How likely would you be to die in a horror movie, based on your name?

Are some people more at risk of a gruesome horror film death than others? Regrettably, the answer is yes.

You might think all of the characters in that Halloween release have an equal chance of succumbing to the monster/haunted child/general ennui, but you’d be way off.

Nope, we’re afraid to report that your name has a direct bearing on your chances of survival, especially if you’re called Robert.

Good news for Louis and Pete, though, with the character names enjoying a 100% survival rate across all the IMDb top 500 horror movies in which they have appeared.

MusicMagpie has gone through the IMDb archives to find out which characters don’t last the course, and 80% of Roberts have perished – more than any other name.

I guess we should probably include a spoiler warning here, but if you’re reading about horror movie deaths you can’t really complain that you’ve found out about horror movie deaths.

The most famous Robert to perish is Gregory Peck’s character in The Omen, while Antonio Banderas recently played a character of the same name in The Skin I Live In.

Lindas don’t fare much better, dying seven times out of nine (including The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2), while the top three is rounded off by Harry (75% death rate, including Night of the Living Dead).

As for the top survivors, Louis and Pete might be batting seven for seven at the moment, but others have survived on more occasions.

Of the 13 characters called Chris, 10 have survived, including big hitters in The Exorcist and Arachnophobia, while Sarahs and Henrys have a 73% survival rate.

That figure is shared by Jasons, too, though that’s in part because they’re the ones doing the killing on more than a few occasions.

Most likely to die:

Robert – 80%

Linda – 78%

Harry – 75%

Jack – 69%

Billy – 67%

Laura - 64%

Jerry - 64%

George - 61%

Mike - 61%

Ben - 59%

Steve - 58%

Mark - 57%

Bill - 56%

Paul - 56%

Alice - 50%

Anna - 50%

Most likely to survive:

Louis – 100%

Pete – 100%

Chris – 77%

Henry – 73%

Sarah – 73%

Jason – 73%

Ed - 70%

Alex - 70%

Jim - 67%

Peter - 62%

Arthur - 62%

David - 61%

Elizabeth - 60%

Tom - 57%

John - 55%

Sam - 55%

Frank - 52%

(Images: Rex Features)