The mortality rate of non-protagonists in horror movies is astoundingly high, and there's always a good chance of a side character being mixed up in a bloody murder in a horror film. Most victims in question are hapless and often inebriated teenagers or travelers messing around with something, somewhere, or someone they shouldn't be. But, in some rare cases, these additions to the movie's kill count deserve their demises.
Whether that's by being an antagonist, a hindrance to the other characters, or simply the reason everyone gets into the mess at hand, some characters just have it coming.
Dennis Nedry (Jurassic Park)
Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park more than deserved to end up as dinosaur chow. Considering the fact that he was not only going to steal from Dr. Hammond but is also responsible for keeping the cast trapped on an island full of dinosaurs, including a very ravenous T-Rex.
Nedry's death is simply a result of his own negligence and instant karma taking him by the throat. In this case, justice takes the form of a nest of spitting dilophosauruses. Easily a cold-blooded kill from the park's reptilian residents.
Ash (Alien)
In space, no one can hear you scream, but, if you're an android single-handedly responsible for the deaths of an entire ship's crew by withholding information about a predatory alien species, it's hard to get anyone on your side at that point. Ash might not have been a human victim, but he's entirely responsible for keeping the Xenomorph aboard the Nostromo and its purpose classified from the rest of the crew.
It's hard to say viewers didn't enjoy seeing his severed head sputter out fluids after essentially granting the entire ship a death sentence, but at least they got a memorable performance by the late Ian Holm.
Frank Cotton (Hellraiser)
To put it lightly, Frank Cotton is by no means a character the audience should root for. In both the film and novel The Hellbound Heart, Frank is a deviant in search of the ultimate physical pleasure, and he'll summon a legion of leather-clad demons and open a portal to another dimension to do so.
To be clear, Frank might go out in a sickening way, but, along with summoning Pinhead and his fiendish friends, he had an affair with his brother's wife and later tries to put the moves on his teenage niece. Pinhead is starting to look less and less like the villain by comparison.
Felix Davison (You’re Next)
Anyone who hires a group of masked murderers to take out members of their own family has to be pretty evil, and Felix does exactly that in You're Next. When his wealthy family is gathered together for a reunion in their huge vacation home, he hires a gang of masked assassins to take them out one by one.
What he and the rest of the killers don't know is that his brother's girlfriend, Erin, is actually a trained survivalist and is soon able to take out each of the attackers, even nailing him in the skull with some seriously gory blender action. At least he goes out memorably.
Henry and The Bowers Gang (It)
A good rule of thumb for bully characters in most of Stephen King's work is that they'll almost always be either entirely evil, entirely unsympathetic, or, in the case of the Bowers Gang, both. Henry is a serial killer in training, and his cronies are only a step or two down with their own delinquent tendencies.
Anyone who tries to gut a kid with a switchblade or set them on fire with a can of hairspray has some serious issues, and it's not exactly sad when they end up on the list of Pennywise's victims. But, it is pretty satisfying to see Henry go headfirst into the well.
Ronnie (Halloween)
Rob Zombie knows how to craft some truly despicable characters in his movies, and Ronnie is no exception. True, most of the characters responsible for Michael Myers's twisted origins aren't exactly saints, but his abusive stepfather definitely rolls a bit too easily onto the list.
Ronnie negatively impacts everyone in his life, and his horrible behavior rubbed off on Michael in the worst possible way. Rob Zombie's take on Halloween is nowhere near as well-regarded as the original, and this character may have something to do with that reputation.
Colonel Strickland (The Shape of Of Water)
Per the course of many science-fiction films, government agents, no matter their reasoning, do not always have the noblest interests at heart, especially when one of the main characters just so happens to be an Amazonian amphibian man. Colonel Strickland already poked the piranha during the first act of the film, but, by the end, audiences were ready to see him take a dive.
The audience has seen the film's aquatic leading man studied and imprisoned at the hands of the shady suit, and seeing him get clawed by the creature he captured and tormented is more than deserved. Once again, karma reigns supreme.
The Bullies (The Final)
It's rare when a horror film has audiences rooting for the murderer, but seeing the main cast get tormented day in and day out by their high school adversaries makes their vengeance on Halloween Night nothing short of satisfying. Granted, their brand of vigilante justice isn't exactly something that should be replicated, but the bullies did get their just deserts.
The victims aren't straight-up murdered in The Final, but they are put through some grueling circumstances at the hands of those they mistreated. It might be hard to watch for some, but definitely not for the ones dishing out the carnage.
Chris Hargensen And Company (Carrie)
Granted, many of the victims of the disastrous prom night were simply innocent souls caught in Carrie's crossfire, but Chris Hargensen, her boyfriend Billy, and her army of popular gals spend the first scenes of the film making Carrie White's existence a veritable hell. So, is it any wonder she unleashes her own brand of superpowered retribution on them?
It was one thing to throw tampons and toilet paper at the poor girl, but dowsing her prom dress with pigs blood and killing her date with the bucket was going one step too far. In the end, Carrie got justice, and Chris reaped what she sowed.
The Corporation (Cabin In The Woods)
This one's a bit complex, but to say the suits from Joss Wheadon's tribute to the horror genre were entirely innocent in the plot to aid the giant evil gods would be untrue. If the events of the plot are to be believed, the corporation responsible for keeping the evil entities in Cabin in the Woods at bay is also responsible for a yearly slaughter of who knows how many people to satisfy the Earth's monstrous deities.
They may not be entirely evil, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They've sacrificed countless victims to the gods below, and they're just as guilty as the monsters they keep in their glass prisons.