{"id":113743,"date":"2025-10-10T16:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/113743\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:37:13","slug":"the-dads-of-modern-horror-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/113743\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dads of Modern Horror, Ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best and worst scary movie daddies of modern horror cinema run the full gamut of good vs. evil, and often enough, a dash of dumb. Hey, if your family ends up in a haunted house, chances are it\u2019s Dad\u2019s fault, especially when it comes to some of our favorite spooky season<\/a> shows and films.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s pure evil, such as Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s William Afton.<\/a>\u00a0There are family-first daddies, as exemplified by Gomez Addams on Wednesday.<\/a> And there\u2019s, of course, that daddy factor, which allows for some of our favorite horror himbos to get away with ignoring the signs of danger as long as they get the family out to safety; looking at you, Winston Duke, in Jordan Peele\u2019s Us.<\/p>\n

To celebrate fathers of fright, here are our favorite horror movie (and TV show) daddies from recent years, ranked from monstrous worst to heroic best.<\/p>\n

11. William Afton, Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s \"Fnaf\u00a9 Universal <\/p>\n

Matthew Lillard as William Afton is one of the most despicable and demented dads of recent horror. He\u2019s the father turned kids\u2019 serial killer behind the haunted animatronics in Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s who co-founded the family pizza chain, which he goes on to use the abandoned locations of to stage his horrific crimes.<\/p>\n

Lillard really captures the energy of a terrible psycho who snaps and kills kids, sometimes enlisting the help of his daughter, who grows up to be a cop who helps take him down. Unfortunately for her, he stabs her in the process of their catching him. We\u2019re excited to know Lillard will be joined by his horror husband, Skeet Ulrich, in Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2; Ulrich is rumored to be Afton\u2019s alleged silent partner, Henry Emily.<\/p>\n

While FNAF fans know the deep lore of that potential pairing, we Scream fans were there when it was written in blood by the duo as the original Ghostface killers. As for why he\u2019s at the bottom of this list, it\u2019s pretty obvious\u2014since he swears, \u201cI always come back\u201d\u2014that he doesn\u2019t feel bad for attempting to kill his daughter or for continuing to want to kill more children to trap in his animatronic monsters.<\/p>\n

10. Roderick Usher, The Fall of the House of Usher \"House\u00a9 Netflix <\/p>\n

This man sold his and his entire family\u2019s souls to the devil for a fortune and a good life as long as he lived. The catch? He saw his entire bloodline die before him in horrific ways. Bruce Greenwood really brought gravitas to Roderick Usher, a man who could have just been played as a terrible father, and turned Poe\u2019s tragic figure into a really sad picture of humanity\u2019s hubris in the face of amassing power.<\/p>\n

Mike Flanagan\u2019s adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher\u00a0beautifully and horrifically encapsulates paying for the sins of your father. Usher ranks as one of the worst because he really sold everyone. Even his granddaughter, who was an innocent, didn\u2019t have a chance of escaping.<\/p>\n

9. Ellison Oswalt, Sinister \"Sinister\u00a9 Lionsgate <\/p>\n

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison, a dad who decides to move into the house that\u2019s the focus of the true crime murders he\u2019s writing about, which really puts him up there as one of the worst horror fathers. In Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill\u2019s all-time terrifying Sinister, Ellison and his family go through a living hell as they\u2019re hunted down by an entity that gives us nightmares to this day (that lawnmower scene).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not much of a spoiler to say it doesn\u2019t end well for this family. So yes, he\u2019s one of the worst\u2014but at least he made a futile attempt to save everyone!<\/p>\n

8. Michael Shaw, Terrifier 2 \"Terrifier\u00a9 Cinedigm <\/p>\n

Terrifier 2 introduces Sienna Shaw as the main final girl in the Terrifier franchise\u2014a genius move on creator Damien Leone\u2019s part. The heroine literally becomes a badass angel warrior with a sword that can kill Art the Clown (at least until he regenerates).<\/p>\n

However, her fate was mysteriously sealed by her father, Michael Shaw (played by Jason Patric). As we see in flashbacks, he was a tormented artist plagued by visions of Art the Clown and his daughter as the badass figure meant to take the pure evil entity down before he ended his life from the madness.<\/p>\n

So on one hand, it\u2019s good he left behind the tools for Sienna to rise up to the challenge, but it\u2019s also bad that he destined her to this fate. I don\u2019t entirely buy that he really killed himself on purpose, as Art is known to be a sneaky killer, but we\u2019ll hopefully learn more when Terrifier 4 rolls around.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Hugh Crain, The Haunting of Hill House \"Hill\u00a9 Netflix <\/p>\n

Henry Thomas as Hugh Crain really captured the affable and loving dad who has a massive family tragedy befall him and his children. In Mike Flanagan\u2019s adaptation of Shirley Jackson\u2019s The Haunting of Hill House, the Crain patriarch\u2019s dream to transform the beautiful mansion he moves his wife and kids into turns into a nightmare when it transforms his wife into someone the family doesn\u2019t recognize.<\/p>\n

Ever the doting husband, Hugh ignores and enables the warning signs that she\u2019s not well. By the time the house claims her, it\u2019s too late, but at least he gets himself and the kids out of there. But this is not a show with a happy ending and his dissociation from the trauma leads to the Hill House ghosts haunting his family for the rest of their lives. And that\u2019s why he stands near the middle of this list; he does his best to please his family to a fault, which ends up endangering them more well into their adulthood.<\/p>\n

6. Josh Lambert, Insidious \"Insdious\u00a9 FilmDistrict <\/p>\n

Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert in Leigh Whannell and James Wan\u2019s Insidious films offers a prime example of how a dad\u2019s generational trauma might not be passed down if he just went to therapy. Josh is plagued by ghosts and demons that his family gaslit him into forgetting about, and then they haunt his kids.<\/p>\n

Thankfully the franchise\u2019s spooky version of Bren\u00e9 Brown, Elise Rainer (played by the incredible Lin Shaye), mediates between the family and all the horrors in their midst. However, it takes many, many movies for Josh to finally face his demons with his son to end their cursed cycle.<\/p>\n

5. Gabe Wilson, Us \"Us\u00a9 Universal <\/p>\n

Winston Duke didn\u2019t mess around in Us. As soon as those freaky doppelgangers showed up in Jordan Peele\u2019s sophomore mystery thriller, Gabe (Duke) was like, \u201cWe\u2019re out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for him and his family, everyone around the country was being killed by their Tethered twins. Duke really has some great comedic and heroic moments in the film\u2014such as the boat scene\u2014and provided laughs in the film\u2019s high-tension moments, balancing out the more intense performance(s) of Lupita Nyong\u2019o, who slayed as a mother.<\/p>\n

You rooted for the Wilsons to save their family and get to Mexico when they realized the Tethered were part of an abandoned government plot. For supporting his wife no matter what, Gabe ranks up there as one of the best recent horror dads.<\/p>\n

4. Jim Hopper, Stranger Things \"Stranger\u00a9 Netflix <\/p>\n

Hopper (David Harbour) may not have always been a Father of the Year candidate, but he\u2019s been there for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) no matter what toxic, awkward \u201980s-dad gruff he had going on, and he nearly died multiple times to save Hawkins.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s endearing and wants to make something of himself for his found family, so for that he ranks high as one of the best dads on this list.<\/p>\n

3. David Kim, Searching \"Searching\u00a9 Sony Pictures <\/p>\n

John Cho\u2019s performance as David Kim carries the social media-age thriller. When David\u2019s daughter goes missing, he follows her digital footprint to find out what happened to her in probably this generation of parents\u2019 worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d be higher up on this list, but he did sort of let his grief make him lose track of his kid after his wife died. Cho, however, delivers a tour-de-force in this film, stopping at nothing to find out what happened to her and confronting those who harmed his daughter. Also, he\u2019s daddy\u00a0so he gets extra credit for being easy on the eyes.<\/p>\n

2. Ed Warren, The Conjuring Universe \"Conjuring\u00a9 Warner Bros. <\/p>\n

Patrick Wilson is back on the list, this time as Ed Warren. In the Conjuring Universe, married demonologists Ed and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) bring a sense of romance to some of the genre\u2019s most frightening films. Even if some of the movies after James Wan left the franchise weren\u2019t as strong as the originals, we\u2019d come back for the Warrens taking on the devil and his minions through their paranormal investigations.<\/p>\n

Wilson as Ed is sexy in a supernatural way; whether he\u2019s commanding Satan out of innocent victims or serenading kids with Elvis songs, we want him as our horror husband.<\/p>\n

1. Gomez Addams, Wednesday \"Wednesday\u00a9 Netflix <\/p>\n

Gomez Addams is the horror blueprint of the best husband and father for the genre; it\u2019s in his Charles Addams DNA. Doting, devious, and daring, Luis Guzm\u00e1n carries the mantle of the Addams patriarch on Wednesday with absolute aplomb. He\u2019s so pure. Even though his past is veiled in mystery, Wednesday discovers everything he ever did was to defend his friends and family, often becoming the fall guy in the process.<\/p>\n

We love seeing him call Wednesday the cutest pet names (like his \u201clittle Tormenta\u201d) and knowing that despite her tough exterior and meanness at his expense, it is just her hiding that she loves just as fiercely as he does. Season two revealed even more about what he\u2019s sacrificed for those he loves. Gomez is the gold standard of the best spooky dads and this generation has a gem in Guzm\u00e1n. Raul Julia, who played the character in the Addams Family movies, would be proud.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best and worst scary movie daddies of modern horror cinema run the full gamut of good vs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[70242,18,117,11850,19,17,327,70243],"class_list":{"0":"post-113743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dads","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-halloween","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-ranker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}