Sweet, sweet revenge. A subgenre best served cold, with a side of yanked intestines. It is a foundational tool for horror, both from the protagonist and antagonist perspectives. Anger, jealousy, and embarrassment create grudges that stick, and payback, she is a comin’. Listen in to our recommendations for your revenge fantasy satisfaction.

In horror movies, sometimes you want to keep it simple. If your plot needs motivation… this is an easy check to cash. There are several sub-tropes here. Psychology Today lists several variants of revenge. As you might expect, revenge and justice are not simple concepts. There are different motivations and complex sources for the desire for payback. We tried to marry up the psychological categories to how they get executed in horror films:

Simple or direct Revenge:

An eye for an eye. You killed or disfigured me, now I’m back, bitches! MUAAAAHHAHAHAHA! (Slash, slash, slash… screaming ensues) This is the staple of the franchise serial-killer movies.
- Candyman, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Burning, Slaughter High, Hatchet, Ghost Story, I Know What You Did Last Summer
This also applies to revenge for the loss of a loved one. NOOOOOOO! You killed my father! Now you’re gonna pay!
- I Saw the Devil, Mandy, Redux Redux, Orca, and Sayara

Constructive or transformative Revenge:

Channeling pain into self-improvement and escaping the victim role. The Rape Revenge Subtrope lands here, with all of its trigger-ridden justice. Misogeny or empowerment? You make the call.
- Good examples: Revenge, I Spit on Your Grave, They Call Her One Eye, Last House on the Left, Teeth, Ms. 45, American Mary, Hard Candy

Honor revenge:

Retaliation that is intended to restore reputation or face. Restore reputation. Bullying payback often lands in this category. Who’s on top now motherfucker!?
- Plenty of good examples here include Carrie, Piggy, Let the Right One In, and Sissy
A subset of honor revenge would be the response to betrayal. You backstabbed me. Honor revenge is a classic trope in Westerns and Mob Movies.
When used by a protagonist, it can be the central motivation.
- Examples: Upgrade
  - Usually used as a plot device rather than the central theme in horror movies. What goes around, comes around. Et tu, Burke?
  - Burke in Aliens, Ash in Alien, Rose Armitage in Get Out, Scud in Blade, Billy Loomis…All the Scream Movies

Poetic or Ironic Revenge:

The proper comeuppance. Yep, you had it coming. Often, this is hubris getting the better of a monologuing evil doer. Protagonists usually don’t suffer in this manner. Poetic justice, after all. The poetry comes from the villain being undone by their own actions or plans.
- Good Examples: Captain Ross’s grisly demise in Day of the Dead; the explosive destruction of the La Domas family in Ready or Not; the Invisible Man gets killed by his own tech in The Invisible Man; Chef Slowick goes down with his restaurant in a fiery s’mores demise in The Menu.
The Saw movies have built their premise on ironic revenge, with many of the traps Jigsaw creates symbolic of the victim’s perceived flaws. Se7en is closely tied to ironic revenge, specifically piecing together misguided justice in the grisly application of sin to sinners.

Collective revenge:

No! Back, you fools! Stay away from me, you heathens! AAAAAAA!!! This is where the community turns on another group, or in horror movies, usually an antagonist. The mob rules!
- The classic example of this variant is the 1932 Frankenstein, in which the locals, brandishing torches and pitchforks, trap and kill Frankenstein’s monster. It gave birth to the cliche. Burn him!
- A recent great example: Weapons, where the children turn on Aunt Gladys. Other examples include Children of the Corn, The People Under the Stairs, and The Island of Lost Souls.

Fantasy revenge:

This is usually the domain of comedies. Sometimes it occurs in horror when the victim of bullying or aggression dreams of turning on their abuser.
- A twist on this would be the mad dream visions in An American Werewolf in London. Perhaps A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. It has the dream/fantasy element, but it is more of a hero’s journey than pure revenge.
Horror movies themselves, as an art form, specifically REVENGE-themed horror movies, are in themselves fantasy revenge outlets. John Wick, Death Wish, Unforgiven, and many, many action movies are testosterone-fueled male revenge fantasy flicks. The rape-revenge movies is the distaff variant of the same theme.

Subtle passive-aggressive revenge:

Not really part of the Horror methodology. You’re in the wrong revenge shop, buddy. Horror does it directly. With an axe. This is the Woody Allen form of revenge.

The Sad Truth

In many revenge horror movies, revenge is often a hollow victory. The wounds still exist. The trauma lingers. Your dead wife isn’t coming back. It is a short-term dopamine high, but in many cases, you still feel hollow inside. Sometimes, proper justice gets dispensed, and the world is a better place having dispatched a monster. And we can appreciate that.

Horror movie fans get to go along for the ride. Revenge, though easy to embrace, is a complex emotional rollercoaster. So much pain… and a little relief. It can make for epic storytelling, and when dipatched with bloody violence, you can understand how it resides under the horror umbrella.