Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, the HBO Max slasher horror spinoff of Pretty Little Liars from the creators of Riverdale, has a scarier villain than "A." The original show, which was based on a series of young adult mystery novels by Sara Shepard, focused on a group of friends that are reunited when an anonymous figure known as "A" threatened to reveal all of their secrets. Pretty Little Liars ran for seven seasons on Freeform with a total of 160 episodes.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is the fourth series in the Pretty Little Liars franchise, after fellow spinoffs Ravenswood in 2013 and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists in 2019. Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin focuses on a new group of teenage girls being terrorized by the latest incarnation of "A" after they hold them responsible for their parents' sins surrounding the tragic suicide of Angela Waters at a Y2K party, two decades before the events of the show. Although it keeps the teen drama aspect of the original show, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is more of a horror show with its focus on scares and bloody deaths of characters.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin recasts "A" as a stereotypical slasher villain, fit with a creepy mask and threatening figure. "A" is even seen killing an apparent main character in the show, Karen Beasley (Mallory Bechtel), complete with all the blood that HBO Max allows. Despite this, the scariest villain that Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin has to offer is the far more recognizable Sheriff Tom Beasley (Eric Johnson). Sheriff Beasley shows that he is a man not to be crossed early on in the show with his verbal threats toward the girls and ability to ignore the law, despite his position.
Could Original Sin's "A" Be A Red Herring?
Following the death of his daughter Karen at the end of the second episode, Beasley becomes increasingly unhinged and steadfast in his intention to destroy the lives of the girls, who, in his mind, are responsible for her death. He also threatens to make the girls "suffer" for the death of Karen. This makes Sheriff Beasley easily as much of a threat to the girls as Pretty Little Liars' masked killer "A". Before that, however, he also demonstrates his utter disregard for the law, despite being the Sheriff of Millwood, by soliciting oral sex from one of the boys whom Noa (Maia Olivar) is completing her sentence of community service with. Sheriff Beasley then forces Noa to keep her mouth shut about this secret. The verbal threats and abuse of his position make Sheriff Beasley a truly scary villain in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
Although Sheriff Beasley is as much of an antagonist as "A," this probably does not make "A" a red herring in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. "A" is still a clear threat, considering that they murdered Karen, and have every intention to keep terrorizing the girls - given the text that stated, "One bully down. Five more to go." Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is also yet to reveal the identity of "A" and the depths of their connection to both the girls and their parents. Despite "A" clearly taking inspiration from horror movie killers like Jason Voorhees and Bughuul from Sinister, the scariest villain of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin so far is Sheriff Beasley due to his verbal threats towards the girls and the power he holds over Millwood as Sheriff.