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Love Hurts: Horror’s 10 Most Brutal Romances

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Sometimes there’s nothing more horrifying than falling in love. While horror can show off the softer, sweeter aspects of relationships, like Spring, it knows how to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the darker aspects of romance. The isolating painful emotions of unrequited love, lost love, or even the sting of a lover’s betrayal, horror plays on the worst possible fears when it comes to romance. Forget Valentine’s day horror staples like My Bloody Valentine or 2001’s Valentine; these horror movies will make you realize just how nasty and cruel love can be. This Valentine’s Day, commiserate with horror’s most spurned by love with the most brutal romances on screen:


Frank Cotton and Julia Cotton – Hellraiser

Prior to marrying Larry Cotton, Julia had an affair with his brother, Frank. Frank went off to Morocco and got into some trouble with a certain Lament Configuration and that was that. Until Larry cut himself while moving into Frank’s house, unwittingly resurrecting Frank in the process. Julia’s carnal obsession with Frank renewed, she begins bringing men back to the house and murdering them to help regenerate the skinless walking corpse in the attic to her erstwhile lover’s old self. Poor Larry doesn’t even know what hit him. Oblivious to his wife’s obsession with his undead brother, and Frank’s bloodthirsty zest for life, Larry ends up a hapless skin suit. It’s Julia, however, that comes out the biggest loser, when she realizes too late that she meant absolutely nothing to her lover Frank. It’s a comprehension that dawns upon her at the pointy end of his blade.


Chucky and Tiffany – Bride of Chucky

It’s fitting that Tiffany’s last name is Valentine, as her introduction brought something to the series that we never expected; love. It’s the very human Tiffany that retrieves the remains of the Good Guy doll from police evidence and revives him via ritual. The reunited lovers gleefully embark on another murder spree, proving the couple that slays together, stays together. But two psychopathic killers don’t fight like normal couples, and between trapping Tiffany’s soul into her own murderous doll and the mundane chores of life, namely dishes, Tiffany and Chucky battle it out in the most violent ways. Throw in a fundamental difference on how to handle an unexpected pregnancy, and the volatile relationship between Tiffany and Chucky gets downright lethal.


Lola and Brent – The Loved Ones

Lola wants nothing more than to be the Princess her dad tells her she is, and find her Prince Charming. She decides that Brent is the one and invites him to the school dance. When he rejects her offer and she sees him with another girl, well, she decides she’ll get what she wants one way or another. Enlisting her father’s help, Brent is kidnapped and brutally tortured. After sticking a syringe full of bleach in Brent’s voice box, nailing his feet down to the floor, and carving in his skin, Lola decides love is a fickle thing and perhaps Brent isn’t the ideal prince after all. The truth is that maybe no one will love her as much as daddy, and that’s most terrifying of all.


Seth Brundle and Veronica Quaife – The Fly

Really one of horror’s most tragic love stories, and one that’s also more of an intriguing triangle than pair, David Cronenberg’s body horror remake runs the gamut of emotions. The initial sparks between journalist Veronica and quirky scientist Seth gives way to a full-blown relationship. But Seth harbors some insecurity toward Veronica’s relationship with her editor Stathis Borans, a former lover who clearly still has feelings for her. It’s an insecurity that’s dramatically heightened when Seth begins his metamorphosis into the Brundle-fly; the genetic merging of human and fly. As Veronica watches in horror as her lover’s nails and teeth begin falling out, his body becomes insect-like, and he starts vomiting digestive enzymes onto his food, her fears increase to unmanageable levels with the discovery that she’s pregnant by Seth. It’s the turning point that propels this twisted love story into gross-out catastrophe.


Marie and Alex – High Tension

Best friends Alex and Marie getaway to the countryside home of Alex’s family for a weekend of studying. It’s derailed quickly when a warped serial killer shows up and viciously slaughters Alex’s family. When the killer kidnaps Alex, Marie embarks on the most admirable quest to save her friend from the clutches of the most unnerving killers to come from the mind of Alexandre Aja in his breakout hit. True to its title, High Tension is one of the most intense cat and mouse games to watch unfold, and Marie’s desperation to save her friend is only rivaled by her fervent unrequited love for her best friend. It’s only once she finally does that Aja delivers one of horror’s most polarizing twists (obvious spoiler ahead): Marie’s obsession with her best friend has split her psyche in two; the perverse killer was really Marie all along. Alex might not return Marie’s love, but that won’t stop her from loving her any less. Crowbar to the chest and all.


Yoji and Sachiko – Meatball Machine

From the special effects artist, Yoshihiro Nishimura, who handled the insane gore effects from Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl, this wacky Japanese sci-fi splatter film centers around the love story between Yoji and Sachiko. Yoji is a shy factory worker with an unrequited crush on co-worker Sachiko. When he discovers Sachiko being sexually assaulted by another co-worker, his attempt to save her ends in dismal failure, but it’s the effort that counts and she ends up going home with him. But Yoji’s been hiding a strange alien insect in his apartment, and the thing merges with Sachiko, turning her into a bio-mechanical monster. When Yoji is also infected, the two would-be lovers are forced to eventually fight to the death. Over the top ridiculous gore, violence, and sensory overload, Yoji and Sachiko’s star-crossed love story feels like an acid trip for the extreme. It’s brutal.


Frank Zito and Anna D’Antoni – Maniac (2012)

Co-written by Alexandre Aja and directed by Franck Khalfoun, this surprisingly good remake gives serial killer Frank a much more sympathetic persona, painting him as a sort of tragic character created by his traumatic upbringing. Frank wants to find love, using an online dating site to meet women. He just gets nervous, panics, and winds up scalping them instead. Enter Anna, a photographer that’s charmed by the antique mannequins in his storefront. The pair embark on a warm friendship that causes Frank to want more from Anna. So earnest is his crush on Anna that he even takes his jealousy out on other victims when he first meets Anna’s boyfriend, murdering Anna’s mentor instead (granted, she did mock him). Elijah Wood does such a great job humanizing Frank, that you actually believe him when he tells Anna he doesn’t want to hurt her upon being outed as a killer. Frank’s story is one of unrequited love, an outsider destined to be perpetually alone among his bloody collection of scalps.


Henry and Becky – Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

I know, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a chilling character study of a serial killer, not a love story. But you try telling that to Becky, the sister of Henry’s latest partner in crime. To Becky, a woman who recently fled from an abusive husband, Henry’s aloof persona and brutal honesty is attractive. She also has no idea that her brother, Otis, and Henry have been on a murder spree, sometimes even going so far as to film their exploits. For someone used to being the victim of overbearing, abusive men, Becky is charmed by Henry’s shy recoil of her seduction attempts. And when Henry saves her from Otis’ attempt to murder her, she’s completely head over heels smitten with her savior. Becky is the poster child when it comes to falling for the worst possible partners in love.


Frank and Anna – Beyond the Darkness

There’s perhaps no other romance more twisted than that of taxidermist Frank Wyler and his fiancée Anna. She dies in the hospital from a mysterious illness that, unbeknownst to Frank, is really a voodoo curse placed on her by Frank’s jealous housekeeper Iris. So beside himself with grief, Frank decides to taxidermize her to keep her with him forever. It’s gory and gross, as to be expected by director Joe D’Amato (of Video Nasty Anthropophagus fame), and only gets weirder as the story progresses. Iris takes creepy advantage of Frank’s grief, and together the pair get homicidal. There’s unsettling erotic breastfeeding, hacked up victims that are then dissolved in acid baths, and Frank even gets a little cannibalistic when victims don’t appreciate the preserved body of Anna. Sometimes losing the one you love can drive you to madness, but Frank takes it to a whole new, twisted level.


Asami Yamazaki and Shigeharu Aoyama – Audition

You’d be forgiven for watching the first half of Takashi Miike’s seminal film and forgetting that you’re watching horror at all. Miike lulls you into thinking you’re watching a quiet love story unfold between widower Shigeharu and the enchanting Asami. So deliberate in pacing, it’s easy to overlook the minor red flags that there’s something seriously amiss with his new-found love. The more he falls head over heels Asami, the more he wants to know about her past. The more he tugs at the threads of her past, the more her veneer unravels, until it builds into the most terrifying and explosive finale. Asami’s gleeful giggling as she uses piano wire to forever tether her new love to her is the stuff of nightmares. There’s nothing sweet or innocent at all about this sick tale of online dating gone horribly wrong.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

Six Shot-on-VHS Horror Movies to Watch After ‘Frogman’

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Frogman VHS

Nostalgia is a funny thing. From the unexpected resurgence of vinyl to modern-day flip phones, it’s pretty clear that the technical limitations of the past can often inspire the stylish trends of the future. One of my favorite examples of this is the ongoing analog horror craze, as I find it fascinating how many of the genre’s major creators appear to have been born after the decline of VHS tapes and eerie PSAs.

It’s almost like there’s a subconscious understanding that some stories are best told through fuzzy visuals and heavily compressed audio, which is why I appreciate flicks like Anthony Cousins’s Found Footage throwback Frogman, a cryptozoology-inspired scary movie that dares to incorporate lo-fi aesthetics into its storytelling during a time when most studios encourage filmmakers to make their projects look as generically slick and polished as possible. And if you also enjoyed Frogman and are on the lookout for more VHS-based gems, Bloody-Disgusting has got you covered, as we’ve come up with a list highlighting six shot-on-VHS classics for your viewing pleasure.

As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite analog thrillers if you think we missed a particularly spooky one. I’d also like to give a shout-out to Bloody-Disgusting’s own long-running V/H/S series, which won’t be included here for obvious reasons.

Now, onto the list…


6. Zero Day (2003)

School shootings are one of the scariest realities of the modern world, but the complicated political elements behind these tragedies mean that most genre filmmakers don’t even try to tell stories about them. There are a few exceptions, however, and one of the most notable is Ben Coccio’s Zero Day, a deeply uncomfortable Found Footage character study that explores just how far ill-intentioned teenagers might go to prove a point.

Inspired by the real-world Columbine Basement Tapes, in which the mass-murderers kept a record of their plans and motivations, Coccio’s film follows a fictional video diary where troubled friends Andre and Calvin discuss their homicidal intentions. Another case where the gritty visuals make the story hit even harder, I’d recommend this one for discerning fans of True Crime media.


5. August Underground (2001)

Out of all the movies on this list, Fred Vogel’s August Underground is simultaneously one of the most fascinating and the hardest to recommend. A simulated snuff film following the exploits of a degenerate serial killer and his deranged filmmaker friend, the low production value and amateurish visuals make this shot-on-video experience even more uncomfortable as you begin to question if it really is just a movie.

And while Vogel would go on to expand on this controversial production with a series of slightly more agreeable sequels that boasted improved visuals, none of the follow-ups can quite compare to the raw thrills of the original. Just make sure that you don’t accidentally pick this one for family movie night if you dare to give it a watch.


4. WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

Frogman VHS list

The only entry on this list produced after the decline of VHS-based media, this 2013 classic still holds up as a convincing masterclass in authentic period-piece horror. A simulated recording of a public access show gone terribly wrong, the WNUF Halloween Special should be on everyone’s spooky season watchlist – though I’d argue that it’s best enjoyed as a background conversation piece during Halloween parties.

From the hilarious yet extremely believable retro advertisements to the not-so-subtle hints of the satanic panic motivating the story, this is a delightful experience even if you weren’t alive back when this kind of TV was still on the air.

And if you like this one, don’t forget to check out the Out There Halloween Mega Tape, which was made by the same director.


3. The McPherson Tape (1989)

Originally made popular by bootleg copies circulating the underground VHS trading scene, there’s no discussing shot-on-video horror without bringing up one of the grandaddies of modern-day Found Footage, the legendary McPherson Tape. Also known as UFO Abduction, this homemade thriller follows a birthday party gone wrong as the Van Heese family is visited by extraterrestrials.

While the flick works better as a terrifying hoax rather than a proper movie due to its odd pacing and general lack of traditional story structure, it’s still a must-watch for Found Footage fans. Just be sure to track down the gritty original, not the 1998 remake, Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.


2. Ghostwatch (1992)

Frogman VHS movies

The term “made-for-TV” used to carry some seriously negative connotations in the world of film, with most audiences assuming that this kind of classification meant that they were about to watch low-budget schlock unsuitable for the big screen. However, there were plenty of clever filmmakers that managed to turn the limitations of broadcast television into storytelling tools, and a great example of this is Stephen Volk’s excellent mockumentary, Ghostwatch.

Starring real TV host Sir Michael Parkinson and borrowing details from the infamous Enfield Poltergeist case, this controversial TV special attempted to do for hauntings what Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio adaptation did for aliens. And while we’ve seen scarier Found Footage ghost stories in the decades since Ghostwatch premiered, I’d argue that the chilling authenticity behind the production makes it well worth revisiting in 2024.


1. America’s Deadliest Home Video (1993)

Jack Perez’s pioneer POV thriller may not be that well known these days, but this obscure little gem is actually responsible for many Found Footage tropes that we now take for granted. Telling the story of an amateur cameraman who finds himself being kidnapped by a group of criminals during a road trip, this video diary from hell still holds up as a horrific example of grounded Found Footage.

While some questionable acting and convenient story beats sometimes break the carefully crafted immersion, America’s Deadliest Home Video stands out by not only being one of the first of its kind, but also by embracing its amateurish roots instead of being embarrassed by them.


Frogman, which actually was released on VHS, is now available on VOD outlets.

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