The 4 Types of Parents You’ll Find In All Horror Movies

Halloween season is upon us again. This time, we want to do a little something just for fun. We want to assess classical fiction parents in those scary movies we love so much. Yes, we know there’s a very strong possibility that we might irk some of you. We don’t want to do that. And, as much as we’d love to, we simply can’t pick all of your favorite evil mom or dad or step-parent.

There are so many scary movies out there that can last a century even when one watches three per day, right? So, you should bear with us if your favorite evil mom or evil dad doesn’t make the cut.

Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s dive in and see what’s in store – the four types of parents you’ll find in a horror movie.

In This Article

Mad And/Or Demented Parents

Mad AndOr Demented Parents
share button

Image: Shutterstock

Our crazy dad pick goes to Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in the movie The Shining, without contest. Jack Torrance was already an obnoxious husband and father way before the family settled in the Overlook Hotel.

So, when the spirits descended on him, it made everything worse, and he became a deranged ax-wielding madman threatening Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and Danny (Danny Floyd).

For our pick on crazy evil moms, we choose Margaret White (Piper Laurie) for her role in Carrie. Her eccentric character as an overzealous religious zealot sets off her telekinetic daughter, Carrie (Sissy Spacek).

Bada** Parents

Bada Parents
share button

Image: Shutterstock

Horror movies are meant to scare the crap out of us. But once in a while, especially those where mom and dad characters will do anything to protect their families, they elicit feelings of adoration.

Take, for instance, the Abbotts (Emily Blunt and John Krasinski) in A Quiet Place. Those folks pulled out all the stops to protect their kids. The father eventually gave his life to save his children. And the mom, giving birth without making a sound? Shows how much parents will sacrifice for their children.

Astonishing as the Abbots were, we had to give our award of kicka** parents to Steve and Diane Freeling (Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams) for their actions in the movie Poltergeist. They were simply out of this world.

Truant Parents

Truant Parents 
share button

Image: Shutterstock

It’s a common theme of horror movies, especially those with a teenage angle, that parents are absent as the killer carries out their plan. The absent parents are either having a nice time at a location somewhere or having an unusually restful night rest.

For this entry, we decided to go with movies instead of characters. Our picks are Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the Scream series among others.

Something peculiar to these movies was that the kids of these absentee parents suffered for the sins of their parents, except for I Know What You Did Last Summer being a notable exception.

Solicitous Parents

Solicitous Parents 
share button

Image: Shutterstock

The movie, Hereditary, featured Annie Graham (Toni Collette), who happened to have somewhat of a mixed fortune. Her knack for spewing both loves and hate with simultaneous aplomb made her both victim and villain in the movie.

Amelia (Essie Davis) in The Babadook was a sensitively delicate woman who had lost her husband. Her fanaticism with the dark children’s book figure, Babadook, would do her no good when the destructive spirit possessed her. Long story short, it caused her to kill her child and dog. Only the affection of her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), would save her from the clutches of the malevolent spirit.

Here’s our list of classical scary-parents movies as to how they performed. Sure, we have left some of your favorite evil parents out. How about Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt in Parents? Go ahead and make your list. But, remember, these are the categories.

Was this article helpful?
thumbsupthumbsdown
The following two tabs change content below.