The 10 Villains From Scary Movies That Actually Had a Justified Point (2024)

• Daniel Robitaille from Candyman (1992)

  

  When a young woman summons an entity known as Candyman after reciting his name three times in front of her mirror, she mistakenly unleashes his wrath.

  But the person behind the terrifying Candyman is named Daniel Robitaille. In life, he was a black man lynched for falling in love with a white woman. Many fans of the film argue that "he's just as much a victim as he is a villain."

• Carrie White from Carrie (1976)

  

  A teenage girl who is tortured at school by a group of relentless bullies and at home by her religious and overbearing mother snaps on prom night, where she kills hundreds of her classmates using newfound telekinetic powers.

  Fans of the film tend to agree that she made a terrible decision when she killed so many people, but she was also a victim in pursuit of justice.

• Pinhead from Hellraiser (1987)

  

  While Pinhead is the terrifying leader of a group of demonic humans who worship sadomasochism, many fans of the Hellraiser franchise believe Pinhead is somewhat justified in his actions because "he was just doing his job." The only reason the Cenobites descend upon Earth is when their boxes are tampered with, which is when Pinhead arrives to dish out some terror.

• Bruce from Jaws (1975)

  

  While Jaws is about a terrifying shark named Bruce who eats many humans in a popular summer tourist beach town, can the shark be considered a villain? I mean, he's a shark, and he's hungry. He's doing exactly what he must do to survive.

• Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

  

  While Leatherface doesn't make the best choices by cannibalizing his victims, it's not like he went out into the world in pursuit of victims to devour. He only acts out when a group of teens breaks into his home. Not to mention, he was psychologically tortured and bullied about his mental disability by his family for years.

• Laura from Unfriended (2014)

  

  Unfriended is a modern horror film that takes place on an online video chat between a group of friends who recently lost a classmate named Laura when she took her own life.

  Laura's spirit comes back to haunt the group of friends. Over time, the audience learns that these friends humiliated and bullied Laura into taking drastic measures at the end of her life. To many on the forum, Laura wasn't a villain but a righteous victim, giving those teens what they deserved.

• Cecilia from Sissy (2022)

  

  Sissy is about two old friends, Emma and Cecilia, who stopped talking over a decade ago. They meet again, and Emma invites Cecilia to a girl's weekend away.

  But when Cecilia arrives, she realizes her old high-school bully is in attendance, sparking a rage that leads to violence. While many believe Cecilia is the obvious villain in the story, others see Emma as the true villain for bringing her old friend into a terrible situation.

• Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th (1980)

  

  Although Jason Voorhees murdered many innocents on Friday the 13th, his tragic backstory clarifies why his violence was aimed at Camp Crystal Lake. When he was a camper at age eleven, his counselors watched him drown and left him for dead so they could go party. I'd be mad, too, if I were Jason.

• Gabriel from Malignant (2021)

  

  Malignant is a psychological horror film about a woman named Madison who finds herself at the center of a serial killer called Gabriel's brutal attacks. But she learns Gabriel was her conjoined twin and was surgically removed from her when she was young, forcing him to seek refuge in her brain and only come out when the time was right to kill.

  Gabriel's own mother called him an abomination, and doctors tried to kill him, so it's understandable that he'd be angry. What other horror villains have maybe not excusable but understandable reasons for committing atrocities?

• Sue Anne from Ma (2019)

  

  When a group of teens convinces a vet tech named Sue Anne to buy them alcohol, their new friend soon hosts the teens in her basem*nt so they can party. But Sue Anne's kindness comes to a halt when she's triggered by memories of bullies from her past who just so happen to be the parents of the teens she's befriended.

  While it's undeniable that Sue Anne did terrible things to the kids, she isn't the film's true villain. The parents are.

Maya Capasso