Random Horror Films Where You Gleefully Root for Villain (12 items)

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  (#1) Freddy vs. Jason

  • Evangeline Lilly, Kelly Rowland, Monica Keena, Katharine Isabelle, Robert Englund, Jason Ritter, Zack Ward, Lochlyn Munro, Garry Chalk, Paula Shaw, Chris Marquette, Brendan Fletcher, Ken Kirzinger, Kyle Labine, Tom Butler, Jesse Hutch

  For decades, horror fans were begging for Jason and Freddy to go at it to decide who was the scariest scary man in all the land, and even though the movie is kind of blah, the fight scenes between to the two horror juggernauts are genuinely fun. Both of the main monsters dispatch their teen body count with aplomb, but Freddy just has a certain flair about him in this movie that Jason can't match. 
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  (#2) The Cabin in the Woods

  • Chris Hemsworth, Sigourney Weaver, Amy Acker, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Anna Hutchison, Brian J. White, Kristen Connolly, Jodelle Ferland, Fran Kranz, Tom Lenk, Bradley Whitford, Chelah Horsdal, Monique Ganderton, Tim De Zarn, Richard Cetrone, Dan Payne

  Yes, it's terrible that there's a secret cabal of scientists and army men who are trying to kill a bunch of sexy college students with monsters - but they're doing it to save the world! And how can you not fall in love with Bradley Whitford any time he appears onscreen? 
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  (#3) Unfriended

  • Shelley Hennig, Moses Jacob Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson, Heather Sossaman

  Unfriended might be the least scary but most inventive found-footage horror film that's ever been made - but its teen protagonists are the human equivalent of an old burrito that you left in the back of your refrigerator. There isn't one likeable character in this movie beyond the angry ghost of a girl that was cyberbullied to death. 
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  (#4) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

  • Terry Farrell, Paula Marshall, Doug Bradley, Ashley Laurence, Anthony Hickox, Brent Bolthouse, Flame, George Lee, Robert C. Treveiler, Kevin Bernhardt, Sharon Ceccatti, Aimée Leigh, Robert Hammond, Peter Atkins, Bob Bragg, Clayton Hill, Ken Carpenter, James D.R. Hickox, Rosemary Gore, Lawrence Mortorff, Steve Painter, Christopher Frederick, Paul Vincent Coleman, Peter G. Boynton, Lawrence Kuppin, David Young, Angela Thomas, Shanna Lynn, Bob Stephens, Philip Hyland, Ron Norris, Sharon Percival, Cassandra Perry, Eric Willhelm, Young Bobby Knoop, Anna Marie Isaacs, Tonya Saunders, Kim Ball

  If we're being honest, most of the characters in the Hellraiser films deserve whatever chain-draped punishment they get, but the jerks in Hellraiser III are reallllly sh*tty. In fact, until Pinhead and the rest of his rubber-clad minions pop out of a spooky sex statue early in the second act, viewers are left to wonder if they popped in the right VHS. 
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  (#5) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

  • Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Robert Englund, Yaphet Kotto, Breckin Meyer, Lisa Zane, Lisa Wilcox, Peter Spellos, Angelina Estrada, Ricky Dean Logan, Lezlie Deane, Marilyn Rockafellow, Michael McNabb, Tobe Sexton, Shon Greenblatt, Cassandra Rachel Friel, Lindsey Fields, Chason Schirmer

  Even for die-hard Krueger fans, Freddy's Dead is hard to watch. Not only is Krueger abused by his father and the children of Springwood, OH, but he takes to committing self-harm before he's blown up with a pipe bomb. Welcome to sad time, b*tch. 
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  (#6) Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D

  • Betsy Palmer, Steve Miner, Richard Brooker, Tracie Savage, Marilyn Poucher, Steve Dash, Dana Kimmell, Catherine Parks, Amy Steel, John Furey, Steve Susskind, Jeffrey Rogers, Anne Gaybis, Nick Savage, Paul Kratka, Larry Zerner, Perla Walters, David Wiley, Gloria Charles, Kevin O'Brien, Cheri Maugans, Charlie Messenger, Terry Ballard, Terence McCorry, David Katims, Rachel Howard, Gianni Standaart

  The first horror film to give us a disco theme song also left us with no other option than to cheer on Jason as sliced, diced, and destroyed a port-a-potty on his way to the credits. This is one of the first slashers that turned the murder of sexy teens into an Olympic sport, and it's genuinely one of the most fun horror films of all time. 
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  (#7) Leprechaun 3

  • Warwick Davis, Leigh-Allyn Baker, Michael Callan, Caroline Williams, John Gatins, Tom Dugan, Marcelo Tubert, John Demita, Rod McCary, Merle Kennedy, Roger Hewlett, Lee Armstrong, Ian Gregory, Richard Reicheg, Heidi Lynne, Zoe Trilling, Linda Dee Shayne, Darren Michaels, Giovanni Jackson, Jennifer Stein, Terry Lee Crisp, Susan Skinner, Henry Young, P. 'Trash' Temperill

  This could literally be any Leprechaun film, but the only character that Leprechaun Las Vegas gives the audience to remotely root for is Warwick Davis's gold-obsessed Irish demon who slaughters a misogynistic club owner, does a mean Elvis impersonation, and saws an annoying magician in half with a chainsaw. 
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  (#8) Slaughter High

  • Caroline Munro, Billy Hartman, Gary Martin, Simon Scuddamore, Kelly Baker, Donna Yeager, Michael Saffran, Carmine Iannaccone

  Slaughter High was expelled from the glut of '80s slasher films, and while it doesn't stand up to Top 10 list mainstays like Sleepaway Camp or Friday the 13th Part 2, this movie is so dumb and off-base that it's worth watching. The film takes place five years after a nondescript high school's graduation, and all the popular kids are coming back for a party, but Marty, the school nerd who they bullied until his face melted off and he was sent to an insane asylum, has other plans. If you're not pro-Marty in this scenario, you might be a sociopath.
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  (#9) The Return of the Living Dead

  • Clu Gulager, James Karen, Linnea Quigley, Don Calfa, Miguel A. Núñez, Jr., Thom Mathews, Brian Peck, John Philbin, Jewel Shepard, Beverly Randolph, Jonathan Terry

  Do you want to party? The brain-eating monsters that populate RotLD aren't just better than any of the characters that they chow down on, they're better than the zombies from Romero's films (hot take alert!). Rather than chase down their victims, these deadheads get to the point and have their dinner delivered. 
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  (#10) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

  • Robert Englund, Zelda Rubinstein, Scott Wilson, Kane Hodder, Angela Goethals, Nathan Baesel, Krissy Carlson, Kate Miner, Jordan Noce, Mia Butler, Britain Spellings, Travis Zariwny, Hart Turner, Susan Spencer, Hannah Rader, Scott Glosserman, Alex Revan, Anthony Forsyth, Tommy Peters, Bridgett Newton, Ben Pace, Jenafer Brown, Teo Gomez, Steve Kaminsky, Morgan Kitzmiller, Matt Bolt

  Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon takes us behind the veil of slasher films to see how they do their dirty work. Leslie is a charming bad boy who delights in turning horror tropes upside down while the audience falls in love. It's almost like he's the only character in the film that we're supposed to like. 
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  (#11) The Blair Witch Project

  • Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams, Patricia DeCou, Mark Mason, Jim King, Bob Griffin, Jackie Hallex, Ed Swanson, Sandra Sánchez

  If you're like a lot of horror fans, about 20 minutes into The Blair With Project you started actively rooting for the titular Blair Witch, or Rustin Parr, or a random stranger to put the audience out of their misery and throw Heather Donahue and the rest of her friends into a lake. 
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  (#12) Funny Games

  • Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Brady Corbet, Boyd Gaines, Robert LuPone, Devon Gearhart, Linda Moran, Susi Haneke

  Funny Games pulls of a trick that seems impossible for a movie about preppy teenage murderers, in that it makes you begin to root for the young men who savage a family of WASPs who are on vacation. We're sure it has something to do with our generation's desensitization to violence thanks to overwhelming death crazed media, but also Tim Roth is kind of a wiener in this movie. 

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