Horror contextualizes everything about real life and serves it up as commentary. The genre has looked at the significance of maternal characters, but what about patriarchs? Horror views fathers quite differently than other movie categories where these men are heroic and selfless.
Instead, horror posits that paternal characters are someone to be feared. Whether they're supernatural beings or simply people who have disappointed their own family to some great degree, the evil fathers of horror are a unique bunch.
Jerry in The Stepfather (1987)
The first in this three-part saga, 1987's The Stepfather centers around a serial killer who inserts himself into various families over the course of his twisted life. He targets single mothers and preys on their emotions. Terry O'Quinn of Lost fame plays the titular role; he has antiquated views of family life and becomes homicidal when his outdated expectations aren't upheld.
O'Quinn returned for the first sequel The Stepfather 2, but the straight-to-cable Stepfather III featured a new actor playing the same character. A remake came out in 2009.
Johnny in Burning Bright (2010)
A widowed man, Johnny (Garrett Dillahunt), is trying to turn his house into the Safari Ranch. This includes purchasing a Bengal tiger as part of the attractions. As a hurricane approaches, Johnny's stepdaughter and her autistic brother get trapped inside the house with the feral tiger.
Daniel in Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Continuing the story from Paranormal Activity, another family is subjected to demonic attacks in the first sequel. When the Reys come home to their home ransacked without even a sign of forced entry, the family installs surveillance equipment. Little do they know, the Reys are being targeted by a force of evil.
Paranormal Activity 2 features a father who willfully refuses to evacuate his family from an obviously dangerous home. This is especially frustrating for viewers as there's a baby in the picture.
Reverend Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955)
In The Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum terrified silver age audiences with his performance as a sinister man of the cloth and a former convict. After learning his cellmate's wife has a hidden fortune, the reverend cozies up to her after he gets out of prison. His hunt for the secret loot leads to him stalking the woman's two children across the countryside.
Gus in Pet Sematary Two (1992)
Although Pet Sematary Two is far from being universally beloved like its predecessor, audiences tend to agree about Clancy Brown's show-stealing performance as the abusive cop and father, Gus.
In the sequel, a widowed father moves to the Maine town of Ludlow with his teenage son after his wife dies in a tragic accident. One thing leads to another, and the son discovers the infamous animal graveyard rumored to resurrect anything — or anyone — buried on site.
Pin in Pin (1988)
While Terry O'Quinn's father character in the obscure Canadian psychological horror movie Pin isn't a malicious man, his cold, loveless behavior led to some terrible events. Some might argue the truly evil paternal figure here is really the movie's namesake, an eerie-looking, anatomically correct manikin.
In Pin, a seemingly picture-perfect family is torn apart when the parents die in a bizarre car accident. The orphaned teens grow up under the wing of Pin, their father's medical dummy who the deranged son believes is sentient.
Jacob in Knuckleball (2018)
A couple drops their young son off with the wife's estranged father, Jacob (Michael Ironside), so they can have some alone time. The grandfather lives in a remote area in the snowy countryside with only one neighbor around — a creepy guy who won't take his eyes off the boy. Things get more disturbing as the dark family secret at the heart of Knuckleball is ultimately exposed.
Se-jin in Loner (2008)
Even uncles can be disappointing in horror. In this little-known South Korean thriller, an orphaned teenage is severely traumatized by the death of a recent loved one. She hides in her bedroom and refuses to come out, which concerns her uncle and grandmother. What's even scarier is they think someone else is in the room with the girl.
Loner is a unique spook tale that is as deceiving as it is shocking. It sounds like something out of The Ring, but the story here is more individual than one could ever expect.
Sheriff Marken in Cherry Falls (2000)
Brittany Murphy's teen horror Cherry Falls stands out as one of the most distinctive slashers from the 2000s. Due to reasons, audiences will never see a truly uncut version of the movie, but it's still a memorable whodunit, regardless.
In the film, a town is besieged by a masked maniac whose targets include virgins. The motive is unclear to the sheriff, who knows more than he's really letting on. One should not think they know everything there is to know before the movie even ends, though.
Dean in Get Out (2017)
Something doesn't seem right about the father in Get Out, the directorial feature-length debut from Jordan Peele. Chris goes to visit his new girlfriend's family in a rural part of Upstate New York when he learns they don't know that he's African American. This revelation leads to some awkward moments, but none of those compare to the terror that follows for Chris.