10 Horror Movie Characters Who Didn’t Know They Were The Killer

3. Tom Hannigan - My Bloody Valentine 3D

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Lionsgate

While 1981's My Bloody Valentine ends somewhat ambiguously, Patrick Lussier's 2009 remake has a slightly different finale.

In the redo, Jensen Ackles plays Tom Hannigan, one of the standard pretty young things of this slasher who find themselves targeted my a murderous miner. Tom is the son of a miner who died in a mine explosion that Ackles' character was blamed for. The sole survivor of this incident, Harry Warden, awakens from a coma one year later and kills several people before putting Tom in his crosshairs. Warden is stopped from killing Tom, but vanishes into the mine as Hannigan is left traumatised.

After establishing this, My Bloody Valentine 3D jumps ahead ten years to find Tom returning to his hometown after the death of his pops. And wouldn't you know it, an eerie miner surfaces at that exact same time to start killing off the townsfolk.

What's a little unique about My Bloody Valentine 3D is that it positions Tom as the prime suspect when it comes to who exactly the masked miner is. He's accused of being this eerie figure by several people, and the film itself leans into the notion that he could be the miner.

The person most shocked by the final act revelation that Tom is indeed the miner is Tom himself. As is explained, he suffers from split personality disorder and didn't realise he was the one carrying out these murders.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.