Horror Villains Who Were More Right Than We Want To Admit

Carrie might be the most tragic figure on this list. In 1976's "Carrie," director Brian De Palma effectively adapted the Stephen King novel and gave the story a fuller life. A hero turned antagonist, this shy wallflower does her best to live up to her mother's strict religious beliefs and navigate young womanhood. However, when Carrie's (Sissy Spacek) body starts changing, she has no one to turn to and is severely punished by everyone around her.

As she attempts to reconcile her faith with the real world, Carrie develops telekinetic powers that give her the ability to strike down a reckoning on her bullies. In the film's most iconic scene, two classmates pour a bucket of pig's blood on Carrie's plush-pink prom dress. Little do they know that they're about to unleash one of the greatest evils of all, buried deep within Carrie. In response to the prank, Carrie uses her abilities to manipulate a firehose and blast away many in the crowd, close the doors, and start a fire that consumes everyone inside.

After everything that Carrie has endured, how can you possibly blame her? She's a victim of circumstance. In a real Good for Her moment, she gives her bullies a taste of their own medicine. Too bad they don't live to see it.

Mary Lou is a rare gem of a villain. A spiritual sequel to "Carrie," 1987's "Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" has nothing to do with the original "Prom Night," instead carving out its own world. In the opening scene, we meet the fiercely independent, sexually liberated Mary Lou (Lisa Schrage), who is caught between two men and fully alive in her own body. The boy she came to prom with grows increasingly jealous, and decides to get revenge by dropping a stink bomb on Mary Lou while she accepts the prom queen crown.

A fire instantly breaks out and consumes Mary Lou. The film then jumps ahead 30 years and follows a group of teens in the lead up to their very own prom night. Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon) stumbles across a trove of Mary Lou's prom accessories and accidentally resurrects her spirit, allowing Mary Lou to finally get her revenge through a series of bizarre, supernatural murders.

All that Mary Lou wanted to do was have the night of her life. She deserved better, but at least her revenge was the sweetest kind.

In horror movies, mean-spirited pranks rarely end well. When Camp Blackfoot caretaker Cropsy (Lou David) is asleep in his bunk, a group of campers sneak into his cabin and set up a worm-infested skull with candles next to his bed. Shaken out of sleep, Cropsy accidentally knocks the skull into his bed, igniting a fire. Cropsy is subsequently burned alive and left for dead.

Five years later, a group of counselors at Camp Stonewater come under attack, paying for the sins of others. Cropy's motive is pure, unadulterated revenge, even if his targets have no direct connection to his past. That doesn't make his murderous actions any less warranted, though 一 many male characters are equally as insufferable, just for different reasons.

Despite its tonal similarities to the Friday the 13th franchise, "The Burning" has a charm all its own. Everyone loves to talk about their love for Jason Voorhees, but truth be told, Cropys is the real MVP of camp-themed slashers.

"One day, we're going to be too old to f***," Brittany Snow's character, Bobby-Lynne, says in Ti West's horny slasher "X." The film, released to great acclaim in early 2022, takes the classic '70s-set slasher film and gives it a shiny new veneer. When a group of young filmmakers set out for rural Texas to make a porno, they spend a night on a secluded ranch owned by an elderly couple, Pearl and her husband, Howard.

Sexually frustrated, Pearl longs for the days in the early 1900s before the first world war. In a quiet conversation with porn star Maxine (Mia Goth), she reveals that she once had dreams of becoming a dancer, but life had other plans. Howard served in both wars, and over time the couple lost both themselves and also their connection to one another.

In "X," it's implied that Pearl and Howard have a history of murdering travelers and dumping their bodies in the pond behind their property. On the surface, their actions are unconscionable, but director Ti West peppers the film with various conversations about the weight of getting older and how the body eventually erodes away. It's only then that you begin to understand that Pearl is not totally wrong. All she wants it to feel loved and have a little sex. Don't we all?

In Gore Verbinski's "The Ring," a remake of the Hideo Nakata film of the same name, a little girl named Samara is killed by her mother. With a plastic bag over her head, she is shoved into a stone well and left to die. It's only through an eerie VHS tape found decades later that her story is told; however, those who watch the series of random, scattershot images don't fully comprehend what they're seeing.

Even worse, anyone who watches the tape dies seven days later. After a group of teenagers perish under mysterious circumstances, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates both their deaths and the tape's origins. During her search, she learns about Samara's upbringing and her mother's mental illness. The inquiry eventually leads Rachel to a derelict cabin in the woods, where she discovers the well still intact beneath the floorboards.

"The Ring" is a disturbing depiction of one girl's plea for justice. Samara is only as terrifying as the story surrounding her murder; all she wanted was to be heard.

Step aside, Michael Myers. Sam, the face of "Trick 'R Treat," is now Halloween's official mascot. In Michael Dougherty's 2007 anthology film, the scarecrow boy played by Quinn Lord wants everyone to celebrate the spooky autumn holiday, and spreads cheer wherever he goes. His character also ties together the film's three separate stories, all of which are set in the town of Warren Valley, Ohio.

The stories, which revolve around werewolves, a kid-murdering maniac, and a tragic bus massacre, tap into the most frightening aspects of Halloween. Sam, meanwhile, wanders throughout the community and murders those who deserve it most. In the introduction, he slaughters a woman who hates Halloween so much that she yanks down holiday decor before the night is even over. Much later, he exacts revenge upon the now-retired bus driver who caused the deaths of dozens of outsider children decades prior. In other words, Sam is all of us horror-obsessed fans who have been ostracized for our love of the best genre out there.

Forced to live as another gender, Angela (Felissa Rose) releases all of her pent-up anger by murdering counselors and campers during a summertime trip to Camp Arawak. Throughout the classic 1983 film, which was written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, the viewer is only given tiny clues as to the killer's identity, as we see Angela dodging bullying from every angle.

Many of the other campers in "Sleepaway Camp" are insufferable, overly-generalized caricatures instead of actual characters, and Angela was well within her rights to murder them. When all is revealed in the very last frame — the climax of a notoriously problematic ending — Angela is perched near the lake's edge, mouth agape.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn that the real Angela actually died in a boating accident, and that her mother forced her brother, Peter, to live like a girl. Trauma such as the death of a child always has the potential to wreck someone's life, but in this case, it ruined several. Ultimately, both Peter and Angela were victims, and Peter was correct to seek retribution.

In George A. Romero's landmark 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead," Harry (Karl Hardman) is the worst of the worst. As the dead come back to life and begin munching on the living, Harry and his family, as well as Tom (Keith Wayne) and his girlfriend Judy (Judith Ridley), take refuge inside a secluded countryside farmhouse. They are soon joined by Ben (Duane Jones) and later Barbara (Judith O'Dea). However, Harry has a chip on his shoulder, and seems to harbor some resentment towards Ben.

Early on, Harry suggests that everyone should move to the cellar and create a barricade against the swarm of zombies descending upon the property. Ben believes otherwise, claiming that they could easily become trapped if the house is overrun. The two argue, and tempers flare. Harry, his wife, and his daughter settle down below, leaving Ben, Barbara, Tom, and Judy on the main floor.

You can be a terrible person and still be right. Perhaps if Ben had followed Harry's advice, he may have survived the film's tragic ending.