10 Horror Movie Heroes That Should Have Been Villains

Zach Creggers' Barbarian kicks off with Tess (Georgina Campbell) arriving at an Airbnb, only to learn it's already occupied by a stranger called Keith (Bill Skarsgard). Due to the strange circumstances and Keith's overfriendliness, all signs are pointing to Tess' unwanted housemate being a bad egg, but after Keith is slaughtered by an inbred mutant monster living under the house, it's clear his purpose in the story was misdirection.

Since Barbarian was one of 2022's most critically acclaimed films, it's obvious Cregger did a lot right. However, not everyone was on board with how this tension-driven thriller suddenly turned into a monster slasher at the halfway point, and when the deformed creature bursts through a wall during the climax like the Kool-Aid Man, it feels a totally different movie.

Although Bill Skarsgard was mesmerising as Pennywise in IT, it would've been awesome to see him cut loose with a more grounded antagonist. Since Keith had plenty of potential, his abrupt death was somewhat disappointing, especially since next-to-nothing was revealed about him. 

As such, it would've been fascinating to see how things played out if Keith was the bad guy he appeared to be in the trailers.