[Editorial] The Top 17 Worst Boyfriends & Husbands in Horror

February is a time for love, with Valentine’s Day landing smack bang in the middle of the month. And while there are lots of great romance stories within the world of horror, there are also a lot of boyfriends, husbands, and fiancees that make you want to steer well clear of love. 

There were so many delightful men to choose from, but I’ve narrowed it down to 17 of the worst boyfriends and husbands to ever grace our presence through horror movies.

17 - Zombeavers (2014)

All of the boyfriends in Zombeavers are the worst. Not only do they turn up to crash what was clearly meant to be a girls’ weekend, but they are all terrible, stereotypical horror movie lads who think they know better than anyone else. 

The final straw is when Sam throws Zoe’s adorable dog, Gosling, into the water to act as a distraction for the flesh-hungry beavers. 

16 - Ready or Not (2019)

Your wedding day is supposed to be the best day of your life, but it’s always a good idea to make sure that you’re not marrying into some super weird traditions before you say your vows. For Grace, this means a deadly game of hide and seek with her new in-laws.

And while it seems like her new husband, Alex, is on her side, to begin with, it soon becomes clear that he is willing to sacrifice his wife in order to complete the ritual and save his own skin.

15 - American Psycho (2000)

As part of his act to try and appear as normal as everyone else in New York’s upper class, Patrick Bateman has acquired himself a girlfriend in the form of Evelyn. She is clueless to the darker side of Patrick’s mind and chatters away to him about getting married and upcoming holiday partners. 

Poor Evelyn has no idea that Patrick is constantly thinking about murder, cheating on her with many other women, and essentially preventing her from having a happy life just so he can appear normal.

14 - Captivity (2007)

When upcoming model Jennifer is kidnapped, held captive, and tortured by an unseen assailant, she makes a connection with fellow captive Gary to help get her through the experience. The pair work hard together to try and escape and eventually they have sex when they are placed in the same cell.

However, it is soon revealed that Gary and his older brother, Ben, are the ones who took Jennifer in the first place. And Gary has been manipulating the situation in order to get Jennifer to sleep with him.

13 - Friday the 13th (2009)

Slasher movies are usually full of terrible characters we can’t wait to see die, and Trent from the Friday the 13th remake has to be the best example of this. He is a jealous jerk who quickly falls out with his girlfriend, Jenna, for trying to help Clay find his missing sister.

He then proceeds to have sex with Bree upstairs while his girlfriend sits downstairs in perhaps one of the cringiest sex scenes to ever exist. I’ve never been so happy to see Jason finally murder someone.

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12 - The Craft (1996)

When Sarah moves to a new school, she quickly falls for Chris, one of the most popular boys in school. The two go on a date, but because Sarah doesn’t want to have sex, Chris leaves in a huff. He then spreads rumours about her being terrible in bed the next day. 

Because Sarah is a witch, she casts a spell on Chris, which makes him fall for her to the point of obsession. In revenge for all he’s done to Sarah, he ends up on the wrong side of Nancy and falls to his death out a bedroom window.

11 - Till Death (2021)

Mark is a horrible person before the events of Till Death even really begin. He is very controlling when it comes to his wife, Emma, and knows that she’s having an affair. He takes her to their lake house for a romantic weekend and gifts her a new necklace. 

However, when Emma wakes up in the morning, she is handcuffed to Mark, who then shoots himself. The house has been sabotaged so she can’t escape, and even worse, there are two criminals en route to snatch some valuable diamonds and kill Emma at Mark’s request, all as revenge for her affair.

10 - You’re Next (2011)

Taking your new girlfriend to your parent's remote house for an anniversary weekend with your entire family is a bold move at the best of times. Perhaps even more of a strange decision when the family relationships are quite strained. 

However, Erin soon finds out the worst thing about this whole weekend is that her boyfriend, Crispin, is involved in an elaborate scheme with his brother to kill everyone else in the family so they can get their hands on all the family money. And he was more than willing to put her in the path of danger to get what he wanted.

9 - Scream (1996)

This is the second appearance of Skeet Ulrich on this list, so he was clearly typecast a little in 1996, but Billy Loomis in Scream is one of the worst boyfriends out there. First of all, he spends most of his relationship with Sidney pressuring her into having sex with him when she doesn’t want to. 

And when Sidney finally decides she’s ready, she quickly finds out that not only has Billy been the one killing all her friends, but he’s also responsible for the death of her mother.

8 - The Shining (1980)

Sure, you could blame the Overlook Hotel for a lot of Jack Torrance’s behaviour, but he was also a horrible person before they even headed out into the Colorado wilderness for the winter. But after being stuck with the Overlook’s ghosts for a while, he is quickly overtaken and wants to hurt his family. 

Poor Wendy is chased through the hotel by Jack, has to lock him in a freezer to try and protect herself and Danny, and eventually has to face off against him and in an axe while trapped in one of the hotel’s bathrooms.

7 - Paranormal Activity (2007)

Horror movie boyfriends are famous for not listening to their partners, and Micah has to be one of the worst examples of this. Katie tells him an evil presence has been following her since she was a child, and instead of trying to offer any support, he immediately sets up cameras to try and capture something spooky.

A psychic tells Micah they should not try to communicate with the possible demon, but Micah completely ignores him, even bringing home an Ouija board, which goes down about as well as you would expect it to.

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6 - It Follows (2014)

Round two on the list for Jake Weary is his role as Hugh/Jeff from It Follows, who tricks Jay into having sex with him so that he can pass on a curse which means an entity will always be trying to follow and kill her from now on. Jay can also pass on the curse by having sex, but if her partner dies, the curse will return to her.

We also find out he’s already passed on the curse to his previous girlfriend, Annie, but as she died in the opening scene of the movie, he needed to find a new victim.

5 - Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Guy Woodhouse is an aspiring actor who wants to be very famous but doesn’t seem to be very good. So when a group of devil-worshipping witches offer him fame and fortune in return for using his wife as a surrogate for the child of Satan, he jumps at the chance. 

He then proceeds to lie to and gaslight Rosemary for the next nine months, pretending her baby died in labour, simply stating they can have more.

4 - Gerald’s Game (2017)

Jessie and Gerald are hoping a romantic weekend away will help solve some of the problems in their marriage, but Gerald is particularly obsessed with the idea of handcuffing his wife to a bed so they can roleplay. 

It’s clear Jessie is uncomfortable, and despite asking him to stop and uncuff her several times, Gerald ignores her. And then during the argument that ensues, he’s selfish enough to have a heart attack and die!

3 - Fresh (2022)

Noa, after a series of terrible online dating interactions, seems to have met the man of her dreams in the fruit aisle of the supermarket. Steve is super charming, and the two end up dating and eventually going on a romantic weekend away together. 

However, it soon turns out that Steve is a cannibal and sells the meat of unsuspecting women online. He plans to keep her alive for a long time because it keeps the meat fresher, which means she will have to suffer him slowly removing more and more parts of her before she finally dies.

2 - The Invisible Man (2020)

Horror movies are full of controlling men, but Adrian in The Invisible Man has to take first place. He’s so controlling that he pushes Cecilia to desperate measures and she has to flee their house in the middle of the night just to escape him.

After she runs away, Adrian fakes his own death so he cannot be a suspect, and then uses the invisible technology his company has developed to continue to stalk Cecilia and ruin her life.

1 - Midsommar (2019)

Look, I know logically Christian isn’t as bad as some of the men on this list. He hasn’t killed anyone or anything, but I think because he’s the most realistic depiction of a terrible, emotionally abusive boyfriend that he was always going to be my top choice. 

He constantly acts like Dani is asking so much from him, when all she wants is the minimum amount of attention. He forgets her birthday, doesn’t listen to her opinion, and only asks her to Sweden in the first place so he can seem like a nice boyfriend.

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