Dating can be a nightmare, especially when you’re in a horror movie. The boyfriend has turned out to be the killer in so many slashers that these days, he automatically becomes everyone’s first suspect. You’d think that would stop horror movies from making the boyfriend the killer, but it hasn’t. In fact, some horror movies have come up with some pretty clever workarounds so that the reveal at the end still manages to feel like a surprise.
The horror movies we have here all feature a killer boyfriend, but they frame the big reveal in unique and creative ways. They use red herrings or multiple masked killers to throw audiences off the scent. Some of the twists on this list are more shocking than others, but each one of them makes a compelling argument for quitting dating altogether.
Here are the 8 best horror movies where the boyfriend turns out to be the killer.
Spoiler Warning: Each movie’s ending is described in detail below.
‘Scream’ (1996)
Scream is one of the most iconic horror movies of the 1990s. It changed the game by acknowledging horror movie tropes within the realm of the narrative. The whole thing starts with Ghostface calling up Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) and asking her what her favorite scary movie is. By the time Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends are fighting for their lives, the audience already knows all the “rules” to surviving a horror movie.
Never Trust the Boyfriend
Scream is so meta, it states early on that the boyfriend should be suspect number one. Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), the film’s resident horror fan, is the one who explains it. So, how does the movie still manage to surprise the audience when Sydney’s boyfriend, Billy (Skeet Ulrich), is revealed to be the killer? Scream uses two killers in the same costume as a misdirection, going so far as to stage Billy’s murder for Sydney to see. At the end, the audience learns that not only is Billy alive, he is also a killer. Billy’s accomplice is Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), Billy’s best friend and Tatum’s (Rose McGowan) boyfriend. That’s two killer boyfriends for the price of one.
‘My Bloody Valentine 3D’ (2009)
My Bloody Valentine has three key tragedies. There’s the initial mine explosion in 1997, in which miner Harry Warden (Richard John Walters) kills off his fellow survivors to conserve oxygen for himself, making him the accident’s sole survivor. One year later, Harry wakes up from a coma and seeks revenge by going on a killing spree. Harry is stopped when Sheriff Burke (Tom Atkins) shoots him, and Harry wanders off into the mine. Cut to ten years later, when a survivor of the 1998 massacre, Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles), comes back to town after his father’s death. Tom’s ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Jamie King), is married to the new sheriff, Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith). Soon, the Miner returns and the killings start up again.
Changing the Ending
Everyone thinks Harry Warden, whose body was never recovered, is back. But he’s not. The final act of the film reveals that Tom, traumatized by the 1998 massacre, has developed an alter ego as the Miner and has been killing people ever since he returned to town. This is a clever reveal for two reasons. The first is that Tom is more likable than Axel, who is cheating on Sarah. The audience roots for Tom and, therefore, doesn’t suspect him. The second clever thing this movie does is change the ending. My Bloody Valentine is based on a 1981 movie of the same name. In the 1981 version, Axel (Neil Affleck), is revealed to be the killer and even fakes his own death to avoid being suspected.
‘Sorority Row’ (2009)
When a prank goes horribly wrong, a group of Theta Pi sorority sisters cover up the death of their friend Megan (Audrina Patridge) by hiding the body. Eight months later, everyone involved in the cover-up receives a text message indicating that someone knows what they did. Initially, they suspect Megan’s boyfriend, Garrett (Matt O’Leary), but no one can prove it. Then, the sorority sisters start getting killed off…but it’s not Garret who is responsible.
Establishing Motive
Andy (Julian Morris) is the boyfriend of another sorority sister, Cassidy (Briana Evigan). After hearing about the way Cassidy and her friends covered up Megan’s death, Any fears that word will get out and his future with Cassidy will be ruined. Instead of waiting for that to happen, he decides to kill off all of Cassidy’s friends so that no one can ever reveal the truth about Megan’s death. Sorority Row is another remake that changes the ending. In the original 1982 version of the movie, The House on Sorority Row, all the characters are different, and the final girl’s boyfriend is not the killer.
‘You’re Next’ (2011)
You’re Next takes the home invasion horror movie and turns it on its head. Erin (Sharni Vinson) has no idea what she’s in for when she goes with her boyfriend, Crispian Davison (A. J. Bowen), to dinner at the Davison family vacation home in rural Missouri. When members of the Davison family start getting killed off, it appears that they have been targeted by unknown assailants outside the house. Then, the killers run into a problem. Erin grew up in a survivalist compound and is uniquely equipped for a situation like this.
Being a Co-Conspirator Still Counts
Erin stays alive long enough to discover that the murderers are hired assassins. Crispian’s brother, Felix (Nicholas Tucci), and Felix’s girlfriend, Zee (Wendy Glenn), planned the whole thing so that Felix could inherit everything from his parents. Of course, this is not where the story ends. There’s a second twist — one that Erin didn’t see coming. Crispian is part of Felix’s conspiracy. He only brought Erin on the trip so she could be a witness and say that Felix and Crispian had nothing to do with the murders. Technically, Crispian doesn’t kill anyone directly, but the fact that he was involved in the whole grisly ordeal makes him culpable.
‘Ready or Not’ (2019)
Ready or Not is one of two movies on this list with a supernatural component. The whole basis for the film is that Le Domas family made a deal with the devil. In exchange for their fortune, they are required to observe the same tradition every time a member of the family gets married. They must play a game chosen by a bedeviled puzzle box. Most of the time, the game is harmless, but every so ofte,n the family is forced to play “Hide-and-Seek” by hunting down and killing the newest member of their family before sunrise. Grace (Samara Weaving) knows none of this when she marries Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien). At first, she thinks the game is harmless, but soon Grace realizes that the Le Domas family is deadly serious.
Broken Marriage Vows
Alex initially tries to save Grace, but when push comes to shove it is Alex’s brother, the troubled and cynical Daniel (Adam Brody), who is really willing to put Grace’s safety above his own. When Alex realizes Grace will never trust him after all of this, he decides to complete the ritual and stay alive instead of helping her to get away. He doesn’t succeed, though. Grace survives the night and the remaining members of the Le Domas — including Alex — explode for failing to honor their pact with the devil. Like Crispian in You’re Next, Alex isn’t your traditional horror movie killer. He does, however, marry Grace knowing the risks involved. He brings her into his family fully aware of what they are capable of and is ultimately more loyal to his family and his own survival than he is to the woman he promised to love forever. By the way, Ready or Not 2 is currently in development.
‘Fear Street Part Two: 1978’ (2021)
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 is the second supernatural horror movie on this list and functions as the second installment in the Fear Street trilogy. In this movie, a survivor of the 1978 Camp Nightwing massacre tells the story of what happened the night of the massacre when her sister was murdered. Things fall apart for camp counselor Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd) when her boyfriend, Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye), gets possessed and starts killing people. Now technically, Tommy is a killer boyfriend, but he’s not the reason Fear Street Part Two: 1978 makes this list.
A Surprising Twist
Throughout the movie, Cindy’s younger sister, Ziggy (Sadie Sink), finds herself falling for camp counselor Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland). Nick even saves Ziggy at the end, performing CPR until paramedics arrive to take Ziggy away. This reveals that Ziggy is the woman telling the story in 1994 and Cindy was the sister who died in the massacre, even though the movie tries to make it seem like it will be the other way around. But that’s not the end of the story. In Fear Street Part Three: 1666, it is revealed that the Goode family has been sacrificing the residents of Shadyside in exchange for success and power for centuries. It was Nick who cursed Tommy that night in 1978 and the only reason Ziggy survived her injuries was because Nick, who had a major crush on her, used his influence to spare her. When adult Ziggy (Gillian Jacobs) learns this in 1994, she’s determined to stop Nick and his family once and for all.
‘Scream’ (2022)
Don’t get this movie confused with the 1996 original. The 2022 Scream is actually the fifth installment in the Scream franchise. Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) returns to the town of Woosboro after her estranged younger sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega), survives a Ghostface attack. Familiar with Ghostface’s past but clearly in over their heads, Sam and her boyfriend, Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) turn to former sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) for help. Dewey is one of the original survivors from the 1996 movie and knows a thing or two about surviving a horror movie.
Seriously, Never Trust the Boyfriend
When Sam and Ritchie sit down with Dewey, the very first thing Dewey does is ask Sam who Ritchie is and how long she’s known him. “Rule number one,” he warns, “Never trust the love interest.” Much like the original film, the fifth Scream knows the tropes and is getting ahead of them early. By making Dewey suspicious of Ritchie from the get-go, he brings that suspicion out into the open for the audience. Surely, a movie wouldn’t give away its killer like that, right?
Wrong. Ritchie is a killer. In fact, he is one of two killers. He works with Tara’s friend Amber (Mikey Madison) and, as Billy does in the first movie, avoids suspicion by being far away from the murders Amber commits as Ghostface. You’d think the same boyfriend trick wouldn’t work twice in the same franchise, but it really does. Jack Quaid’s charming persona and reputation for playing the adorably well-meaning Hughie Campbell on Amazon Prime’s The Boys probably helped a lot here in terms of marketing.
‘Fresh’ (2022)
Fresh might not have the most shocking killer reveal, but the film uses that reveal in such an interesting way that omitting this movie would be a mistake. Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is fed up with online dating when she meets a man called Steve (Sebastian Stan) at the supermarket. They go on a few dates, and those dates go well, but the audience knows that this is a horror movie. While Noa trusts Steve, the audience doesn’t. And the audience is right. Steve’s real name is Brendan, and he pretends to date women so he can abduct them and sell their flesh to a select cannibalistic clientele.
Dinner Date From Hell
The cat and mouse game that ensues between Noa and Brendan is fascinating to watch. Noa is the only prisoner Brendan had sex with when they started “dating”, and so Noa uses this knowledge to her advantage. She feigns an interest in cannibalism to gain Brendan’s trust, and it works. The two have dinner together. This gives Noa the upper hand she needs so that she and the other imprisoned women can escape. Noa and her friend Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs), who was captured trying to save Noa, escape, and Brendan gets his heart served on a platter to his fellow cannibals. A fitting ending for a movie called Fresh.
