Editorials
Scene Stealers: 10 Horror Sidekicks Who Stole the Show
While villains and heroes often hog the spotlight, the supporting characters rarely get the appreciation that their due. But a supporting character, and sidekick, are extremely important to the story. Not only must they back up the main characters, but they’re often the ones that deliver important exposition, expand the mystery, offer much higher dramatic stakes, and more than not, bring comedic levity. We laugh with them and we get upset if they’re killed, because let’s face it, a sidekick is far more expendable than the hero. Sometimes, though, a sidekick comes along that is so great that they manage to outshine the lead players. In honor of the sidekick, and especially the ones that manage to steal the film out from under the heroes and villains, here’s horror’s best:
Fright Night – Evil Ed
In a film with Roddy McDowall and Chris Sarandon, Stephen Geoffreys holds his own and then some as the scene-stealing Edward “Evil Ed” Thompson. He also pulls double duty on the sidekick front, first as best pal to lead protagonist Charley Brewster, and then as a right-hand man to lead vampire Jerry Dandridge once turned. Evil Ed has a distinct laugh, a slightly warped sense of humor, an affection for horror movies, and a distaste for Charley’s girlfriend Amy; all reasons we end up loving and rooting for Ed. We love him even more as a vampire, something he clearly enjoys being. But most of all, we love his one-liners, and Geoffreys’ delivery of them. “Oh, you’re so COOL, Brewster!”
Jaws – Quint
Chief Brody may be the lead protagonist of this Steven Spielberg classic, but it’s Robert Shaw and his portrayal of grizzled shark hunter Quint that steals our hearts. An integral part of the team, Quint brings a lot of wisdom as captain of the Orca, and just a ton of character. He’s the perfect counterpart to meek oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and his stubborn resilience makes him perfect for hunting the elusive man-eating shark. But it’s his three-and-a-half-minute speech about his time served aboard the USS Indianapolis during World War II, in which he and shipmates delivered the Hiroshima bomb, that’s utterly captivating. It’s a scene-stealing monologue delivered by fantastic Shaw that makes this one of cinema’s best scenes ever. Of all the victims of Jaws, Quint’s really stung.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 – Chop Top Sawyer
Sometimes even the bad guys get sidekicks, and in this over the top sequel, the iconic Leatherface couldn’t hold his own against his brother Chop Top. A deranged Vietnam vet with a metal plate in his head thanks to a “lucky gook with a machete,” he was initially conceived to be the Hitchhiker, before evolving into his more deranged twin. What really made Chop Top a scene stealer though, was Bill Moseley’s scene-chewing performance, clearly enjoying every minute of it. Tobe Hooper enlisted Moseley for the part after the actor played the role of The Hitchhiker in a short film parody of the first film, and we’re glad he did. Chop Top also wins for being the rare sidekick to outlast the lead; the final battle is between Chop Top and Stretch after Sawyers and Lefty are killed in an explosion.
An American Werewolf In London – Jack Goodman
The sarcastic best friend to straight-man turned werewolf David Kessler, Jack steals every scene he’s in. As the undead cursed to plague David until the werewolf lineage ends, Jack serves both as the moral compass and comedic relief. That every appearance marks a drastic deterioration in Jack’s undead condition further elevates the anticipation for any scene with this scene-stealing sidekick. As great as David’s twisted journey with his werewolf curse is, and his romance with Nurse Alex, it’s Jack’s winning personality that makes him easier to empathize with.
Saw – Amanda Young
Shawnee Smith’s appearance as Amanda Young was so brief and minor by comparison, as the only known survivor of the Jigsaw Killer, but so memorable that she returned for the second and third entry in a much bigger role. Revealed to be Jigsaw’s righthand woman, Amanda managed to be one of the series most sympathetic characters, despite her trap-setting work. Much of that was Smith’s performance, but it also had a lot to do with the fact that Amanda rarely killed out of spite, something most in line with Jigsaw’s mission statement. Of all the apprentices that have come and gone, the one that fans most want to see return is Amanda. Considering how iconic Jigsaw and his puppet are, that’s no small accomplishment.
Get Out – Rod Williams
Rod Williams is the type of best friend that all best friends should aspire to. That he deftly handles the task of comedic relief assigned to nearly all sidekicks isn’t what makes him a scene stealer, though, but his tireless quest to keep his friend out of harm’s way. It begins with the warnings out of concern, before Chris sets off for his girlfriend’s parents. He keeps tabs on Chris, too, making sure his friend is ok with constant communication. He’s even willing to make himself look like a fool at the police station when that communication goes silent. His detective work shows he’s much smarter than he’s given credit for, too. If somehow none of that is enough to convince you of he steals the show, then the scene in which he swoops in to save the day, allowing the audience to release the breath they were holding, solidifies it. Rod Williams ends the film as the MVP.
Cabin In the Woods – Marty Mikalski
In keeping with Joss Whedon’s dissection of horror tropes, Marty Mikalski begins the film as the stoner sidekick before eventually transitioning into unlikely hero. Designated to play the part of The Fool, Marty is meant to poke fun of the idiot teens that exist in a lot of horror. His stash of marijuana-laced by the Chem Department of The Facility running the ritual for The Ancient Ones to make him more suitable for the role, but a hidden, untampered with stash meant he was the first to break type and piece together what was really happening to his friends. It wasn’t the Scholar or the Athlete that determined the fate of the world, but The Fool, an archetype that’s usually reserved for early deaths. It also helped that Marty was played by the hilarious Fran Kranz, an actor with a penchant for sarcastic delivery.
Day of the Dead – Bub
The domesticated zombie creation of George A. Romero, Bub isn’t the sidekick of lead protagonist Dr. Sarah Bowman, but her colleague Dr. “Frankenstein” Logan. There’s a strangely beautiful friendship between the pair, as Dr. Logan hopes to bring the docile zombie back toward humanity. Bub loves music, saluting soldiers, and the companionship of his friend. Bub represents an innocence amidst the corruption of the soldiers in Fort Myers, and we grieve with him when he finds the corpse of his friend. While all of this would be enough to earn Bub the title of scene-stealer, it’s his oh-so-gratifying revenge upon Captain Rhodes that makes him the best character in the film.
Bone Tomahawk – Chicory
A case could be made for Richard Jenkins as a scene stealer any of his horror roles, from Let Me In to The Shape of Water; he’s that good. But it’s his role as the bumbling backup town deputy, Chicory, that wins. His friendship with Sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell) provides an emotional center, but most importantly, it helps the long stretch as the film’s main foursome ride across the Wild West to rescue captives from troglodytes. Chicory is amusingly chatty, much to the dismay of many in the party, and Jenkins’ brilliantly gives his blundering character a ton of heart. Because it takes a long while before the horror kicks in, we needed Chicory’s hilarious banter with stoic Sheriff Hunt. It’s hard to stand out when Kurt Russell is playing the lead, but Richard Jenkins does with seemingly effortless ease. Chicory didn’t even have to steal the show with heroic acts; he just had to be played by the always great Richard Jenkins.
Scream – Randy Meeks
While Matthew Lillard was a serious contender as scene stealer for his turn as the killer’s sidekick and best friend Stu Macher, it was ultimately Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks that stole the show. Close friend of final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Randy’s geeky, movie-obsessed personality was not only endearing but it made him a vital asset; his movie knowledge meant much-needed exposition for both Sidney and the audience. The biggest reason Randy resonated so strongly with horror fans, though, is that he was our proxy. Randy was the avatar of every horror fan, and reminded us that we weren’t alone in our fandom. One of Wes Craven’s most brutal kills was that of Randy Meeks in Scream 2. We’re still not over it.
Five decades ago, Stephen King published the story of a bullied girl with telekinetic powers and forever changed the world of horror.
Carrie follows a high school misfit who seeks revenge for a hideous prank by psychically destroying her senior prom. The name Carrie White has become synonymous with the concept of a formal dance thanks to a flawless adaptation from Brian De Palma. Now fifty years after the film’s release, Mike Flanagan is putting his own stamp on the troubling story.
Rather than a feature film, the writer/director will expand King’s relatively slim debut novel into an eight-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime set to premiere on October 7.
Flanagan is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. A long-time Constant Reader, he first made waves with his daring adaptation of Gerald’s Game (2017), a novel many fans considered un-filmable. His underrated Doctor Sleep merges the disparate plot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with King’s original source material, and his 2024 genre-bending tearjerker The Life of Chuck faithfully executes one of the author’s most metaphysical novellas.
He’s currently mired in pre-production for an expansive adaptation of The Dark Tower series, keystone to King’s connected universe, and Warner Bros. recently announced that Flanagan will helm a new version of The Mist, King’s 1980 novella which sees a small Maine town overrun by otherworldly monsters.
Considering the vast array of the author’s previously unadapted material, an obvious question arises. Why reimagine Carrie in 2026? Noting the timeless nature of the content, Flanagan expressed his desire to bring the story of a bullied girl into modern times, mirroring his approach to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. He explained, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”
His miniseries will maintain the novel’s bloody bookends while delivering “big surprises” along the way.
A New Prom Night Nightmare
The roughly 60-second teaser introduces Summer H. Howell as Carrie White just before the moment of catastrophe. Standing in a prom dress, she smiles at her applauding classmates with an ominous crown perched upon her head. Moments later, Carrie unleashes a rage-filled scream into the night air while promgoers rush for the exit doors. But careful examination of this scene shows Carrie wearing a different, albeit dirty dress as she seems to telekinetically punish her peers.
In an exclusive first look with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan explains that in his version of the story, “the events of that prom are going to be completely different.” An open trunk emitting a crimson glow does hint at the pig’s blood dumped on Carrie’s head, but it’s likely Flanagan’s formal dance will be a different kind of horror altogether. Despite these changes, the series may end with the widespread destruction outlined in the source material. Unlike any previous adaptations, King’s novel ends with the near-total destruction of Chamberlain, Maine. A flaming street in Flanagan’s trailer promises similar carnage no matter what prank sparks Carrie’s deadly revenge.
The Monstrous Addition of Social Media
On the opposite end of this fiery conclusion is an extreme act of bullying that brings together the story’s main cast. King’s novel begins as Carrie gets her first period while showering in the girls’ locker room. Completely unaware of the concept of menstruation, the sheltered girl thinks she’s bleeding to death. Her classmates respond with vitriolic rage. Led by ultra-mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), they mock the terrified teen while pelting her with tampons. Glimpses of this disturbing event reveal that Flanagan has excised the scene’s nudity while adding a seismic update. As Carrie sobs in the shower stall, Chris and her friends film the breakdown with their phones.
Other scenes note the presence of social media, bringing King’s fifty-year-old story into the digital age.
Flanagan’s adaptation promises to explore the destructive power of social media, an often invisible entity with a potential for harm rivaling Carrie’s own powers. While King’s tormented heroine suffers in front of a small group of girls, Flanagan’s version of the incident will likely become a viral video, potentially circling the globe on social media. Similar to Katt Shea’s criminally underrated The Rage: Carrie 2, which includes elements of revenge porn exploitation, Flanagan’s modern retelling will distinguish itself by exploring the nebulous cruelty of online bullying, a force ten times more powerful than the irl pranks King first envisioned.
A Completely Reimagined White Family
In addition to modernizing these canon events, Flanagan hints at updates to Carrie’s oppressive upbringing at the hands of her mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). Dead before the novel begins, we never meet Carrie’s domineering father Ralph, known to carry a bible alongside his gun. Flanagan’s White household will be an altogether different beast. In his version of the story, Carrie and her mother have been hidden away in the unassuming home, forced out of hiding by Ralph’s unexpected death. Perhaps we will finally meet this elusive man whose shadow hangs over his wife and child. Considering the White family’s fundamentalist lifestyle, this reimagining hints at tradwife culture and a home ruled by staunch patriarchal control.
Whereas King’s Carrie has been tormented by her classmates since Kindergarten, Flanagan’s Carrie will be a wide-eyed newcomer to public school, eager to make friends and engage with her peers. We glimpse Carrie cozying up to Chris and the equally popular Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) as she navigates a new social scene. Of course, we know this kindness is part of an elaborate plot designed to lull Carrie into a false sense of camaraderie, setting up an atrocious act of public humiliation. These brief moments of feigned compassion put Sue’s own complicity into question. Will Flanagan’s version of the character find the courage to defend Carrie from vicious bullies or will she succumb to peer pressure and join in the mob mentality?
Perhaps the biggest deviation from King’s original text is the relationship between Carrie and her mother. King’s Margaret White is a horrifically abusive religious zealot whose worldview has been hardened by internalized misogyny. She shames Carrie for menstruating, locks her in a closet to “pray,” and regrets not killing her child in infancy. She’s also responsible for Carrie’s social ostracization. Known to berate her neighbors for their “sins,” Margaret forces her daughter to live by an extreme code of conduct and disallows any potential friends lest they corrupt the girl with their worldly ways.
Flanagan’s version of the character is perhaps just as much a victim as Carrie herself. Also trapped inside her home, his Margaret is overly vigilant, her own trauma manifesting as strict control. Describing a more sympathetic depiction of the iconic villain, Flanagan explains, “Our Margaret White is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world … [She] doesn’t know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private utopia.”
Despite this potential softening, Sloyan’s Margaret may still have a sharp edge. Though she has appeared in many Flanagan projects, from Hush (2016) to The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), she is best known for her role as the abhorrent Bev Keane in the poignant saga Midnight Mass (2021). Perhaps inspired by King’s Margaret White, Bev is pious and sadistic, willing to punish anyone who does not adhere to her warped approximation of Catholicism.
Flanagan specifically wrote Margaret with Sloyan in mind, likely remembering the actress’s eerie ability to create deceptive empathy and shift our allegiances on a dime.
Expanding Stephen King’s Telekinetic Universe
While most of King’s story deals with an unthinkable prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, large sections of the semi-epistolary novel see experts debating the nature of telekinesis. Do Carrie’s frightening abilities represent a new phase in human evolution or is the prom night carnage merely a fluke? King settles the debate with a shocking denouement in which a young mother recounts her infant daughter’s ability to dangle her crib toys in midair. We’re left to wonder if she will become another tormented girl who surprises the world with metaphysical strength.
Flanagan plans to build out this brief scene while amplifying themes of female empowerment. After introducing our main cast of characters, episode two will open with an unrelated story in which we meet another girl with the TK gene. Each subsequent chapter will expand this world, building out a roster of telekinetic young women. Considering King’s fondness for stories about powerful kids, often described as possessing “the shining,” Constant Readers will no doubt have their eyes peeled for various Easter Eggs nodding to the author’s vast catalogue.
Giving Carrie Her Own Voice
Perhaps the most striking distinction in Flanagan’s new trailer is the extent to which we hear Carrie’s voice. The sneak peek is fully narrated by the titular prom queen as she demands accountability. “I want to know why,” she explains while detailing Chris’ elaborate plan. Aside from the aforementioned coda, King’s book essentially ends with the aftermath of the prom night tragedy, leaving little time for Carrie to reflect. His shifting narrative does bring the reader into her fragile mind, though not before she’s been cowed by relentless cruelty. We watch Carrie sink into bloodthirsty revenge, but never hear a considered desire for justice or repair.
Flanagan’s original monologue allows Carrie to voice her pain and mourn the life she could have had. We’re also treated to a mug shot-style photo of Chris with a bruised and bandaged face, implying that the mean girl will have to answer for her senseless sadism.
Flanagan is known for filling his series adaptations with heartwrenching speeches that cut to the heart of his thematic intentions, and this teaser seems to follow suit. After years of fans, critics, and scholars analyzing Carrie’s pain, perhaps his modern retelling will offer the titular anti-hero a chance to finally speak for herself.
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