Seeing the villain get a taste of their own medicine is one of life’s fine pleasures. It not only makes the film more entertaining to watch, but also provides a moral sense of satisfaction to the viewer. Without the theme of revenge grounding the narrative, horror becomes a predictable, one-dimensional genre where the antagonist is doing most of the traumatizing. When done right, revenge-themed horror movies provide the perfect framework for a nail-biting experience as they cover all bases from entertainment to relatability.
These type of revenge drives serve as a meditation on violence, depicting the protagonist's journey from tormented to tormentor.
10 Skull: The Mask (2020)
Infravermelho Filmes
Fantaspoa Produções
Boccato Productions
This Brazilian slasher movie is a certified gorefest, deeply rooted in prehistoric mythic culture. The film is a boon to slasher fans across the globe, as it overdelivers on the blood and gore quotient. Skull: The Mask, follows a prehistoric God, Anhangá, that’s resurrected via a mask and goes on a retaliatory killing spree, which has its motives deeply buried in Brazil’s colonial past.
9 The Virgin Spring (1960)
- Svensk Filmindustri (SF)
Only Ingmar Bergman can incorporate themes of religious devotion, justice, and philosophy in a narrative that revolves around revenge. Packed with the legendary director’s signature intellectual rigor and layered with the twists and turns of a revengeful horror film, The Virgin Spring is a tale of muted revenge told in the most poetic of ways.
8 Carrie (1976)
Carrie is one of the most famous tales of revenge that blooms into a revenge saga only towards the end. Building up to that, high school student Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is bullied at school while being humiliated at home by her overly religious mother. With nowhere to go and no one to confide in, Carrie gets the shock of her life when she gets asked to go to prom with one of the most famous guys in the school. What starts off as a prank on Carrie, turns into an endless night of torture for her tormentors. Carrie flips the table on her bullies by using her telekinetic powers to annihilate them.
7 Sissy (2022)
One of the most talked about films of last year, Sissy puts bullying, the negative effects of social media, and childhood trauma into a blender and presents a cocktail full of raw emotions. The film is a stylistic marvel that neatly captures and comments on the insecurities that modern generation kids grow up with.
What makes Sissy stand out from the many revenge films made by the dozen is that the characters in the film aren’t straight-up psychopaths. Sissy/Cecilia, has her heart in the right place, but when pushed a little too hard and a little too much, it unleashes the monster within her that she's desperately trying to suppress.
6 Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
When a group of “vigilantes” kill Bubba, a young man with a mental disability, and aren’t convicted by the law, Bubba inhabits the body of a scarecrow and goes on a killing spree against those that have wronged him. Directed by acclaimed novelist Frank De Felitta, Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a well-crafted revenge story that's scary and just in unprejudiced in equal measure.
5 The Toxic Avenger (1984)
Young Melvin works as a cleaner at a health club, where he is constantly bullied by its customers. One day, after running from his tormentors, Melvin accidentally falls into a vat of nuclear waste, transforming him into a terrifying mutant with superhuman strength. Fueled by revenge and armed with incredible strength, The Toxic Avenger turns into a vigilante and rids the town of criminals, while exacting revenge on the people who bullied him.
4 Mandy (2018)
Mandy is the holy trinity of entertainment, pairing Nicolas Cage’s revengeful persona with Panos Cosmatos’s tonally-rich vision and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb’s acid-fueled visuals. The film has the workings of a slow-burner for the first hour before picking up the pace and transforming into a head-banging mosh pit of blood and gore.
3 La Llorona (2019)
La Llorona is based on the Central American legend of the Weeping Woman (a ghost who lurks around mourning her dead children). The film’s plot takes place in Guatemala, inside the house of a former military dictator who was deemed responsible for a lot of death and destruction. In what seems to be a masterstroke, director Jayro Bustamante blends horror with political commentary, creating a film that’s important as well as entertaining.
2 Piggy (2022)
Sara is an overweight teenager that’s picked on by her school-mates incessantly. But one day, she witnesses her bullies get abducted by a man who chooses to let Sara go. When questioned by the authorities, Sara refuses to give up the man’s identity to the authorities, becoming a potential accomplice. Rather than focusing on the full-blown intensity of revenge, Piggy focuses on the suppression of guilt along with the glee of revenge.
1 The Skin I Live In (2011)
Pedro Almodóvar’s sole attempt at horror is loosely based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Tarantula, and is a brilliant take on the revenge genre. On a surface level, the film revolves around a plastic surgeon, Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), who’s obsessed with developing artificial skin. But as we dive deeper into the story, we come face to face with the horrors of his experiments and the truth about his relationship with his captor, Vera.