Editorials
The 10 Most Psychotic Exes in Horror
In Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, Elisabeth Moss plays Cecilia, a woman whose nightmare is only just beginning after escaping from an abusive relationship. Her ex commits suicide and leaves her his fortune under specific criteria, but she soon suspects that his death was a hoax. That he’s still there, unseen and stalking her.
Based on the trailer, Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) looks downright terrifying while “alive.” Still, the freedom to torture Cecilia under the mask of invisibility looks to take the terror to a whole new unrelenting level. In anticipation, we look back at some of horror’s most intimidating and psychotic exes.
What Lies Beneath – Norman Spencer
After her daughter leaves for college, creepy things start happening around Claire’s house. She thinks she’s haunted, her husband Norman thinks she’s coping with empty nest syndrome. It doesn’t help that she notices her neighbors’ volatile relationship or that Norman is always away at work. Claire isn’t losing her mind, though; her husband’s secret lover is haunting her. And the undead ex wants justice. Norman murdered the woman when she threatened to expose the affair, and when he couldn’t gaslight his wife any longer, he tried to kill her, too. On the surface, Norman is a charming scientist and doting husband, but it’s an airtight mask for the homicidal narcissist underneath. That he’s so socially adept and cunning makes him a far more dangerous; you won’t know you’re in harm’s way until far too late. You can stream this now on Netflix and Tubi.
Scream 4 – Jill Roberts
Sidney Prescott’s niece seems perfectly well adjusted for most of the movie. At least all things considered. She’s still reeling from a recent breakup with her boyfriend Trevor, who took her virginity then slept with another girl. Then there’s the matter of Ghostface, who’s resurfaced in conjunction with Sidney’s return to Woodsboro to slay again. It turns out hell hath no fury like a psycho scorned, though, and Jill reveals herself to be the murdering mastermind of the film. Still holding a serious grudge against her ex, she not only sets him up as her patsy, but she shoots him in the crotch before executing him.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II – Frank and Julia Cotton
In the sordid saga of the Cotton family, exes Frank and Julia are equally psychotic. Nevermind that Julia cheated on her husband Larry with his brother Frank while Frank was alive, or that she murdered for him so he could regenerate his flesh after escaping Hell. When Frank shows no remorse for killing Julia in Hellraiser, it sparks a severe grudge match in Hellbound. Both are ruthless killers, and yet there’s not enough room in Hell for these former lovers. Hellbound: Hellraiser II is currently streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.
May – May Dove Canady
From the moment we meet May, it’s clear she’s off-kilter. Socially awkward and friendless, save for her doll Suzie, May longs for connection. She finds that with Adam. At least until she becomes sexually aroused by cannibal horror and tries to emulate it in a makeout session. He’s repulsed. Then she begins a fling with the flirtatious Polly but is devastated to discover Polly moves on quickly. May grows increasingly delusional and depressed by the rejections, and a triggering event causes her to snap. It doesn’t end well for her exes. May is available now on Tubi.
Fear – David McCall
Teen Nicole Walker finds herself immediately attracted to the older, bad boy David (Mark Wahlberg). The feeling is mutual, much to the chagrin of her father. After a while, though, his charm wears thin and gives way to angry and controlling behavior. Then he rapes her best friend and murders another. Naturally, Nicole decides it’s time to break up. David doesn’t take the rejection well, and he becomes violently unhinged.
Play Misty For Me – Evelyn Draper
When you think of psychotic exes, Glenn Close’s unhinged stilted lover in Fatal Attraction tends to come to mind. Evelyn Draper is the deadlier precursor. Radio DJ Dave happens across Evelyn at a bar, and the two embark on a casual relationship. Except, Evelyn didn’t meet Dave by chance, she was already a fan of his radio show. Her obsessive behavior grows progressively worrisome until Dave breaks it off with her. Cue the suicide attempts, vandalism, and physical assaults on those in Dave’s life. It culminates in an explosive finale where people wind up dead.
Audition – Asami Yamazaki
Shigeharu Aoyama thinks he’s found the perfect new mate in the docile Asami. Neither he nor the viewer realize until far too late that Asami has a serious jealousy streak. Lovers that don’t have eyes for her, and her only, suffer the worst possible fate. We know this because Shigeharu slowly discovers a grisly trail of Asami’s former lovers. More importantly, we know this because Asami keeps an ex of hers in a burlap sack, many of his limbs amputated. She feeds him her vomit. Shigeharu’s on his way to becoming her next former lover. Audition is currently streaming on Shudder.
Nightmare – George Tatum
After spending years in a mental institution recovering from a break that resulted in the murder of a family in New York, George is released. He decides to head to Florida to see his ex-wife and their children. The only problem is that it doesn’t take much to trigger his psychosis, and his road trip to Florida is littered with a lot of dead bodies. This Video Nasty slasher gets gory, and George’s instability is extra dangerous for his former family. Nightmare is currently available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi.
Possession – Anna
When Mark returns home, his wife tells him she wants a divorce. Thus, one of horror’s most challenging, complex, and bizarre portraits of a marriage’s disintegration begins. Mark follows Anna, beats her human lover, discovers an inhuman lover, and keeps human body parts in the fridge. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in her breakdown. Of Mark’s as well. This is a psychotronic breakup movie that refuses to adhere to linear storytelling or traditional tropes. It’s insanity at its best.
The Brood – Nola Carveth
Nola is in the midst of a painful custody battle with her ex over their daughter. She’s also an extremely disturbed woman undergoing experimental therapy that’s supposed to allow the patient to let go of their suppressed emotions through physiological changes to their bodies. For Nola, that means giving birth to asexual children through her psychoplasmically-induced external womb, creating a brood of them that brutally murder those involved in her ex’s life. David Cronenberg’s divorce movie goes heavy on body horror and psychosis, in the best way. The Brood is available on Kanopy or the Criterion Channel.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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