The Worst Boyfriends, Girlfriends, and Dates in Horror Cinema

By Casandra Vicario

It's February 14, and we don't always go out with the right person. In movies, some characters chose their date poorly or started a relationship with the wrong person. Let's remember a few who failed at the art of being — or choosing — a partner.

If you haven't seen any of these movies, fair warning: there are some spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

Micha and Katie live together; everything seems stable until a demonic entity begins to torment the young woman in Oren Peli's film “Paranormal Activity”. In this 2007 film, Katie's boyfriend doesn't believe her at first, becomes obsessed with filming everything, performs a ouija ritual, and even opens up to her, admitting he should have told her sooner that his family had this “demonic problem”…

Sometimes friends and family set us up on blind dates, and a lot of them don't go so well. If you're interested in having one arranged for you, or you're about to meet someone you don't know, we recommend “Audition (Odishon)” by director Takashi Miike, to learn the story of Shigeharu, who had one of the worst dates of his life thanks to Asami, even though the film came out in 1999, its plot feels more relevant than ever.

A bad — but really bad — boyfriend is Billy Loomis, the handsome love interest of Sidney Prescott in Wes Craven's classic “Scream” from 1996. That guy wooed his girlfriend out of revenge, killed many of her friends, pressured her into finally having sex with him, and as if that weren't enough, also tried to kill her on multiple occasions. He's not exactly the kind of partner you bring home to meet the family.

No romantic list would be complete without “Ash Williams”, the main character of the “Evil Dead” saga, directed by Sam Raimi in the early '80s. While many of us see him as a hero, we also have to say it: he's a bad boyfriend. The guy doesn't just decapitate his girlfriend when she's possessed by one of the forest spirits — he's also the one responsible for unleashing evil in the cabin after reading the “Necronomicon” he found in the basement.

In 1987, horror cinema took a hit from “German ultragore” with a film about necrophilia: “Nekromantik” (1987). Four years later, in 1991, Jorg Buttgereit directed the sequel “Nekromantik 2”, in which we learn what happens between Monika and Mark, the latter ends up losing his head over the girl in question, in what is a “little toxic” relationship.

And speaking of “toxic relationships,” the best example of that is Cristian and Dani, our lead couple in “Midsommar” (2019), Ari Aster's film that tells the story of a possessive girlfriend and a boyfriend looking to escape, who after a tragic event set off on a trip with other school friends, where rituals, drugs, jealousy, and revenge lead us to a dramatic ending that is, yes, super toxic and twisted.

What other toxic relationships in horror cinema do you remember? For now, the lesson these films have taught us is that you really get to know people in moments of crisis. Are you really sure who the person you're sleeping with or dating actually is?

Wishing you all a very Macabro February 14th!