Revenge is a powerful and deadly motivator, especially in the realms of horror. Whether it's the vengeful spirit of Freddy Krueger haunting the dreams of his killers' children, or Pamela Voorhees drenching Camp Crystal Lake with the blood of the counselors who let her son drown, "vengeance is mine" sayeth the slasher.
But not all revenge plots are driven by supernatural or psychopathic killers, sometimes it's the group of teens or the townspeople that draw the first blood to evoke a supernatural vengeance. They might not be angels, but some horror movie characters definitely earned their dose of sweet revenge.
Jennifer Check (Jennifer’s Body)
At the time of its release, Jennifer's Body was marketed as a standard-issue teen scream with Megan Fox as its bloody bombshell monster. But behind the skin-heavy movie posters lies a gory revenge tale that had much more poignant themes than what viewers might first assume.
After being assaulted and used for a rock band's occult rituals, Jennifer Check becomes possessed by a bloodthirsty succubus who devours most of the males in the main cast, including her attackers. While it was definitely heavy with overkill, Jennifer got her gloriously gory vengeance and then some.
The Freaks (Freaks)
"Offend one and you offend them all." Though this black-and-white classic was made in the early days of the genre, Freaks was one of the most shocking movies released on the big screen. Known for its grotesque nature and the use of real freakshow performers in its cast, this is one revenge story that might have some viewers a little squeamish.
When a greedy trapeze performer, Cleopatra, seduces and attempts to murder Hans, the sideshow's little person, the rest of the troupe wreak their vengeance to defend him. After brutally disfiguring her, Cleopatra is left scarred, humiliated, and ends up as the sideshow's newest main attraction.
Edward Lionheart (Theatre Of Blood)
There are few performers who play the villain so wonderfully as Vincent Price, and Theatre of Blood is one of his most entertaining performances. While he's not the most sympathetic character, there's no denying the delicious delirium that goes into the character and how he has his revenge.
When a Shakespearean actor is shamed by a panel of critics, Edward Lionheart swears a vicious vendetta against the theatre guild by killing them off in ways inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. It's hammy, it's gory, it's over-the-top in every way a Price performance could be. It's a black comedy that any fan of the actor will enjoy immensely.
Dr. Phibes (The Abominable Dr. Phibes)
On the other end of the spectrum in Price's repertoire, The Abominable Dr. Phibes. is a grotesque love story that many horror buffs will immediately compare to Saw. Price portrays Dr. Phibes, a brilliant musical expert who loses his wife after being disfigured in a car crash. Blaming the team of surgeons who tried to save her, Phibes starts picking them off one by one with fiendish traps inspired by the plagues on Egypt.
While this film is definitely intended to be a horror-comedy, some of the deaths are pretty gruesome for something made in Price's time. The scene with the mechanical frog mask is definitely one that will have several viewers wincing. And Phibes himself is easily one of the actor's most unsettling characters.
Jacob Atkins (Candy Corn)
Candy Corn is a different breed of horror film, but not without its own breed of personality. A John-Carpenter-esque indie film that takes several creative inspirations from Halloween, this tale of vengeance and mystical justice sees a resurrected teen taking out the group of bullies that assaulted and murdered him at a Halloween carnival.
After Jacob Atkins is accidentally killed in a yearly hazing ritual, the ringmaster of a mysterious freakshow brings him back as a masked corpse with a thirst for blood. It's a slow burn that shows the teens getting what they deserved. While he's not as creative as Michael Myers in his kills, Jacob is certainly an intimidating and memorable presence in the film.
Eric Draven (The Crow)
Not all horror movies feature the villains getting revenge, sometimes its enough to create a just-as-effective antihero. In both the comics and the 1994 film, rockstar Eric Draven is murdered in cold blood, he comes back as the titular Crow to avenge his and his girlfriend's deaths in a grim and gothic fashion.
While Eric might be the film's protagonist and hero, he picks off his attackers in an incredibly vicious fashion. Killing off gang members guilty of murdering one's significant other is certainly more than an adequate catalyst to the carnage that follows, and justice, like vengeance, is typically sweetest when it's truly deserved.
Arnie And Christine (Christine)
At times, Stephen King relies on two types of monsters in his books and movies. They're either the insidious supernatural entity plaguing a town in Maine, or a gang of brutal bullies who are practically unredeemable. Where the possessed Plymouth Fury fills the first descriptor, it's Buddy Repperton and his gang that fill that second role.
Buddy is a violent offender who makes Arnie's life a living nightmare before he refurbishes his beloved Christine, and when he and his goons threaten Arnie and vandalize his car, Christine goes out and hunts them like the predator she is. Their ends are certainly chilling, but nevertheless satisfying.
Carrie (Carrie)
If there's one Stephen King character who deserved every single ounce of vengeance she wrought, it's Carrie White. Sue Snell and the rest of her mean girl groupies had more than a stern lecture coming to them after the incident in the showers. The blame for the Prom Night Massacre truly isn't Carrie, but the girls who pushed her over the edge.
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Carrie is the victim in this horror classic, and that's nearly undeniable. Sue is easily one of King's cruelest characters with the pig's blood stunt, and if readers/viewers found themselves in Carrie's position, they'd use their psychic abilities to wreak havoc on their aggressors too.
The Outcasts (The Final)
If there isn't an unwritten rule about being a bully in horror movies, there needs to be. Taking a few notes from the previously-mentioned title, The Final casts a group of high school misfits as the villains as they dish out their own brand of poetic justice on their tormentors. After being lured to a boozy Halloween party out in the sticks, the nerds and outcasts don masks and weapons as they torture their petrified captives.
The scenes leading up to the carnage are all too familiar to some viewers, as the Outcasts are bullied and hazed relentlessly by their peers and the adults in their lives do nothing to stop it. While the kills are few and the gore is subdued, the torture sequences are still hard to watch.
Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street)
Leave it to the mad genius of Tim Burton to make a slasher-movie musical with the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Based on the musical of the same name, the film sees Benjamin Barker become the titular Sweeney Todd after the evil Judge Turpin sentences him to life on a prison colony on a false charge. When he returns, he's a changed man with an unquenchable desire for revenge.
Todd's musical descent into madness is presented in an eccentric and bloody way only burton could create, and the final confrontation is well worth the wait though lesser corpses. There's not a theatre kid who's seen this film who hasn't wanted to scream "Benjamin Barker!" at the top of their lungs thanks to the musical and its film adaptation.