10 Shocking Horror Movies Where the Villain Wins
Every villain is a hero in his (or her) own mind
There’s a long history of movies where the villain wins, but this plot device is still relatively unusual, even in horror films. Why would a storyteller or filmmaker deliberately craft a story where the protagonist is defeated? And why would they risk the ire of their viewers, who presumably are rooting for the antagonist to face justice?
Warning: Major spoilers ahead
I think there are three main reasons why a storyteller or scriptwriter would choose to resolve a story this way.
- Shock value. Main characters usually succeed in the end, or at least survive. A victory for the villain subverts our expectations and toys with our emotions. If executed well, a twist like this will distinguish a horror movie from its conventional genre counterparts.
- Franchise potential. Many horror franchises have supernatural villains that are repeatedly killed and resurrected. But there are also numerous scary movies with human antagonists. If they die at the end, a sequel featuring them would be impossible, and the prospects of making a profitable franchise would have vanish.
- Theme. A victorious villain could emphasize and strengthen a movie’s themes. The film’s impact is sometimes greater on the audience if the antagonist wins.
Here are ten shocking horror movies where the villain wins. In each entry, I list which of the above reasons is the most likely explanation for why the filmmakers chose to have the antagonist prevail.
Creep (2014)
An eccentric man named Josef (Mark Duplass) hires Aaron (Patrick Brice), a cash-strapped videographer, to record him in a series of videos. Josef claims that he has a terminal brain tumor and will die before his wife gives birth. He requests that Aaron record video diaries for Josef’s son to watch someday.
Josef is a super weird guy who seems to delight in making Aaron uncomfortable. He asks Aaron to film him taking a bath, and later jumps out at him while wearing a creepy wolf mask. That evening, while they drink whiskey together, Josef makes a bizarre and unsettling confession involving his wife.
Aaron is increasingly unnerved by Josef’s erratic behavior, but his dire financial situation prevents him from quitting. He eventually realizes that Josef is stalking him. The film ends with Aaron being axed to death while setting on a park bench, and the unsurprising revelation that Josef is a serial killer who lied to Aaron about everything.
Reason #2: Franchise potential. Creep has already received a sequel and there are plans for more installments.
The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982)
The Dorm That Dripped Blood is a generic slasher that mostly follows the same formula as the other similar flicks of its era. A group of college students are stalked by a hooded maniac, who knocks them off one by one in typical fashion. The film has one recognizable performer: Daphne Zuniga in her first role. She doesn’t last long. The killer runs her over with her parents’ car. Oof!
This movie’s one stroke of originality occurs at the end. The villain, who is revealed to be the jock boyfriend, knocks the final girl unconscious, throws her in an incinerator, and walks away free. Another character is shot dead by police and framed for the murders. The Dorm That Dripped Blood’s ending is truly unexpected and unorthodox, especially for the time.
Reason #1 Shock value. The vast majority of slasher movies have a final girl who defeats the killer. Not this time. The filmmakers probably hoped that the surprise ending would generate word of mouth and boost box office success. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t keep this movie from being doomed to obscurity.
Stream The Dorm That Dripped Blood on Youtube
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
This is frankly one of the most disturbing and sickening horror movies ever made. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a gritty, uncompromising look at pure evil. Henry, a Chicago drifter, is a psychopathic murderer. He uses different methods to kill each victim so that the police won’t connect the murders together. To him, killing is a routine hobby.
After a horrific final murder, Henry leaves town. He drives away after leaving the dismembered remains of his latest victim in a briefcase on the side of the road. There’s no justice or final climactic confrontation. The amoral universe is indifferent to Henry’s crimes.
Reason #3: Theme. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is about the banality of evil. In Henry’s diseased mind, murder is as ordinary as brushing his teeth. That’s what makes him so terrifying.
Stream Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer on Tubi
The House of the Devil (2009)
Desperate for cash, college student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) agrees to housesit overnight at a creepy mansion. Unfortunately for her, the house is owned by a satanic cult. Samantha really needs this job. Like the videographer in Creep, the comely co-ed disregards numerous signs that she’s in danger.
After a night of terror that culminates in a graveyard suicide attempt, the film concludes with Samantha waking up in a hospital to discover that she is carrying the devils’ child.
Ti West, who went on to direct the X trilogy starring Mia Goth, helmed this ’80s period piece. He shot it in 16mm to simulate the look of movies from the era. The House of the Devil’s cinematography is as lovely as its beautiful but dimwitted heroine.
Reason #3: Theme. House of the Devil has themes related to the satanic panic mass hysteria of the 1980s. There is also an obvious thematic parallel with Rosemary’s Baby, a film that we will get to later.
Watch The House of the Devil on Peacock
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The pod people are back! The dastardly aliens inhabit people’s bodies and replicate them as emotionless automatons. This adaption, which was preceded by Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), boasts a stellar cast, including Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy.
Sutherland plays Matthew, a San Francisco scientist who is one of the first people to discover the aliens’ plot. Nimoy plays Matthew’s friend, psychologist Dr. David Kibner, who initially believes that the reports of alien hijinks are mere hysteria and delusion.
The human characters band together to outwit the aliens and escape the city, but they gradually succumb to the extraterrestrial menace. They are duplicated and forced to mindlessly work to achieve the pod people’s goals. The movie ends with a haunting final image: Matthew is revealed to finally be under the aliens’ control.
Reason #3 Theme. Body Snatchers is often regard as an allegory for the flaws of societal conformity and mass assimilation. The original 1956 version has also been widely interpreted as an allegory for McCarthyism, but that theme was less relevant by the time this remake came out.
Stream Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Tubi
The Rental (2020)
Two vacationing couples rent an isolated oceanside lodge together. Charlie (Dan Stevens) is celebrating a promotion at work with his wife Michelle (Alison Brie), his brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and his brother’s girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand).
To their horror, they discover that someone has installed hidden cameras inside the house (including in the showers!). To make matters worse, their dog mysteriously disappears. They suspect that they are being harassed by Taylor (Toby Huss), a racist alcoholic who is in charge of maintaining the property.
The circumstances are especially daunting for Charlie and Mina, who are having an affair. The stalker has footage of them having sex, and he’s more than happy to provide the video to Michelle and Josh.
The masked maniac begins to stalk and kill the quartet one by one. He is revealed to be a prolific serial killer who targets people staying in rental homes. The man avoids being apprehended and his identity, name, and motive are never revealed.
Reason #2: Franchise potential. Director Dave Franco has stated that he is interested in making a sequel and the ending certainly leaves the door open for that.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary (Mia Farrow), becomes pregnant under sordid circumstances. She passes out and wakes up with scratches all over her. Her husband explains that he was intimate with her while she was asleep. He faces no consequences for this because marital rape was legal in the 1960s.
Rosemary is suspicious of her neighbors, whom she believes are secretly members of a satanic cult. Everyone thinks she’s paranoid and delusional. But, as Joseph Heller wrote in Catch 22, just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t after you!
Rosemary’s Baby concludes with the tortured protagonist making the horrifying realization that her newborn son is the offspring of the Devil. Although she knows her son is evil, she succumbs to the maternal desire to nurture him.
Reason#3: Theme. Rosemary’s Baby has the same themes as recent horror flicks like The First Omen and Immaculate. The occult, women’s rights issues, and gaslighting are all themes that are as relevant today as they were in the ’60s.
Watch Rosemary’s Baby on Paramount Plus
Seven (1995)
Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman co-star as L.A. detectives who track a serial killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey), who kills his victims because they committed one of the seven deadly sins in the Bible. David (Brad Pitt) a young, brash detective, is teamed up with the experienced, world weary William (Freeman). Gwyneth Paltrow plays Tracy, David’s pregnant wife.
In the movie’s disturbing conclusion, a shocked and traumatized David unintentionally gives Doe exactly what he desired all along. After Doe reveals that he killed Tracy (and her unborn child), David shoots him dead, punishing Doe for his sin, envy.
Reason #1 Shock value. Seven is a major studio Hollywood production starring a cast of actors that were already famous in ’95. Mainstream audiences wouldn’t have expected the film to end so bleakly.
The film’s aesthetic, plot, and twist ending have been hugely influential for crime thrillers and horror flicks over the past three decades. If Seven had ended with Doe being defeated in a conventional manner, I doubt anyone would remember this movie today.
Superhost (2021)
Claire (Sara Canning) and Teddy (Osric Chau) are travel vloggers who cohost a struggling Youtube channel. They journey to a mountainside vacation home and meet their “superhost”, the eccentric Rebecca (Gracie Gilliam), who is in charge of taking care of their household needs.
Rebecca is weird, but she doesn’t necessarily seem dangerous. Claire and Teddy hope that footage of her quirky antics will boost their channel’s views and win back lost subscribers. But they soon realize that Rebecca is not who she claims to be.
Superhost is boosted by Gilliam’s gleefully insane performance. She’s so deliriously crazy that we almost forget that Rebecca, a woman of average strength whose only weapon is a kitchen knife, should easily be overpowered by Claire and Teddy. Instead, this is another movie where the villain kills everybody and gets away with everything. Cheers!
Reason #2 Franchise potential. Okay, so I’m just guessing on this one. I scoured the internet for any news about a Superhost sequel, but found nothing other than some idle speculation on Reddit.
This does seem like a decent formula for a series, though. Rebecca could move around to different vacation hotspots, each time targeting a new crop of travel vloggers. It could work, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be any sign that this is going to happen.
The Vanishing (1988)
Although it doesn’t have much explicit violence, The Vanishing (the original Dutch version, not the American remake) isn’t far from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in terms of ranking very high on the disturb-o-meter. Rex (Gene Bervoets) and his girlfriend Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) are a Dutch couple vacationing in France. Their trip is derailed when Saskia mysteriously disappears at a gas station.
The devastated Rex searches for her for three years, obsessed with finding the truth about her fate. He receives a series of letters by a man claiming to be her kidnapper. The man, who turns out to be a sociopathic college professor named Raymond, eventually reaches out to Raymond in person. He promises to tell him Saskia’ fate as long as he doesn’t alert the authorities. Raymond and Rex embark on a bizarre road trip, which culminates in Rex drinking drugged coffee and passing out.
In the film’s notorious ending, Rex wakes up and realizes that he has been buried alive – presumably the same fate as Saskia. Meanwhile, Raymond relaxes at home with his family, content that he has tied up loose ends and will never face justice for his crimes.
Reason #3 Theme. Like Henry, The Vanishing is about the banality of evil. Raymond seems like an ordinary guy. He’s a teacher, husband, and father. No one would suspect him of any wrongdoing, yet he’s a monster.
Watch The Vanishing on Amazon Prime
Too depressing?
It has struck me while writing this post that this is probably the most depressing group of movies I’ve ever written about. To be fair some of these are dark comedies, like Creep and Superhost. But most of them are pretty damn disturbing!
One common thread with all these movies is that the antagonists are significantly smarter than the protagonists. In that sense, it’s logical that the villains prevail. Still, these movies definitely aren’t for everyone.
Do you like watching horror movie where the villain wins?
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