22 Horror Movies That Don’t Rely on Characters Being Dumb

Depending on how hefty a tuition bill the screenwriter has to pay, most movies rely on its characters behaving in ways real people never would just to move the plot forward, but none more than horror movies. That’s because, if horror movie characters acted like normal people in danger — that is, explaining the situation to the 9-1-1 operator between gasps as they book it to the nearest public place — the movie would be over instantly.

So when the screenwriter figures out how to thwart characters who aren’t complete morons, “it’s got to be appreciated or noted,” Redditor unclefishbits told r/Movies. They cited Alien, “where people are either not making laughably bad decisions or at least working at odds with different agendas,” and The Thing, in which “legitimately everyone was smart, doing their best to figure out the right path forward,” as movies that not only still work but work awesomely with characters of realistic intelligence.

They then asked, “What horror movies have smart people making the right decisions?” and their fellow Redditors didn’t really provide any wrong answers.