Don’t Be a Bully: A Horror History of Bullies Getting Bashed

September 30, 2020

carrie 1976 horror bullies — United Artists

Bullying is no stranger to horror movies, as it’s been one of the most popular themes in revenge-style films since the mid 70’s. It’s amazing how such a cut-and-dried story of comeuppance has evolved in so many ways over the years. It’s gone from one person standing up and fighting back all the way to unknown supernatural forces going out of their way to make sure that bully pays the price. With October being National Bullying Prevention Month, I’m here to point out that not only is bullying not cool, but the spooky overlords don’t take too kindly to it either. Normally, I’d go through something like this in chronological order, but I think it’s important to distinguish the films in sort of small sub-genres that show the evolution of the bigger theme.

The first of these small sub-genres is the simplest. A bully or bullies picks on who they see is the weaker link, and the victim takes matters into their own hands to get their revenge. No supernatural powers necessary. Slaughter High (1986) is a perfect example of this. Marty Rantzen is your stereotypical virgin science “nerd” and the victim of several horrible pranks from his peers. They trick him into thinking he’s going to get laid by the prettiest girl in school, then when he’s naked, spray him down with a fire extinguisher. Several swirlies later, another prank leaves Marty’s face horribly burned, and he’s never seen again by his peers. Fast-forward to the high school reunion, a scarred Marty returns to exact brutal revenge on them one-by-one, by doing things like submerging someone in an entire bathtub of acid, or attaching open electric wires to the metal headboard of a bed that two of the bullies decide to christen. As a side note, this film is pretty awesome, has great effects, and a sweet score by Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th). You sort of saw a similar story a little earlier on in the hilariously underrated slasher film from 1981, The Burning, which is basically a reverse Friday the 13th. This time, an adult camp caretaker takes revenge after being bullied, pranked, and horribly maimed by campers, rather than a kid being neglected by adults. We also got this type of story a little later, in Half Past Midnight (1988), a splatter and gore revenge flick that is more of the same. A great recent example of this kind of film was in 2019’s Ma, when a woman who was bullied and sexually assaulted in high school, exacts her revenge on her attacker’s kids, years later.

You see a little change from this sub-genre in films like Heathers (1989) or The Final (2010), where there are multiple victims that band together to put an end to the bullying. Heathers is a little different, as two bullied teens team up to carry out some revenge, but one’s idea of it is way more intense and scarier. The Final has a group of kids set a trap for the bullies, drug them, and torture them. In films like these, the punishments don’t usually fit the crime, and it says a little more about the victim’s mental states than it does the bullying. Yes, breaking someone’ camera and making fun of them is shitty, but maybe doesn’t warrant getting needles stuck into your eyes, or tricked into chugging Drain-O.

Let’s switch gears over probably the most popular of the bully-revenge genre. This one focuses on victims that use supernatural means to exact comeuppance. Typically, the bullies in these films ramp up the bullying to more serious acts, like unwavering humiliation, rape, and even murder. Stephen King kind of kicked the entire thing off in 1974 when he wrote Carrie, which came to the big screen in 1976. Carrie is an interesting example because her life was a cycle of being extremely abused at home, to going to school and continuing to be abused. After years of abuse, she finally starts to feel something good when she’s asked to the prom, but when it turns out to all be a prank to embarrass her in front of the whole school, Carrie uses her telekinetic powers to burn it ALL down, and kill as many classmates as possible. This film went on to spawn a ton of films in the mid-to-late 70’s, like The Initiation of Sarah (1978 – Carrie, but in college), The Spell (1977 – Carrie, but with witchcraft), and Jennifer (1978 – Carrie, but with snake controlling powers…don’t ask, just watch). Stephen King also continued this theme with John Carpenter’s Christine (1983), when a bullied teen uses his demonic car to murder his tormentors. We saw this once again in 976-Evil (1988), a Robert Englund directed film where a bullied teen gets satanic supernatural powers to use against those who pick on him.

You also see this with The Craft (1996), when a group of teenage witches use spells to make their bullies’ hair fall out or make them fall in love to the point of dying over it, and although bullying isn’t the theme of the entire film, the animated segments in Creepshow 2 (1987) get nasty when the main characters feeds his bullies to his garden of giant monster Venus Fly Traps.

The genre takes an excessive turn in films like Tamara (2005) or Unfriended (2014). In these films, the victim ends up dying in one way or another. Either the bullies straight up murder the victim, or they drive the victim to kill themselves, and the ghost/witch/after-life version of the victim comes back to pick off the perpetrators one-by-one. Usually, there’s no hope for the bullies in films like these, they all get annihilated and either that’s all she wrote, or a neutral or positive force in victim’s life ends up stopping the monster, showing it that it has become what it hates the most.

Bullying is so lame, that even un-biased horror monsters will step in to stop it sometimes. Take Let Me In (2010) for instance, when a little boy is being held underwater in a pool by a bully. A second later, the bully is eviscerated and decapitated by a vampire that will become bonded with the boy. In one of my favorite segments from Trick ‘R’ Treat (2009), four bullies that pick on a special needs girl while simultaneously disrespecting Halloween get what’s coming from a hoard of flesh-hungry zombie children, all while the victim triumphantly leaves them to face their doom. It’s solid gold.

The theme has become so evolved that now there are films where the bullies even pick on the horror monsters themselves, which is never a good idea. In the Shudder exclusive Taiwanese film Mon Mon Mon Monsters, a group of jerks that regularly bully kids at school, kidnaps a vampiric creature and torture it daily while its sister is on the hunt. I don’t have to tell you it doesn’t end well for them. This is a refreshing take on the genre and I hope to see more like it.

As you can see, the bully-revenge genre has been strewn throughout horror for a long time, and the simple reason for it is that bullies suck, and people like to see them get their just deserts. More importantly, these stories are often derived and evolved from personal experiences, and as we enter National Bullying Prevention Month, we should create awareness and help put a stop to bullying, cyberbullying, hatred and racism in our schools and country. If you’re looking for a great resource, check out stompoutbullying.org. Lastly, if you’re a bully…just remember…they’re watching you!

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