Survive a Horror Movie: Best Weapons to Keep You Alive

Two things can end practically any horror movie before it starts...

The first is a cell phone -- call for help, summon an Uber, or at least take pictures so the police believe you. The second is a gun, because it’s a gun.

Having both makes the most sense, but the gun that stops a werewolf is not the best option for masked home invaders. You need a specialized tool for a specialized terror.

Today, we're having a bit of fun by providing you with seven awesome, highly specific weapons guaranteed to survive and end any threat a horror movie could throw at you.

If you’re looking to turn the tables on everything from slashers to mummies, you’ve come to the right place!

Best Guns to Survive Horror Movies

1. Mossberg 940 Waterfowl Snow Goose – Best for The Birds

Best for The Birds

Mossberg 940 Waterfowl Snow Goose

$985

at GrabAGun

Prices accurate at time of writing

$985 at GrabAGun

Battlehawk Armory (see price)

Guns.com (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: 12 Gauge
• Barrel Length: 28 inches
• Overall Length: 50.75 inches
• Weight: 8.25 lbs
• Capacity: 13 rounds

We’ll start with an easy one. Birds don’t seem to be that big of a threat, right?

Alfred Hitchcock had a habit of making the mundane horrifying, and The Birds started a genre of nature-gone-evil horror movies.

If you find yourself fleeing a seemingly endless flock of evil birds, you’ll need a way to gain distance. Birds are tough; they are fast-moving, and when working together, they are seemingly endless.

How do you deal with such a threat?

A mother trucking shotgun…but not just any shotgun. You have to find a gun designed to kill birds that won’t run out of ammo. With so many bird guns restricted to two to three rounds, we have to get creative.

The shotgun of choice to deal with these pesky evil birds is the Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl —specifically, the 13-shot model.

Yep, 13 shots in a semi-auto shotgun platform. The magazine tube looks outrageous, but you’re not clearing rooms, you’re clearing the skies!

Snow geese don’t have the same restrictions as other birds, so Mossberg made this beastly shotgun. It’s more than a big magazine tube. It swings naturally and features a vent rib and high-visibility sight with the option to mount a mini red dot.

The semi-auto design makes it easy to fill the sky with birdshot and to down so many fowl that they’ll change their minds about you being easy prey. Should you have to reload, the massive loading port and bolt release make it easy to keep filling the skies with lead.

The Mossberg 940 Waterfowl Snow Goose would make Alfred Hitchcock throw up his hands in frustration as horror quickly becomes a fruitful hunt.

2. Smith & Wesson Shield X – Best for the Vengeful Slasher

Best for Slashers

Smith & Wesson M&P Shield X

$499

at Palmetto State Armory

Prices accurate at time of writing

$499 at Palmetto State Armory

GrabAGun (see price)

Kygunco (see price)

Midway USA (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: 9mm
• Barrel Length: 3.6 inches
• Overall Length: 6.87 inches
• Weight: 20.8 ounces
• Capacity: 13 - 15 rounds

Does someone know what you did last summer? Or maybe you’re facing a “sins of the father” situation. Of course, you could be at a summer camp and a vengeful former camper is killing off the counselors.

Regardless of the why, you have to deal with a slasher, likely a normal human being armed with a knife, axe, or machete. The Smith and Wesson M&P Shield X provides the solution to the vengeful slasher.

This micro compact 9mm gives you 15 rounds of 9mm in an easy-to-carry package. Summer camp carry can be tough due to the short shorts and summer camp activities, so we don’t want anything too big.

The new Shield X comes optics-ready, and an optic makes it a lot easier to aim when you’re in fear for your life. If tradition holds, the vengeful slasher can walk as fast as you can run, and having a fast-aiming option is always nice.

My optic of choice would be the Holosun EPS Carry since it's a highly reliable enclosed emitter.

Additionally, the vengeful slasher comes at night, and the Shield X allows you to mount a light on its short rail. You don’t want a cat to cause a jump scare and force you to shoot in the dark. You want that good, positive identification, and a Shield X equipped with a Streamlight TLR-7 HL-X makes it easy to see that vengeful slasher.

Streamlight TLR-7 HL-X

$185

at OpticsPlanet

Prices accurate at time of writing

$185 at OpticsPlanet

A semi-auto handgun, equipped with a red dot sight, a light, and loaded with 15 rounds of 124-grain JHPs, will make short work of your typical slasher.

3. KelTec Sub 2000 5.7 Gen 3 – Best for Zombies

Best for Zombies

KelTec Sub2000 Gen3

$355

at Guns.com

Prices accurate at time of writing

$355 at Guns.com

Battlehawk Armory (see price)

GrabAGun (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: 5.7x28mm
• Barrel Length: 16.15 inches
• Overall Length: 30.45 inches
• Weight: 4.36 lbs
• Capacity: 20 to 30 rounds

By themselves, zombies aren’t much of a threat. They are slow, stupid, and smelly. It’s when zombies form a group that they become a problem.

The best way to deal with zombies is to try to avoid them, but when you can’t, you need a fast-firing, easy-handling carbine. Your goal should be to escape as quickly as you can, so you should prioritize a gun that’s easy to carry and allows you to jump, climb, and run with ease.

You also aren’t looking to shoot zombies at exceptionally long ranges, but you want to be able to shoot quickly to engage multiple zombies. With that in mind, the KelTec Sub 2000 in 5.7x28mm is a great option.

The 5.7x28mm round has tons of benefits for zombie slaying. First, the gun has practically no recoil. It handles like a .22 Magnum. You can shoot quickly and accurately with a cartridge capable of getting to the brain and shutting the zombie down.

The 5.7x28mm round is flat-shooting out to 150ish yards. I have a 17-yard zero that will take you out to 170 yards with a center hold on an 8-inch target. That’s far enough for me.

I paired my Sub2000 with a 3X micro prism, and it’s super easy to shoot out to 150 yards. Within 100 yards, it’s a laser beam.

The 5.7x28mm also has subsonic options, so you can pair it with a suppressor to reduce volume and avoid attracting zombies to your location. Most .22LR suppressors can handle 5.7, and all 5.56 cans can handle the rounds. Even without subsonic ammo, a suppressor can help keep your presence hidden from zombies.

The gun weighs less than 5 pounds and folds in half, so it’s easy to pack in and out. You can sling it over your back, and it’s hardly in the way as you climb that ladder to escape the coming horde.

4. M1 Garand – Best for Werewolves

Best for Werewolves

M1 Garand

$1949

at Guns.com

Prices accurate at time of writing

$1949 at Guns.com

Specs

• Caliber: .30-06
• Barrel Length: 24 inches
• Overall Length: 43.5 inches
• Weight: 9.5 lbs
• Capacity: 8

Everyone talks about silver bullets with werewolves, as if it’s a magic bullet that will just drop a werewolf at impact.

Sure, we need silver, but we also need a cartridge that’s powerful enough to hit something vital.

You should treat werewolf hunting a bit like bear hunting. It’s incredibly dangerous, and the animal you’re hunting is incredibly powerful. You need a round that penetrates enough to reach the vitals.

You also want a gun that offers follow-up shots. Werewolves are pack animals, and you might need more than one silver bullet to quickly stop one of these lunar-fueled lycanthropes.

With that in mind, the M1 Garand is one helluva option. The .30-06 is a powerful cartridge that can dig deep and hit hard. The M1 Garand offers you a semi-auto option for fast follow-up shots.

It’s a proven battle rifle that’s reliable and powerful. It offers eight rounds of .30-06 compared to most hunting rifles that tap out at three or four rounds. The hefty design of the gun and the long stroke gas system take a lot of sting out of the .30-06 and make it fairly easy to shoot and control.

Should you run out of ammo, a silver bayonet can be equipped to the end of the gun. The M1 Garand’s bayonet is quite long, and so is the rifle, so your powerful werewolf stopper quickly becomes a fairly effective spear.

Anytime you pull out the M1 Garand, you know you’re not messing around. We can’t mess around with werewolves.

5. Stoeger Double Defense – Best for Vampires

Best for Vampires

Stoeger Double Defense

$457

at Kygunco

Prices accurate at time of writing

$457 at Kygunco

Guns.com (see price)

Midway USA (see price)

Specs

• Caliber: 12 or 20 gauge
• Barrel Length: 20 inches
• Overall Length: 36.5 inches
• Weight: 7 lbs
• Capacity: 2

Vampires are so dramatic. Don’t let their stylish dress, charm, and good looks suck you in. You’re nothing more than a blood bag to them, but that’s fine; we can deal with vampires.

Finding the right gun for vampires can be tricky. They aren’t prone to bullets, so you have to be creative. Vampire weaknesses include sunlight, garlic, stakes to the heart, and girls named Bella. Out of those options, I can work with stakes and garlic.

For dealing with vampires, the Stoeger Double Defense is an awesome option. The break-open design gives you a little leeway when it comes to the cartridges the gun can fire.

Handloading stakes into shotgun shells gives you a little more range. Van Helsing will be jealous that you don’t have to use a hammer.

Stake slugs wouldn’t cycle in a semi-auto or pump gun, but a double-barreled doesn’t need to cycle. Drop the shells in, and boom, you can put a stake in the heart from across a room.

Additionally, you can also load some short-range garlic-infused rounds. Grind garlic into small bits, and load it with a dose of buckshot, and ba,m you’ve turned Dracula into an Olive Garden appetizer.

The Stoeger Double Defense is light and optic-ready. Vampires only come out in the dark, and you want to be able to see them to shoot them. It’s tough to hide from a Surefire X300 with its massive amount of candela that cuts through the darkness. In fact, if the Vampire turns into fog, the light will chew through that photonic barrier.

SureFire X300 Turbo

$340

at Amazon

Prices accurate at time of writing

$340 at Amazon

OpticsPlanet (see price)

MidwayUSA (see price)

Primary Arms (see price)

Up top, you can toss on an optic, and you should. A red dot will make it much easier to put those stakes into Lestat’s black heart.

6. Exothermic Technologies Pulsefire LRT – Best for Mummies

Best for Mummies

Exothermic Technologies Pulsefire LRT

$629

at Exothermic Technologies

Prices accurate at time of writing

$629 at Exothermic Technologies

Specs

• Caliber: Fire
• Barrel Length: N/A
• Overall Length: 25.7 inches
• Weight: 6 lbs
• Capacity: 0.35 gallon

The best way to avoid a mummy is to not disturb its resting place. Why people keep breaking into crypts that are clearly cursed is beyond me. If you find yourself on the wrong side of a cursed crypt, then you should be prepared to deal with a Mummy.

Mummies tend to be rather slow-moving, but fearsome up close. They’re incredibly strong and seemingly bulletproof. That makes it tough to stop them without some Egyptian magic.

So, we’re going to look away from guns and head straight to a flamethrower!

Mummies might be bulletproof, but they are incredibly flammable. We still want a little range, so a flame thrower is a natural choice.

We live in a world where we have multiple options for recreational flame throwers (God, I love this country), and my choice would be the Exothermic Technologies Pulsefire LRT.

The Pulsefire LRT is lightweight, easy to wield, and doesn’t require a backpack. Its ignition source is battery-powered via rechargeable batteries. It’s simple to use and weighs a mere 6 pounds.

It doesn’t offer you a ton of time to burn with its 0.35-gallon tank, but Mummies tend to work alone. Plus, it’s capable of throwing a flame 25 feet. This makes it easy to incinerate that slow-moving mummy. He’ll be up in flames and turned into ash before you know it.

If you’re a Tomb Raider, then a flamethrower should be a familiar tool.

7. Barrett M82A1 – Best for Supernatural Slashers

Best for Supernatural Bad Guys

Barrett M82A1 .50 BMG

$9028

at Guns.com

Prices accurate at time of writing

$9028 at Guns.com

GrabAGun (see price)

Classic Firearms (see price)

Specs:

• Caliber: .50 BMG
• Barrel Length: 29 inches
• Overall Length: 57 inches
• Weight: 30 lbs
• Capacity: 10 Round

What happens when your slasher turns out to be supernatural? Maybe the vengeful slasher is also fueled by the forces of Hell?

Depending on which film you watch, the weaknesses of these characters can vary wildly. The Supernatural Slasher can be seemingly invulnerable to normal weapons. In fact, those 124-grain JHPs might tickle him.

Shotguns, AR-15s, and more aren’t going to hurt him. Getting access to an RPG or 40 mm grenade launcher isn’t easy, so what’s a guy or gal to do?

Easy, get a Barrett M82A1. The M82A1 is a .50 BMG semi-auto, magazine-fed rifle with some real firepower. It also happens to be one of the most powerful rifles available to the average Joe.

It might not kill the supernatural slasher, but you might be able to turn him into several different pieces.

If you can disassemble the slasher before he disassembles you, it’s a bit easier to get away, get home, and get the hell out of whatever cursed summer camp you’re occupying.

Final Thoughts on Surviving the Night

Phones and guns are all you need to survive practically any horror film. The phone doesn’t matter, but the gun sure does. Make sure you have the right blasters for the right creature.

Did I miss any spooky creatures? Let me know below! Also, tell me what you’re carrying to tackle the forces of creepy crawlers lurking around Halloween. For more Halloween-inspired guns & gear, check out our round-up for the Best Final Girls (and what they survived with).

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October 2025: Complete re-write with all new recommendations and format.