These 17 Significant Others From Horror Movies Have Made Me Never Want To Date Again

This is why I don't date.

It's rough out there for people trying to date, and being a horror fan doesn't help.

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Sure, it's unlikely that a partner is going to start turning into a monstrous insect-human hybrid like in The Fly, and I'm not really interested in marrying into a super wealthy family like in You're Next and Ready or Not, but anyone can be a manipulative cannibal like in Fresh.

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Here are 20 of the worst significant others in horror movies that'll make you want to delete all your dating apps, in no particular order:

1. Seth Brundle from The Fly (1986)

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The Fly is really just a cautionary tale about what happens when you let jealousy get the better of you. Seth has no reason to think Veronica is cheating on him, but he still lets his concerns lead him to get drunk and essentially experiment on himself, leading to his fly-ification. Turning into a fly does nothing for his personality, and as he transforms, he becomes aggressive, inhuman, and unhinged, to the point that he tries to force Veronica (who's now pregnant) to fuse with him in the teleporter. Ultimately, he uses his last shred of humanity to ask her to kill him, which is clearly for the best.

2. Crispian from You're Next (2011)

Lionsgate

Where to begin with Crispian? It's sketchy enough that he was dating a student, but then, he made Erin an unwitting pawn in his scheme to inherit his parents' millions. As she points out, even if she wasn't a target, he must have known there was a chance she could be killed, and he reveals her survival was a key part of his plan so no one would suspect foul play. So, not so much a "no, I made sure you were kept alive because I love you" as a "no, I made sure you were kept alive because I needed an alibi." He also shamed her for being able to defend herself against a bunch of murderers. Erin was well within her rights to stab him in the neck.

3. Steve/Brendan from Fresh (2022)

Searchlight Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

This friggin' guy. First he lovebombs Noa, then he locks her up in his secret cannibal house, then he cuts off her butt, then he feeds her a piece of her best friend. Having his balls chewed off and being shot in the face was getting off light.

4. Rose Armitage from Get Out (2017)

Universal Pictures

It's bad enough to be a closeted racist, but to lure Black people to what many would consider a fate worse than death is some next-level shit. Also, she eats Froot Loops like a weirdo. I know she was just the last in a line of monsters, but she honestly deserved worse than being left to bleed out in the middle of the road.

5. Christian from Midsommar (2019)

A24

Christian really just sucks all around. He strings his girlfriend along for, like, a year, then puts off breaking up with her even longer because of the tragic deaths of her parents and sister. This might seem merciful, but being with someone who doesn't actually want to be with you is not a great salve for grief. He also steals his friend's thesis idea, which is just douchey.

6. Jack Torrance from The Shining (1980)

Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection

Look, I know he was basically possessed by the hotel, but he still cheated on his wife with a ghost and tried to kill his family. Big no-no!

7. Alex from Ready or Not (2019)

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Speaking of guys who put their significant others in significant danger, I don't care if Alex thought Grace was unlikely to pull the hide-and-seek card — he gambled with her life. He did not have to marry her. Even if she refused to stay with him unless he married her, she would have been kept out of danger. Sure, he tried to help her survive at first, but he ultimately betrayed her, choosing his family and their wealth over her. At least Grace (presumably) got that bag in the end, even though she seemed more interested in having a family.

8. Billy Loomis from Scream (1996)

Dimension Films

Billy really plays the long game in Scream. Instead of breaking up with Sidney when he finds out her mom and his dad were having an affair, he let himself be convinced to plot and carry out an elaborate revenge plot (with the help of Stu Macher) that involved murdering Maureen Prescott, framing one of her other lovers, waiting a year to execute more murders, taking Sidney's virginity, and trying to kill her. By the end of the movie, he's just asking for that umbrella through the heart.

9. Norman from What Lies Beneath (2000)

Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

Adulterer? Check. Murderer? Check. Gaslighter? Check. 

If you don't recall, Norman is a college professor who slept with his student, killed her when she threatened to tell the dean, and then attempted to kill his wife and make it look like a suicide when she discovered the truth. He's truly a bad spouse hall-of-famer and deserved his watery grave.

10. Micah from Paranormal Activity (2007)

Paramount Pictures

Micah's insistence on filming everything is annoying enough, but he also refuses to listen to any of the advice he and Katie get about the entity she's sure is in their home. He acts like a defiant child the whole movie and completely discounts Katie's wishes and fears, going so far as to bring an Ouija board into the house despite promising Katie he wouldn't. He even tries to argue that he promised her he wouldn't buy one, but she didn't say anything about him borrowing one. He didn't deserve to die, but he clearly wasn't mature enough to be in a relationship or own property.

11. Asami from Audition (1999)

Vitagraph Films LLC / courtesy Everett Collection

Depending on how you interpret the movie, Asami is a real piece of work. She makes Shigeharu, a widower, think she’s the perfect woman for him, and after he falls in love with her, decides he doesn’t love her enough and uses him as a stand-in for all the men who have wronged her in the past. She drugs and tortures him, even going after his son so there’s no competition for his affection.

I’m not going to defend the act of literally auditioning women to find a new wife, but Shigeharu definitely didn’t deserve what Asami put him through.

12. Peter from Black Christmas (1974)

Warner Bros.

This guy just absolutely sucks. After throwing a hissy fit because he bombed at his piano recital, he calls his girlfriend Jess a "selfish bitch" because she doesn't want to be a college-aged mother and tells her if she gets an abortion, she'll "be very sorry." Plus, he acts like it's no big deal that one of her sorority sisters is missing, even after finding out a little kid has been murdered in town. Did he deserve to die? No. Was his death the least upsetting? Yes.

13. Guy from Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Paramount Pictures

Speaking of gaslighting, it's just one of Guy's many crimes. He joins a cult and lets his wife get raped and impregnated by Satan so he can be a successful actor, then as she begins to correctly deduce that something is amiss, repeatedly tells her she's wrong. Then, when she has the baby, he lets her believe it was stillborn. He deserves a lot more than some spit to the face.

14. Trevor from Candyman (1992)

TriStar Pictures

Trevor is such a sleazeball. It's heavily implied that he cheats on Helen, his wife, and a MONTH after she's (falsely!) accused of murder and gets carted off to a psychiatric hospital, he's basically like, "Welp that one's broke, time to get a new, younger model" and moves his girlfriend into their apartment. I don't want to say he deserved what Helen did to him in the end, but...

15. Adam/Jeremy from Valentine (2001)

Warner Bros.

There's no denying that what happened to Jeremy at the school dance was extremely messed up. After being rejected again and again, he's falsely accused of assaulting the one girl who agrees to dance with him, then stripped down to his underwear and beaten up by his classmates.

HOWEVER, that's not an excuse to go on a vengeful murder spree over a decade later and convince your girlfriend — whose friends make up half the victims — that one of those friends is the actual murderer. He also lies about his identity, which is a whole other issue.

16. Chucky and Tiffany from the Child's Play franchise

Universal Pictures

These two might have the most toxic, on-again-off-again relationship I've ever seen. Even if they weren't constantly trying to kill each other, they're just not very nice to one another. He literally laughs in her face when she reveals she thought he was going to propose to her, which sets their whole terrible dynamic into motion. Tiffany has it right when she says they belong dead in Bride of Chucky.

17. Stephen and Evelyn from House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Warner Bros.

They honestly might give Chucky and Tiffany a run for their money. Evelyn spends her birthday trying to frame Stephen for her own fake murder and then get him killed so she can take all his money. After pretending to indeed die, Stephen tries to kill Evelyn (or at least scare the hell out of her), only for the house to get her first.

Who would you add to the list?