In the world of horror movies, there’s often nobody more untrustworthy than a boyfriend, and the history of cinema boasts some truly despicable significant others. Whether it’s through gaslighting, manipulation, or outright murder, countless seemingly perfect partners have revealed their true colors across found footage, psychological horrors, and thrillers. While horror movie husbands, like The Shining’s Jack Torrance, have spread fear into the hearts of viewers, boyfriends can be even worse, as their girlfriends often don’t know them well enough to have discovered the darkness within their souls.
Some of the best horror movies of all time featured loathsome boyfriends with unnerving hidden agendas. Others were less sinister but still deserve to be mentioned due to their sheer ineffectiveness, immaturity, and inepтιтude, which put their partners’ lives in grave danger. While horror movie viewers have been taught to be immediately suspicious of onscreen boyfriends, these were truly the worst of the worst when it came to sinister sweethearts.
10
Crispian Davison
You’re Next (2011)
They say money is the root of all evil, and this certainly applied to the dark intentions of Crispian Davison in You’re Next. As a wealthy member of the Davison family and the boyfriend of Erin Harson, Crispian appeared to be just another victim caught up in the murderous attack taking place at his family reunion. However, the twist of You’re Next revealed that Crispian had actually orchestrated the entire murderous affair alongside his brother Felix to claim his family’s inheritance without having to share it with his deceased relatives.
While this made Crispian a horrible, immoral person, his bad boyfriend credentials came from the way he used Erin as part of his ploy. With a plan to leave Erin alive as a witness, he was more than content to give her a lifetime’s worth of trauma as she watched several people brutally murdered by masked ᴀssᴀssins. In the end, Crispian met his maker at the hands of Erin, who stabbed him to death after learning the truth.
9
Brendan ‘Steve’ Kemp
Fresh (2022)
Brendan Kemp went under the alias ‘Steve’ and represented the worst-case scenario of a bad boyfriend, as this charming, seemingly perfect man was actually a total monster. Fresh starred Daisy Edgar-Jones as Noa, a young woman who was increasingly disillusioned by online dating and the lackluster men she was messaging and meeting. This meant that she was happily surprised when she encountered Steve in a supermarket, and the two had immediate chemistry and exchanged numbers.
However, Noa was not aware that Steve had been stalking her online for some time and had picked her specifically because she was a lonely orphan with few connections. Through an astounding performance from Sebastian Stan, Steve was revealed to be a serial killer who kidnaps woman and mutilates their bodies to sell to his wealthy clients. This truly unhinged profession highlighted Steve as the biggest red flag one could imagine, even if Noa did not realize it at first.
8
Adrian Griffin
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Invisible Man was an adaptation of the 1897 sci-fi novel by H. G. Wells that updated its premise for the modern era. While the character of Griffin was a promising young med student in the original novel, in this version, Adrian Griffin is a tech billionaire pioneer in optics who fakes his death and becomes invisible to torment his ex-girlfriend Cecilia. As an abusive man even before concocting his evil plan, Griffin’s psycH๏τic behavior reaches a new level as he gaslights his former partner through the use of a suit fixed with hundreds of micro-cameras, making him appear invisible.
Griffin was already an abuser before he became ‘The Invisible Man,’ as he controlled every aspect of Cecilia’s life and isolated her from her family and friends. While Adrian’s suit had a supernatural dimension to it, the truth was that he was scary because of how much his actions mimicked the behavior of real-life narcissistic abusers. Adrian sought to make Cecilia’s life a miserable experience filled with paranoia and fear, which made him a dark reflection of the real-life domestic abusers that populate the world today.
7
Jeff Redmond
It Follows (2014)
When we first meet Jeff Redmond in It Follows, he’s introduced as Hugh, a fake name that only serves to encapsulate his selfish and deceitful nature. Jeff was the boyfriend of Jay Height and at first looked to be a sweet, caring, and open-minded partner, although he harbored a deep secret that would only be revealed after he had Sєx with Jay in his car. Following this, Jeff knocks Jay out, and when she awakes, he reveals that he’s pᴀssed on a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly curse that she can only get rid of by having Sєx with someone else.
Jeff’s actions here were as despicable as they can get, as he knowingly pᴀssed the curse on to Jay to buy himself more time. While Jeff’s action pᴀssed the curse onto another person, if they die, it reverts back to him, and we learn that it was Jeff who inflicted the late Annie Marshall with the curse, who died in the movie’s opening scene. It Follows spreads a message about the unstoppable nature of mortality, Sєxually transmitted diseases, and the dark side of trust, with Jeff acting as a central figure and a truly terrible and untrustworthy boyfriend.
6
Micah Sloat
Paranormal Activity (2007)
While Micah Sloat’s decision to set up a camera in his bedroom with Katie Featherston was the entire reason we could see the events of Paranormal Activity take place, this does not take away from his many poor decisions. Micah was not an evil horror movie boyfriend, but his actions were just so relentlessly and consistently stupid that he needs to be part of the conversation of worst partners. Instead of taking his girlfriend’s concerns about an evil presence in their home seriously, he uses the whole thing as an opportunity to show off how brave he is.
It’s impossible not to groan at Micah outright, ignoring the psychic Dr. Fredrichs’s warning not to interact with the spirit without a demonologist present. Rather than heed these wise words, Micah immediately goes out and gets a Ouija board to further endanger his and Katie’s life. By ignoring every single warning given to him, Micah actively goads on the demon, and his ridiculous actions only serve to make it stronger, making him one of the stupidest horror movie boyfriends of all time.
5
Andy Beltrami
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
As the fifteenth victim of Jason Voorhees, Andy Beltrami may have been a terrible horror movie boyfriend, yet he didn’t deserve to have his life end in such a terrifying and brutal way. Andy was the boyfriend of Debbie Klein, whom he impregnated before the events of Friday the 13th Part III. As an immature and annoying partner, Andy’s constant handstands and use of yo-yos inches away from his sunbathing girlfriend meant he was exasperating in every scene he was in.
While a thwarted prank from his roommate Shelley to make it look like he had been gruesomely murdered was a sinister foreshadowing of what was to come, Andy’s consistent goofing around and unwillingness to take anything seriously meant it was clear he was never going to make it out alive. Andy was ultimately chopped in half by Voorhees while doing one of his signature handstands, and Debbie faced a similar fate, being killed along with their unborn child.
4
Ray Bronson
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
The 1990s slasher classic I Know What You Did Last Summer was full of pᴀssiveand frustrated Gen-X teen characters, with Ray Bronson being among the most exasperating. As the boyfriend of Julie James, Ray was involved in the hit-and-run accident that saw the group pursued by a hook-wielding fisherman the following year. As a pᴀssive character who proves himself totally ineffective in protecting his girlfriend, Ray isn’t evil like other horror movie boyfriends, but that doesn’t stop him from being one of the worst.
Ray proved himself as a disappointing partner after taking Julie’s virginity and then emotionally abandoning her following their hit-and-run accident. Despite committing manslaughter together, Ray doesn’t check in on Julie, and when they reunite, he barely acknowledges how much she’s been struggling. While Ray’s useless nature fuels suspicion among viewers that he may be the killer, ultimately, this is a red herring, and he was just a bad boyfriend through and through.
3
Carter Horton
Final Destination (2000)
Carter Horton was one of the survivors of the Volée Airlines Flight 180 plane crash and thus destined to die later as Death stalked those who had avoided their ultimate fate. As the arrogant and H๏τ-tempered boyfriend to Terry Chaney, Carter’s despicable behavior would ultimately lead to his girlfriend’s death. The only reason that Carter even survived the original plane crash to begin with in Final Destination was that he believed that Alex’s warning was a joke, and he tried to fight him, causing himself and other pᴀssengers to be removed from the plane.
As a controlling boyfriend who was constantly belittling Terry, following one of his unhinged rants, she decided to break up with him, although in the process she let her guard down and was hit by a speeding bus. This perfectly encapsulated how Carter was always working against his girlfriend when he should have been focused on protecting her. While it initially seemed that Carter had managed to evade death, he was eventually killed by a neon sign in the final moments of Final Destination, a gag death made all the more satisfying because of his constant misdeeds.
2
Christian Hughes
Midsommar (2019)
While many of the worst horror boyfriends pushed the realms of believability by being outright killers, Christian Hughes from Midsommar was made all the more frightful by just how believable he was. As a gaslighting, emotionally absent, selfish coward, when we first meet Christian in Midsommar, he already had planned to break up with his girlfriend, Dani Ardor, yet the emotional trauma of her mentally ill sister murdering her parents meant he stalled these plans. Despite an unstable and tension-filled relationship, Christian stayed with Dani out of loyalty, although he couldn’t help treating her badly.
The relationship issues at the core of their partnership came to a head at the Swedish midsummer festival that Christian reluctantly invited Dani to, as he had still not worked up the guts to break up with her. During this time, Christian abandons Dani when she needs him most, undermines her feelings, gaslights her, and ultimately betrays her in ritualistic Sєx. While Dani was hurt at every turn, Christian got his comeuppance as he was ultimately sacrificed and burned to death at the decree of the new May Queen: Dani.
1
Billy Loomis
Scream (1996)
As the original Ghostface killer, it’s hard to think of a worse horror movie boyfriend than Billy Loomis. Not only was Billy responsible for terrorizing the town of Woodsboro, but he also set into motion the constant trauma faced by Sidney Prescott throughout the franchise. Billy gaslit Sidney, pressured her into sleeping with him, and, worst of all, stabbed her mother to death along with his accomplice, Stu Macher.
While Billy was initially presented as the perfect boyfriend, behind the scenes, he embodied the very worst imaginable characteristics of a lying, immoral, and murderous horror movie partner. As a true psychopath who enjoyed inflicting pain on his friends, Billy set a new standard for sinister, untrustworthy horror movie boyfriends. With an undeniable influence on the slasher genre as a whole, Billy’s legacy means that it’s impossible to watch a horror movie these days without first questioning the validity of any seemingly innocent boyfriend character.
