge of calling the state police but she didn't do it early enough.
With all those radios down and her colleagues not communicating, she could have figured something was wrong. Instead, she kept playing around with her gun and did nothing as everyone died. She came through in the end though, so she wasn't so bad.
Dave
Kayla's food-addicted cameraman was one of the least helpful characters although he was present throughout the crisis. He made some positive contributions when he saved Kayla from zombie Carpoza's attack, but that didn't last because all he had was a pocket knife and candies.
When the officers announced that they found dead bodies and that the killer was still inside the house, he opted to follow Kayla around and film rather than help. He then followed the Earl-led assault team pointing a camera instead of a gun and when he was attacked by dead Jackson, he just froze.
Griffith
Griffith was a coward but he was the smartest of Bridge's wingmen. He advised his colleagues to stay together when they discovered Lawson's dead body. Griffith also tried to contact Janice one more time when he got out of the house. Freeing Donald also saved Bridge although Griff himself was dead by then.
He would have made the most helpful man in the film if he had been more cautious of the girl without a heartbeat but he ignored it. He was also more cautious about Donald than the dead, leading to the clumsiness that caused his death.
Kayla
Kayla was the villain all along but she managed to get everyone to work for her and get her pulse-less daughter out of the haunted house. As a villain, she was very intelligent as she managed to convince Bridge, the smartest of all the officers to trust her.
Kayla also hid her connection to her daughter from everyone until after she had fled to safety with Bridge's help. She might also have been behind the communication failure that delayed the backup. It was very cold-hearted of her to hurt the team so much though.
Carpoza
Carpoza was the best of the first team that responded to the reported disturbance. He should have been more cautious when he discovered an entire family butchered at their dinner table but he wasn't. He assumed it may be a single killer and that he could handle it.
He was smart enough to call for lots of back up though. Carpoza also advised his partner to stay behind with the child while he bravely approached the danger. He was intelligent, but he stood no chance against the threat.
Lawson
Lawson (Zelina Vega) was a jovial cop that only wanted to appear in an episode of The Force which is why her death was so sad. She was still an intelligent partner to Carpoza and the most cautious of the two.
She advised him to stay together and call for backup rather than take on the threat on their own. If Carpoza followed her advice, they wouldn't have died as early as they did. She died protecting the little girl which says something about her motherly instinct.
Bridge
Bridge (Sully Erna) came back to his hometown to become the sheriff when his father died and he was really good at his job. He had no idea that the TV host he was flirting with was the enemy though, hence the cliffhanger at the end. He was still the most intelligent cop in that department as he managed the crisis perfectly.
For the main character, Bridge had too many shortfalls though. He failed to do something about the kid with no heartbeat; the greatest threat his team had handled that day. He even went ahead and carried her in his car instead of handing her over to the authorities.
Donald
Donald was the poor perp that found himself in a police squad car at the wrong time but he was even smarter than the officers that arrested him. He had the chance to escape to his mother's house when Griffith was killed but he chose to stay and help.
He helped Earl gather the arsenal to go on the final offensive after saving Bridge and Kayla from dead Carpoza. It is not clear how he ended up on the roof that caused his fall at the end, but he was smart enough to listen and survive.
Roger Earl
Earl, aka Crazy Earl, (Michael Berryman) was the only man that understood what the police were up against. He had been around for a long time and understood the threat but he was short of listening ears.
His idea to use a bomb was suicidal, but for a man who had lost everything, it was smart of him to choose the ultimate sacrifice. His advice to Bridge and Jackson could have saved everyone, but they were young and proud. He saved the day in the end, although he died doing it which was very sad.