Horror is full of bad boyfriends/husbands, but here are some especially vile ones. With lovers like these, who needs enemies? Just in time for your Halloween movie binges, we take a deep dive into the guys who prove to be waving the bloodiest of red flags. Spoilers for Halloween Ends, Hellraiser (2022), and Scream (2022), as well as a bunch of older horror movies (Rosemary’s Baby, Christine, Edward Scissorhands, Scream 1996, Midsommar, The Invisible Man 2020).
TW: discussion of rape/sexual assault, unhealthy/abusive relationships, gaslighting, and other heavy topics. Proceed with caution. Some of the clips will feature violence and gore.
Guy Woodhouse from Rosemary’s Baby
Possibly one of the earliest and most memorable ‘bad boyfriends,’ Guy (John Cassavetes) is horrible in every way a husband can be. Literally, selling his wife to the Devil in exchange for a successful acting career?! Cannot get much worse than this. Even worse, he doesn’t get any comeuppance whatsoever and is so blasé about the whole horrifying experience.
Arnie Cunningham from Christine
Arnie (Keith Gordon) is a case of “is it the evil magic or were they always like this deep down?” Originally a sweet nerd, he goes through a Spiderman 3 change into a greaser jerk after he buys Christine, the Yandere car. For a good portion of the movie, there’s a question of whether Christine or Arnie is the one committing the murders, as Christine’s windows are blacked out. But ultimately, Arnie is behind the wheel when he tries to kill his former best friend and former girlfriend, effectively choosing Christine over them.
Jim from Edward Scissorhands
The original Gaston character, Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) cannot handle the idea of his (ex)girlfriend falling in love with a ‘monster.’ In response, he not only sets up Edward for multiple crimes for which Jim is to blame. Jim ultimately is responsible for Edward being unable to live in the normal world. (Though frankly, when it’s populated by people like him, who would want to?)
Adrian from The Invisible Man (2020)
It’s incredible how a man whose face we almost never see manages to be one of the most hateable antagonists in modern horror, but that’s Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) for you. Watching Cecelia slit his throat is one of the most satisfying deaths of a horror antagonist to me.
Christian Hughes from Midsommar
I don’t think I need to say much about this character, played by Jack Reynor, that hasn’t already been said. He’s proof that sometimes the kindest thing you can do is break up with someone before you hurt them more than you have. Unfortunately, he doesn’t and keeps trying to convince himself he’s a nice guy for stringing along his mourning girlfriend and gaslighting her into thinking it’s her fault he’s pulling away.
Billy and Stu from Scream (1996)
Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu (Matthew Lillard) might be fun to watch, but there’s no doubt they were terribly shitty boyfriends to their girlfriends. Stu targets his ex-girlfriend Casey for dumping him and ultimately seems okay with Billy killing Tatum, which is bad on its own. Billy is somehow worse for having killed his girlfriend’s mother, only to then decide that isn’t enough and he also needs to punish Sidney by gaslighting her, tricking her into sleeping with him, and then trying to kill her and her dad. The newest Scream (2022) makes it even worse by revealing he had cheated on her enough that he got a fellow classmate pregnant.
Richie from Scream (2022)
Richie (Jack Quaid) is a weird case in that he’s arguably a good boyfriend to his real girlfriend (fellow Ghostface killer Amber Freeman) but is a terrible boyfriend to Sam. The whole reason he was dating her was to frame her for the Ghostface killing spree in hopes of getting a new Stab movie made. Which is both pathetic and disturbing, showing the lengths he will go to make his fanfiction a reality.
Trevor from Hellraiser (2022)
Another character who literally started dating the final girl just so he could use her, Trevor (Drew Starkey) is horrible for not only his betrayal and manipulation of Riley but also for being willing to sick the Cenobites on unknowing victims for the sake of something as basic as money. Trevor is also probably a reference to Kirsty Cotton’s husband who tried to kill her for her inheritance, but that movie script was not originally going to be a Hellraiser movie and is not well regarded in the fandom, so I chose this Trevor.
Corey Cunningham from Halloween Ends (2022)
Corey (Rohan Campbell) is actually a reference to an earlier character on this list, Christine’s Arnie Cunningham: A sweet but bullied nerd who slowly becomes more confident and more assholish as he is exposed to a malevolent force. It’s made even worse by the fact that his “romance” with Allyson is barely a few days old when he goes through his heel change, which does a disservice to both of their characters. After going on a roaring rampage of revenge while dressed as the guy who killed both of his girlfriend’s parents, he tries to kill her grandmother and when that fails, he kills himself to frame Laurie in hopes of driving Allyson away. Thankfully, it doesn’t work for long, and Allyson is ultimately able to fix her relationship with her grandmother.
Who is the worst boyfriend / husband / lover in horror in your opinion? Let us know in the comments!
