Top 10 Horror Movie Villains with Understandable Motivations
Script written by Nathan Sharp
#10: Pamela Voorhees
“Friday the 13th” (1980)
As Casey tragically discovered in “Scream,” it was Pamela Voorhees committing the murders in the first “Friday the 13th,” not her psychotic son Jason. And she has a much more understandable reason to be doing so. Back in the late 50s, her son Jason supposedly drowned in the lake because all the camp counsellors were busy getting freaky. You know, as horror movie teenagers always are. She murdered the two counsellors she believed responsible, and later kills the batch of newcomers because she doesn’t want another tragedy to befall someone else’s child. So, she directly causes more tragedy and kills other people’s children. Her logic is a little out of whack on that one, but everyone processes grief differently.
#9: Samara
“The Ring” (2002)
Based on Sadako from the original Japanese film, Samara has one of the most tragic backstories in horror history. Her biological mother attempted to drown her in a fountain, she was ostracized by her community, and when she caused her adoptive mother to go insane, she was suffocated with a garbage bag and thrown down a well. She then died of hypothermia and starvation after seven days. She then created the videotape both to exact vengeance on the world, which she sees as heartless, and to share her tragic story. It’s a win-win for her. Not so much her victims, though.
#8: The Ghosts
Another Top 10 Movie Villains with Understandable Motivations
“Poltergeist” (1982)
The ghosts in “Poltergeist” aren’t messing around. Sure, they start rather small by bending silverware and stacking furniture, but before long, they’re kidnapping young Carol Anne. However, we later learn that most of these ghosts are merely lost and confused souls that are attracted to the comfort and warmth that is Carol Anne’s life force. We also learn that there is a head honcho ghost called the Beast manipulating all the spirits around him, most of whom just want to move on in peace. Now, just imagine being a confused spirit, clearly dead but not knowing that you are. Wouldn’t you too be attracted to the so-called “Earthly pleasures” of Carol Anne’s life force?
#7: Gill-Man
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1941)
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” shares a lot in common with “King Kong,” and much like that classic film, the titular villain is rather sympathetic. He’s the last surviving member of an ancient race of creatures from the Devonian period, which certainly sounds lonely and terrible. And when his secluded home is intruded upon by outsiders, he goes to investigate the expedition’s camp, only to be attacked by scared and panicked research assistants. He kills them in a fit of rage and self-defense, and naturally begins to think that these intruders are violent and untrustworthy. Poor Gill-Man was just trying to live his best life, and these nosy scientists just had to go and ruin everything!
#6: Jigsaw
Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs) vs Jigsaw (Saw)
“Saw” franchise (2004-)
The Jigsaw Killer is a complete psychopath, no doubt about that. But unlike a lot of fictional serial killers, he actually has a motive. Back when he was just a civil engineer named John Kramer, he learned that he had an inoperable brain tumor and attempted suicide to spare himself the agony. Upon surviving, John discovered a newfound love for life and attempted to, um, “help” others who don’t appreciate their own. In John’s own words, “most people are so ungrateful to be alive.” Good intentions, dude, but that doesn’t mean you get to torture them with these absolutely insane traps and contraptions. You could have just, like, become a therapist or something.
#5: Red & the Tethered
Top 10 Horror Movie Villain Motivations
“Us” (2019)
The Tethered are some of the creepiest villains in some time thanks to their complete lack of humanity and emotion. As Red explains, this is because the Tethered are clones created by the government to “control” their real-world counterparts. However, the project was a failure and they were abandoned underground, mindlessly tethered to the surface world. Needless to say, they wanted their freedom. Red’s story is even more tragic, as we learn that Red is the real Adelaide, having been choked out and swapped with her Tethered as a child. Now just imagine being choked, kidnapped, taken from your parents at a young age, and forced to live underground with a bunch of freaky, mindless zombies. We think we would lose it, too.
#4: The Controllers
Top 20 Best Horror Movie Villain Motivations
“The Cabin in the Woods” (2012)
“The Cabin in the Woods” is basically the horror movie version of that old moral thought experiment – do you intentionally divert a trolley and kill one person to save five others? That’s essentially the predicament that the controllers are put in. In order to appease the eldritch Ancient Ones and literally save the planet from total annihilation, they are forced to kill five people every year. Yeah, they kill these people in horrifically violent ways with zombies and serial killers and freaking mermaids or whatever, but really, it’s five people in exchange for billions. No one said being a cabin director was easy!
#3: The Candyman
Top 20 Horror Movie Villains – Revealed!
“Candyman” (1992)
Despite his fun-sounding name, the Candyman is not sugary and sweet. In fact, he’s a vengeful and murderous figure of folklore who grotesquely disfigures his victims with a sharp metal hook. But once upon a time, the Candyman was simply a man trying to live his life. He was a famous portrait artist in the late 1800s, and he fell in love and fathered a child with a white woman. However, this resulted in a lynch mob cutting off his painting hand (hence the hook) and smearing him with honey, resulting in bees literally stinging him to death. He now haunts the location where his ashes were scattered, wreaking vengeance upon an area that wrongfully and unceremoniously caused his death.
#2: Carrie White
Top 10 Carrie Fisher Performances
“Carrie” (1976)
This horror movie is different than most, as all the scary stuff happens in the last fifteen minutes. The rest of the movie is devoted to the exploration of Carrie’s character and the planning of the famous climax. Carrie is a shy, tormented girl, bullied at school and subjected to horrific abuse from her fanatically religious mother. And just when Carrie finally feels accepted and loved, she is doused with a bucket of pig’s blood in front of her classmates, causing her to snap and massacre the entire school. Carrie White has remained a sympathetic villain throughout the years, and both the story and its themes are just as relevant now as they were back in 1976.
#1: The Monster
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“Frankenstein” (1931)
Aside from maybe Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster is the paragon of horror movie villainy, and Boris Karloff’s made-up face is the very symbol of classic movie monsters. That said, he is arguably the most understandable and humane villain in movie history. It all begins when his frightened response to a torch is mistaken for aggression, and he is chained in a dungeon and tortured. After understandably disposing of his captors and escaping, he unintentionally murders a young girl while playing with her by a lake, resulting in the mob that eventually kills him. He’s a far more sympathetic figure than he was in the novel, and it makes us wonder – would all this have happened if the scientists simply treated him humanely?
