Surviving a horror movie is never an easy task, but the set-up of some scary films can make escape seem all but completely hopeless. Part of what establishes effective tension in a horror movie is the chance that the victims can survive. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be interesting to see them picked off one by one with no chance of survival. But some horror movies nobody survives guarantee such pessimistic odds that it’s hard to ᴀssert that anyone could come out alive.

Some horror movie antagonists are noticeably beatable, with the likes of slow, shambling zombies and haunted dolls like Chucky all promising better-than-average odds of defeat. Ghosts and demons also seem to have specific rules and weaknesses that can be countered. However, some scary movies rely more on impossibly hopeless scenarios and environments to ensure the deaths of their protagonists, making it unlikely anyone in the same situation could survive.

9

Train To Busan

An unstoppable wave of running zombies

While some zombie scenarios represent decent odds of survival, Train to Busan does not feature among them. The South Korean horror movie sees a zombie outbreak occur alongside pᴀssengers boarding the тιтular train service, navigating the claustrophobic close quarters of the train cars in hopes of surviving to their destination. In the end, only two pᴀssengers out of the initial continental train full of people are able to survive, and even then only by the skin of their teeth.

The zombies of Train to Busan aren’t the garden variety slow, shambling zombies of George Romero’s film career. These horrifying infected instead sprint full tilt, spreading their plague of undeath with frightening efficiency. Between the overcrowded population of the dense urban environments and the lack of room to run on the narrow train, it’s no wonder so few were able to make it past the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ hordes. Even when they do, they’re almost dropped on sight by military snipers, making survival chances low even if the zombies are escaped.

8

The Descent

A nightmarish crawl through hopeless odds

Another film about horrific monsters taking advantage of claustrophobic spaces to kill, The Descent is a truly dire situation to be trapped in. The film centers on a group of adventure-seeking young women who go spelunking in the mountains of Appalachia, tricked by one of the members into entering a totally unexplored cave system. Before long, the group meets the cave’s ancient residents, a group of terrifying sub-human cannibals that live underground.

Between the ambient dangers of exploring an unknown cave system and the nightmarish creatures themselves, ever seeing daylight again after the events of The Descent is a slim prospect indeed. Only a single member of the original group survives to see the end credits, though the sequel reveals that another explorer left for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ somehow managed to survive. Still, between the loss of the senses in the darkness of the cave and the terrifying ferocity of the monsters, the best chance of surviving The Descent is to never go cave diving in the first place.

7

Cube

A shifting hell of ᴅᴇᴀᴅly traps

A compelling trap movie on the level of the Saw franchise, Cube presents one of the most hopeless scenarios ever conceived for a horror film. The action revolves around the тιтular Cube, a mᴀssive labyrinth of shifting cubic rooms containing a litany of hidden traps. A group of strangers wake up to find themselves imprisoned within, with their only hope of survival to work together and overcome the facility’s devious technology.

Between acid, razor wire, and being crushed to death by the Cube’s shifting entrances, there are too many hidden dangers to count on surviving in a desperate bid for survival. Not only that, but infighting and madness can be just as ᴅᴇᴀᴅly as the traps themselves, adding yet another layer of danger standing in the way of any hope of escape. It’s no wonder only a single person manages to survive the horrors of Cube, and even then only thanks to the help of his fellow prisoners.

6

Circle

A numbers game with unlikely odds

Yet another bottle horror movie with a geometric name taking place in a mysterious room, Circle is a little-known flick that doesn’t mince its unlikely odds of survival. The film sees yet another cohort of random strangers kidnapped by alien forces and forced to stand around each other in a circular room. Every few minutes, a timer goes off, forcing each of the 50 abductees to vote who dies.

Before long, it becomes hauntingly clear that only one person will be surviving the тιтular Circle. With one-in-fifty odds, the chances of surviving the film are slim to none, with moral and ethical arguments being one’s only hope of surviving to the final round. Amazingly, a conniving anti-hero is able to weasel his way past both a child and a pregnant woman, but it’s only thanks to his clever scheming and next-level poker face.

5

The Cabin In The Woods

A bleak ending of apocalyptic magnitude

In many ways, The Cabin in the Woods is a love letter to horror movies in general. The film starts off with a fairly typical premise, with a group of unruly college kids vacationing at a mysterious cabin in the woods before accidentally awakening an ancient evil, which revives to kill them off one by one. But the whole thing is revealed to be an elaborate ritual orchestrated by a mysterious organization, intent on carrying out classic horror movie clichés.

It turns out that the ritual is meant to appease ancient, angry Gods, who threaten to destroy the Earth if not given proper sacrifices. Even if one managed to survive the onslaught of horror monsters The Cabin in the Woods unleashes in its iconic penultimate scene, the film ends with the slumbering Gods re-awakening to destroy humanity. A true lose-lose scenario for anyone chosen to be a sacrifice.

4

Cabin Fever

An unseen danger that can’t be defended against

Another cabin-based horror film in which everyone dies, Cabin Fever has one of the most hopeless chances for survival ever described in a film. Again, a group of college kids rent a cabin in the woods to celebrate their break from school. This time around, the villain that kills them one-by-one isn’t a tangible monster, but a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly unknown infectious disease.

The plague of Cabin Fever is bloody disgusting in its symptoms and potently viral, able to be transmitted through mere proximity to a host. Not only that, but it seems to have a rabies-like effect on animals, turning a friendly dog into a ferocious beast. It’s impossible to defend against a sudden influx of a biblical disease like this, and even those that do survive are gunned down where they stand by authorities in hopes of containing the affliction’s spread.

3

The Thing

A desolate location and an unstoppable enemy

Perhaps horror visionary John Carpenter’s magnum opus, The Thing presents one of the most impossible to survive scenarios of any film. The story takes place in an isolated Antarctic research base. The crew come into contact with an alien organism capable of shapeshifting into anything, including other humans. Hiding among them, The Thing slowly ᴀssimilates each of the station’s workers one by one.

The Thing has one of the best horror movie settings ever conceived in that there is truly nowhere to run, with supply drops to such scientific research bases sometimes being months apart. Between the hostile environment and the terrifyingly powerful alien invader that can hide in plain sight, there’s ultimately little hope of escape. The infamous ending to The Thing may be a little ambiguous, but even Kurt Russell’s MacReady wasn’t likely to have beaten The Thing in the end.

2

The Human Race

The beginning to an impossible game of death

Although it’s quite an obscure movie, The Human Race has one of the best depictions of a truly hopeless horror survival scenario. A city block’s worth of strangers are suddenly beamed into an abandoned area, with specific instructions beamed into their heads forcing them to race. Those that step on the grᴀss or are lapped twice by another racer have their heads violently explode.

It’s bad enough that only a single survivor, the tough veteran Eddie, is able to come out on top of this twisted game of death. But even his success isn’t a guarantee of survival, merely entering him into the next round of sport against the alien victors of other challenges. For what it’s worth, Eddie cracking his neck and then propelling himself into the fray is an impressive image to close on, but the average person’s chances of living are slim to none.

1

Final Destination

No one escapes death

While lots of horror movies feature an entire cast of protagonists dying, none of them are distinctly centered on the premise as much as the Final Destination movies. From the first film, the series establishes one of the most terrifying movie incarnations of death, an unseen force that seeks to claim the lives that cheated it. When a group of pᴀssengers avoid dying in a cataclysmic plane crash by chickening out of their flight, a series of impossibly elaborate accidents begin taking their lives one at a time.

The increasingly creative ways Death is able to find its way back to those that avoided their intended fate is relentless. The film may seem as though two people are able to ultimately survive, but the first sequel quickly disproves this notion, ensuring that no one actually escapes the clutches of Death. Everyone dies eventually, so in a way, Final Destination is the one horror movie that turns its question of survival into a mere matter of time.