Editorials
My Boyfriend’s Back: Horror’s Best and Worst Boyfriends [1989 Week]
Presented by Lisa Frankenstein, 1989 Week is dialing the clock back to the crossroads year for the genre with a full week of features that dig six feet under into the year. Today, Jenn Adams weighs in on the dreamiest and scariest boyfriends the genre has to offer.
We’ve all dated our fair share of bad boys. They win us over with their dreamy aloofness, then just when we’ve let our guard down, they turn out to be monsters in disguise. Horror has a long history of these roguish young lovers, some so bad they commit cold-blooded murder. But they’re not all monsters.
Every once in a while, a cinematic boyfriend manages to be attractive, kind, and non-murderous, all while supporting his girlfriend as she runs away from the film’s true villain. Rospo Pallenberg presents us with two appealing boyfriends in the 1989 slasher Cutting Class. Brian (Donovan Leitch Jr.) and Dwight (Brad Pitt) both vie for the affections of Paula (Jill Schoelen) and it’s not until the final act that we find out which one she should kick to the curb.
Cole Sprouse stars as The Creature and Kathryn Newton as Lisa Swallows in LISA FRANKENSTEIN, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Michele K. Short / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
Set in the same year, Zelda Williams’s Lisa Frankenstein features an equally perplexing beau. His rotting flesh and missing body parts suggest this Creature (Cole Sprouse) might not be boyfriend material, but his sensitive eyes and musical charm may be worth a second glance. As we try to decide whether to date him or dump him, let’s revisit some of horror’s classic boyfriends, from the swoon worthy best to the villainous worst.
Best: Chip – Jennifer’s Body
Needy (Amanda Seyfried) has been best friends with the stunning Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) since their days playing together in the elementary school sandbox. Hopelessly devoted to the popular flag girl, she puts up with passive aggressive behavior, manipulative insults, and cruel abandonment because she genuinely believes they’ll be best friends forever.
Balancing the scales is Needy’s boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons). He may not approve of her friendship with Jennifer, but he does love his girlfriend. Chip is always there when Needy needs support and he excels in building her back up when Jennifer lashes out. He’s not even angry when Needy ends their relationship to protect him from her friend’s out-of-control murder spree.
Having transformed into a powerful succubus, Jennifer does indeed seduce Chip to punish Needy for her ethical concerns. In a final showdown, the endearing couple works together to stop the demon possessing Jennifer’s body from feasting on any more boys though only one young lover will survive this dangerous encounter. Sandbox love never dies, but true high school love doesn’t either.
Worst: JD – Heathers
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Jason Dead, aka J.D. (Christian Slater), the cute new loner at Westerberg High School. Observing the social atmosphere from a corner table in the cafeteria, J.D. finds himself intrigued by Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) and her gang of ultra popular mean girls, all conveniently named Heather.
But J.D. is no angel. After pulling a gun filled with blanks on two jock bullies, he sneaks in through Veronica’s bedroom window and helps her pull off a prank that accidentally kills the highest ranking Heather. This unintentional murder kicks off a killing spree in which J.D. and Veronica attempt to eliminate the school’s bullies one by one. U
nfortunately the sensational nature of their deaths make their victims more popular than ever. As their relationship spins out of control, Veronica begins to see J.D.’s more psychotic side. The next time he breaks into her bedroom, it might just be to kill her – before going on to murder the entire student body.
Best: Carter – Happy Death Day
For many college girls, waking up in a strange boy’s dorm room would be an absolute nightmare. But Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) manages to find the nicest guy on campus to crash with. After a drunken night out, Carter (Israel Broussard) has allowed her to sleep it off in his bed while he curls up on the floor. Tree rewards him for this kindness by pretending not to know him around her shallow sorority sisters.
Unfortunately, she wakes up in Carter’s room again the next morning and finds herself trapped in a time loop she’s doomed to repeat until she can figure out who keeps killing her. Though they begin as relative strangers, Carter soon becomes the only one Tree can turn to for help.
As the day plays out over and over again, she starts to see the world in a new light and lets go of the stuck-up party girl persona she was using as a form of emotional protection. Tree’s endlessly repeating day truly takes a turn when she finally wakes up to the great guy standing there, right in front of her eyes.
Worst: Arnie – Christine
Nerdy Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) never thought he’d be able to get a date with anyone, least of all the most beautiful girl in school. After years of being picked on or ignored by nearly everyone but his popular friend Dennis (John Stockwell), Arnie has pretty much accepted his status as a loser. But one glimpse of a run down 1957 Plymouth Fury changes everything for the shy boy with the taped-together glasses.
As he begins to fix up the car he calls Christine, Arnie’s own appearance begins to change. With growing confidence and increasingly good looks, he works up the courage to ask out Leigh (Alexandra Paul), the gorgeous new student and the apple of Dennis’s own eye. Unfortunately, Arnie’s transformation doesn’t stop with improved social status and the formerly sweet teen develops a sinister new personality.
Instead, Arnie spends all his time with Christine, and Leigh begins to wonder which lady actually holds the keys to his heart. When people who’ve wronged Arnie begin to die grisly deaths in the road, Leigh worries that if she doesn’t break it off with Arnie, she may just be the next to stare down Christine’s murderous headlights.
Best: Ray – I Know What You Did Last Summer
Everyone believes they’ll be able to keep their high school romance going strong after graduation. Many have tried and failed, but few couples have had the deck stacked against them like Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt). With the grim reality of separate colleges looming, Julie and Ray join their two best friends for a moonlit bonfire on the rocky coast. When a horrific hit and run sends the frightened teens reeling, they decide to cover up the crime and carry on with their lives as if nothing ever happened.
Unfortunately, none of the four friends find it easy to move on. Their promising relationships and bright futures cannot survive in the shadow of this horrible lie. The following summer, Julie receives a note from an anonymous sender claiming to know their awful secret and has no choice but to turn to Ray, now her ex, to find the slicker-clad stalker.
Fortunately, Ray still loves Julie despite all they’ve been through. He vows to protect her and doesn’t turn away even when she suspects him of murdering her friends. With his undying devotion and protective support, Ray proves to be one of the best cinematic boyfriends in the history of ’90s teen horror.
Worst: Billy Loomis – Scream
Wes Craven’s Scream could be considered a modern day masterpiece for many reasons, but we particularly love the way he points directly to the killer in an early scene then spends the rest of the film daring us to doubt our own senses. The troubled Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) may be handsome, and he’s definitely trying to support his girlfriend Sidney (Neve Campbell) as the anniversary of her mother’s death approaches. But we’re just not sure if we should trust him. And neither is Sidney.
When a costumed killer starts slashing through the students of Woodsboro High, Billy appears to be the prime suspect. Only a night in jail and a clean cell-phone history can convince her to give this moody boyfriend a second chance. Sidney regrets her distrust when Billy becomes the latest victim at a killer house party that concludes the film. Turns out this, too, is another lie.
Not only is Billy the killer, but he and his best friend Stu (Matthew Lillard) are the true culprits behind her mother’s brutal murder one year ago. It seems that this dreamy bad boy actually is bad and if Sidney can’t foil his master plan, she’s going to become his final victim.
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Editorials
11 Years Later: The Horrific Cycles of Violence in ‘Only God Forgives’ Starring Ryan Gosling
Traditionally, movie theater walkouts are usually associated with the horror genre, with infamous cases ranging from 1973’s The Exorcist (particularly during the crucifix masturbation scene) and even Lars Von Trier’s controversial serial killer memoir, The House That Jack Built.
That being said, there are exceptions to this rule, as some movies manage to terrorize audiences into leaving the theater regardless of genre. One memorable example of this is Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2013 revenge thriller Only God Forgives, a film so brutal and inaccessible that quite a few critics ended up treating it like a snuff film from hell back when it was first released. However, I’ve come to learn that horror fans have a knack for seeing beyond the blood and guts when judging the value of a story, and that’s why I’d like to make a case for Winding’s near-impenetrable experiment as an excellent horror-adjacent experience.
Refn originally came up with the idea for Only God Forgives immediately after completing 2009’s Valhalla Rising and becoming confused by feelings of anger and existential dread during his wife’s second pregnancy. It was during this time that he found himself imagining a literal fistfight with God, with this concept leading him to envision a fairy-tale western set in the far east that would deal with some of the same primal emotions present in his Viking revenge story.
It was actually Ryan Gosling who convinced the director to tackle the more commercially viable Drive first, as he wanted to cement his partnership with the filmmaker in a more traditional movie before tackling a deeply strange project. This would pay off during the production of Only God Forgives, as the filmmaking duo was forced to use their notoriety to scrounge up money at a Thai film festival when local authorities began demanding bribes in order to allow shooting to continue.
In the finished film, Gosling plays Julian, an American ex-pat running a Muay-Thai boxing club alongside his sociopathic brother Billy (Tom Burke). When Billy gets himself killed after sexually assaulting and murdering a teenager, Julian is tasked by his disturbed mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) with tracking down those responsible for the death of her first-born child. What follows is a surreal dive into the seedy underbelly of Bangkok as the cycle of revenge escalates and violence leads to even more violence.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
There’s no right or wrong way to engage with art, but there are some films that clearly require more effort from the audience side in order to be effective. And while you can’t blame cinemagoers for just wanting to enjoy some passive entertainment, I think it’s always worth trying to meet a work of art on its own terms before judging it.
Despite being a huge fan of Drive, I avoided Only God Forgives for a long time because of its poor critical reception and excessively esoteric presentation. It was only years later that I gave the flick a chance when a friend of mine described the experience as “David Lynch on cocaine.” It was then that I realized that nearly everything critics had complained about in the film are precisely what made it so interesting.
If you can stomach the deliberate pacing, you’ll likely be fascinated by this stylish nightmare about morally questionable people becoming trapped in a needless cycle of violence and retaliation. Not only is the photography impeccable, turning the rain-slicked streets of Bangkok into a neo-noir playground, but the bizarre characters and performances also help to make this an undeniably memorable movie. And while Gosling deserves praise as the unhinged Julian, I’d argue that Vithaya Pansringarm steals the show here as “The Angel of Vengeance,” even if his untranslated dialogue is likely to be unintelligible for most viewers.
However, I think the lack of subtitles ends up enhancing the mood here (even though some editions of the film ended up including them against the director’s wishes), adding to the feeling that Julian is a stranger in a strange land while also allowing viewers to project their own motivations onto some of the “antagonists.”
And while Only God Forgives is frequently accused of burying its narrative underneath a pile of artsy excess, I think the heart of the film is rather straightforward despite its obtuse presentation. I mean, the moral here is basically “revenge isn’t fun,” which I think is made clear by the horrific use of violence (though we’ll discuss that further in the next section).
To be clear, I’m still not sure whether or not I enjoyed this movie, I just know that I’m glad I watched it.
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
There are two different kinds of gore effects. One of them is meant to entertain viewers with exaggerated wounds and excessive blood as you admire the craftsmanship behind the filmmaking. The other kind is simply a tool meant to simulate what actually happens when you injure a human body. Like I mentioned before, Only God Forgives isn’t trying to be “fun,” so you can guess what kind gore is in this one…
From realistic maimings to brutal fist fights that feel more painful than thrilling, the “action” label on this flick seems downright questionable when the majority of the experience has you wincing at genuinely scary acts of grisly violence. I mean, the story begins with an unmotivated rampage through the streets of late-night Bangkok and ends with the implication of even more pointless violence, so it’s pretty clear that you’re not really meant to root for an “action hero” here.
I can’t even say that the deaths resemble those from slasher flicks because the movie never attempts to sensationalize these horrific acts, with Refn preferring to depict them as straightforward consequences of violent people going through the motions – which is somehow even scarier than if this had just been yet another hyper-violent revenge movie.
Not only that, but the characters’ overall lack of moral principles makes this story even more disturbing, with the main antagonist being the closest thing to a decent person among the main cast despite also being a brutal vigilante.
Only God Forgives doesn’t care if you like it or not (and actually takes measures to make sure that the viewing experience is often unpleasant), but if you’re willing to step up to this cinematic challenge and engage with the narrative and visuals on their own terms, I think you’ll find an unforgettable nightmare waiting for you on the other side.
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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