One thing about the horror genre that tends to bother fans is when stakes are low, and they are at their lowest when they know that no one will survive. In most of these movies, there's a group of individuals that will carry the movie. Most often, only one of these people will live to see the end. The rest are just the fodder to be picked apart and dismembered. Has anyone noticed how unemotional final girls/guys tend to be when people who were supposed to be their friends die?
Strong bonds and relationships are rare in horror, and it's sad, really. Knowing the characters better makes it easier to see them as people and therefore makes it mean more if they die. This list comprises horror movies that thrive on the strong bonds of their character and lets the viewers get to know them more as people. Here are the top 10 best horror movie friendships.
10 The Ritual (2017)
Friendship can be complicated when it comes to grief. The Ritual follows friends Luke, Hutch, Dom, and Phil on an annual boys trip, the first since the loss of the fifth member of their group, a loss that everyone blames Luke for, even if they don't say it. The camaraderie between the four is evident, making for a fun dynamic, but the underlying tension stemming from what happened is felt even through their jokes. It comes even closer to the surface when they all become lost in the Norwegian woods and have an ominous shared vision, making their situation even more nerve-wracking.
Once the imminent danger posed to the four becomes clear, the tension falls away, and old animosities disappear to the knowledge that they may very well die, not just to the woods, but to the strange creature stalking them. Desperation makes the characters genuine, making it easier to care for them and even sadder when either of them dies. The Ritual is one of the more emotional horror films on Netflix, but this also makes it one of the scariest.
9 Unfriended (2016)
The group of friends in this film is relatable to anyone in high school. The core bunch in Unfriended is more believable together than most friends in horror, but when a group chat is invaded by a spirit from their past, their bonds start to fall away. It’s a shame because, in the first half of the film, they are a pretty fun group. They are all believable as high schoolers, which means that not all of them are likable. But like with most horror movies, they are not all meant to last, and the spirit of their deceased friend has all the information it needs to drive them apart before having them kill themselves in shocking ways.
It goes to show that one never really knows who to trust at their age. Drama is like a drug, and there is plenty brewing underneath the surface. It’s a shame how the movie ends because it would have been fun to see these compatriots again. However, very few characters in horror ever live to be in the sequels.
8 Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (2022)
The Fear Street trilogy got a lot of buzz when it first hit Netflix. Many attribute it to the touching love story woven throughout, something sadly still scarce in the horror genre. But there is plenty in this series that makes it memorable. One of its best attributes was the dynamic between the friends in Fear Street Part 1: 1994. Most of the story revolves around Deena and Sam’s romance. However, the core group they form with Deena’s brother Josh and her other friends, Kate and Simon carries the film and makes the movie more fun to watch.
As a whole, it’s a flashy and fun slasher throwback, but at the center are these teens that the viewer comes to care for. What most horror movies don’t show about their teenage cast is that they are growing and coming into their own and learning who they are and just having fun together. Most movies prefer to focus on this latter part before getting picked off, but this is a group viewers can have fun with because they have time to get to know them. Unfortunately, this also adds the added weight when members gradually get picked off. Fortunately, their deaths are gory and creative, another plus for horror fans.
7 Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)
Bodies, Bodies, Bodieswas the surprise hit of 2022. The film follows a group of rich friends who reunite before an impending hurricane for a party in a hilarious yet scary romp throughout. The socialites in this group are not as genuine as they want others to think they are. For some, they are downright horrible. They pretend to be friends at the start, but as soon as people turn up dead, the cracks in their relationships form, forcing them and the viewers to ponder who they can trust among them.
The dynamics between these characters seem toxic, but they are all played to perfection in a fun night of mystery and bloodshed. For anyone with a particular distaste for the privileged, this A24 comedy-horror brings out the worst in the upper class as they are turned against one another and goes to show that when you can have anything you want, there is no such thing as real friendship.
6 Polaroid (2019)
Polaroiddid not get a wide release, but is easily one of the most underrated teen horror movies of the past few years. The plot follows the main protagonist Bird Fitcher, who seeks to uncover the mystery surrounding a mysterious camera that unleashes a murderous entity. Scary in its own right, one of the better aspects of this movie is the friendship between Bird and Kasey. In most cases, like the one Bird finds herself in, it would be understandable for her allies to brush aside this camera nonsense, but Kasey is a true friend.
The situation is real enough for Bird, so it is for Kasey as well. And so she stays by her friend's side. Their friendship means a lot to both of them, whereas, in most horror films, there isn’t even so much as a tear when someone loses a friend. Friends caring for one another and having each other's backs is something that horror needs more of, especially when it is women supporting women.
5 Train to Busan
This one may be a bit of a stretch for some, but the bond that forms between the two male leads in Train to Busanstands out as a highlight of the film. Seok-woo is a hard-working businessman, but his job has caused a rift between him and his daughter. On the other side of the coin is father-to-be Sang-hwa, a tough man unafraid to stand up for himself or to say how he feels. These two don’t see eye to eye when they meet as Sang-hwa sees Seok-woo as a jerk, while Seok-woo sees Sand-hwa as abrasive. But it only takes a zombie apocalypse for the two to find common ground.
Although they may not like each other, it's easy enough for the two to team up and fight their way through hoards of the undead to get to their loved ones. And despite what they may think of each other, at the very least, they can respect one another as Sang-hwa acknowledges that Seok-woo does what he does for his daughter and knows he will face similar hardships himself. Unity is found in the most surprising circumstances, but Train to Busan is not a happy movie, and not everyone makes it off the train.
4 Shaun of the Dead (2004)
There is no discussion about the best friends in horror without talking about Shaun of the Dead. Shaun is a year away from 30, yet can’t seem to grow up. He’s still at the same dead-end job, living with his best friend Ed, who also can’t seem to grow up. Shaun has no desire to change. He and Ed are a childish couple who make what could have been a normal zombie horror hilarious with their quips and well-timed jokes. Even when everyone they know is dead or dying, they can still bring levity to any situation.
However, their dynamic shifts throughout the movie as Shaun is increasingly aware that Ed has been dragging him down in life. The film, at its core, is a story about coming to terms with adulthood and growing up, but it's told in a fun yet terrifying way that keeps the viewers glued the whole way, despite all of the blood and guts. Shaun and Ed love each other and can show one another that even as everything around them goes to hell, they can still want the best for each other despite themselves. That’s a real friendship.
3 Get Out (2017)
Get Out was the surprise directorial debut hit of Jordan Peele of Key & Peele fame that made everyone who saw it as uncomfortable as it did afraid. When Chris Washington is preparing to visit the family of his white girlfriend, his best friend Rod warns him not to go, feeling that something bad would happen. As people are wont to do in horror, Chris ignores him and goes anyway, only to become the next unsuspecting victim of a strange operation.
Rod and Chris’s friendship is arguably the most pure on this list. When Chris is trying to escape his girlfriend's murderous family, Rod is there just in time to save his friend. The camaraderie between the two is funny and wholesome, and it's clear they would do anything for one another. They have natural and easy interactions that suggest a long history together, and that sort of bond is rare.
As great of a movie as Get Out was, the only downside was that it didn’t feature these two together more, but they light up the screen even when they are together. Everyone needs a friend who will crack jokes at the scariest of times.
2 Fresh (2022)
Speaking of friends who will save you from danger, this movie is one of the best showings of women watching out for each other. Freshfollows Noa, a 20-something-year-old woman without any luck at the dating game, until she meets Steve, a charismatic stud who sweeps her off her feet in just a few short interactions. Unfortunately, he’s not who he says he is. Steve is a murderer who kidnaps her to butcher and sell her meat on the black market. Good thing for Noa that her best friend Molly is smart and knows something is fishy and goes searching for it when she goes away on a trip with Steve.
This isn’t a tale of a damsel in distress, though, as Noa is resilient in her own right and does what's needed to save herself. It’s no wonder she and Molly are such good friends because they are both fighters and look out for each other even as things go sideways. There’s love from a man, and then there's love from a friend who is willing to throw down to keep you safe. Choose wisely.
1 It: Chapters One & Two
At the number one spot are a couple of movies demonstrating the very message that horror fans have been yelling at their screens for ages: if the group of friends sticks together and watch each other's backs, they all have a chance to make it out alive.It & It: Chapter Two follow the Losers Club as kids and adults while hunted by the sinister shape-shifting clown known as Pennywise. It knows their fears and uses them against the group, but their close friendship allows them to drive the deity off and eventually kill him.
Each member is unique in their own way, but fun when they come together. They know that they each face a common enemy that only they can comprehend, so they stay together and choose to save themselves. Casting the adult versions of these kids could have gone sideways, and they may not have had the same spirit if not chosen correctly, but director Andy Muschetti knew who he needed to carry the heart of the Losers Club into the sequel.
Any one of these kids could have been removed, and the group would still have the same fire to them. These two films are not about the killer clown, but the bonds formed trying to survive him.
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