10 Horror Movie Villains With The Worst Motives
Justifying the scares.
What's more terrifying: a horror movie icon like Pamela Voorhees or John Kramer, whose reigns of terror are fuelled by a deep-running personal vendetta?
Or maybe someone like Michael Myers, whose terrifying actions are done without any reason being given. No matter how much a final girl attempts to reason with them, there's no talking them down or bargaining their way through things.
There are great examples on both sides of the fence, proving that a complex and powerful backstory isn't always required for a good scare.
But, what happens when writers try to give their big movie baddie a reason for committing their crimes, only for it to fall flat on its face?
Whether it be through weak storytelling, cumbersome executions or the sorts of developments that are only introduced to piggyback on the success of previous movies in a franchise, there is an embarrassing lineup of horror movie villains with some truly terrible motivations.
10. Rachel - American Psycho 2
American Psycho's main character Patrick Bateman is one of the most enigmatic and complex villains in cinema history. His successor in the film's sequel, American Psycho 2, is anything but those things.
Morgan J. Freeman's flick originally named 'The Girl Who Wouldn't Die' was intended to have nothing to do with American Psycho, which perhaps explains why protagonist Rachel's motivations feel so shoehorned in.
Having witnessed Patrick Bateman killing and dissecting her babysitter, Rachel kills the main man from the first film and embarks on a career as a criminologist. She spends the majority of the film attempting to further her career and learn more about serial killers by picking off as many of her classmates as possible.
The fact that the entire cliffhanger of American Psycho is about whether Bateman actually did kill all his victims or whether it was all in his head aside, quite why being a witness to his crimes would suddenly make someone so fuelled by bloodlust isn't particularly well reasoned.
It doesn't make sense, much like this film's existence on the whole.