Which horror movie villains would make the worst roommate? From Freddy Krueger to Annie Wilkes and more, we ranked them from bad to body bag!
Living with a horror movie villain isn’t just about staying alive; it’s about the everyday nightmare of cohabitation. Picture splitting utilities with someone who never sleeps, accepting hygiene standards that include arterial spray, and sharing space with a roommate who considers “personal boundaries” a form of weakness. From dream-stalkers who make bedtime impossible to demons who turn your security deposit into a theological crisis, here are horror cinema’s worst villains ranked as roommates, from bad to ‘breaking the lease with your life’. Hope you like mysterious stains on everything and rent checks written in blood.
10. Billy (Black Christmas, 1974 – Dir. Bob Clark)
The Worst Squatter Ever
Bob Clark’s pioneering slasher gave us the roommate who’s been living in your attic rent-free, making obscene phone calls from your own landline, and breathing heavily into the vents. You’ll hear him constantly but never see him; it will be like renting to a ghost with respiratory problems and boundary issues. Billy’s the ultimate deadbeat who hoards Christmas decorations, babbles about seasonal trauma, and treats your sorority house like his personal haunted hideaway. Getting your security deposit back will be hopeless when the police find someone’s been camping in your crawl space and using your phone to terrorize the neighbors.
9. May Canady (May, 2002 – Dir. Lucky McKee)
The Overly Attached Craft Enthusiast
Angela Bettis created the roommate who begins adorably awkward. She’ll bring you coffee and ask about your day before gradually revealing she’s been mentally cataloging your best physical features for her “art project.” May’s the lonely hearts killer who sees friendship as a DIY assembly kit requiring actual human parts. She’ll treasure your relationship so much that she’ll want to keep pieces of it forever. Don’t cancel brunch plans or forget to text back. She takes rejection very personally and has excellent knife skills from her glass doll maintenance hobby.
8. Francis Dolarhyde / The Tooth Fairy (Manhunter, 1986 / Red Dragon, 2002)
The Gym Bro with Serious Body Issues
Tom Noonan and Ralph Fiennes both brought Thomas Harris’s muscle-bound psycho to life, and he’s the roommate who converts your living room into his personal transformation shrine. Every wall becomes a mirror, every conversation becomes a theology lecture about becoming God, and he’ll insist you admire his Red Dragon back tattoo during breakfast. His home movie collection is exclusively family murders filmed during full moons, his workout routine involves biting people, and he talks to mirrors like they’re life coaches. Privacy is extinct when your roommate thinks he’s evolving into a deity and needs witnesses for his daily metamorphosis sessions.
7. Jennifer Check (Jennifer’s Body, 2009 – Dir. Karyn Kusama)
The Hot Mess Who Literally Eats Your Dates
Living with Megan Fox’s demon-possessed cheerleader means your dating life becomes her meal plan. Diablo Cody’s razor-sharp script gave us the succubus roommate who borrows your clothes without asking, throws the best parties in town, and systematically devours every guy you bring home. She’ll look amazing doing it, leave mysterious stains on the bathroom tiles, and somehow make you feel bad for complaining about the trail of corpses. Plus, she’s still processing that whole “sacrificed by an indie band” trauma, so expect mood swings and a serious attitude about musical taste.
6. Asami Yamazaki (Audition, 1999 – Dir. Takashi Miike)
The Roommate Who’s Too Good to Be True
Eihi Shiina’s deceptively flawless character from Takashi Miike’s slow-burn masterpiece seems like an ideal roommate: quiet, clean, doesn’t touch your food. Then you notice the large sack in her room that occasionally moves, and she starts adding “special ingredients” to your tea. Asami avoids messy confrontations about chores or bills. She waits patiently, plans carefully, and settles disputes with piano wire and paralytic drugs. Her conflict resolution skills were perfected through ballet training, and trust us, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of her creative problem-solving techniques with needles.
5. Annie Wilkes (Misery, 1990 – Dir. Rob Reiner)
The Helicopter Roommate from Hell
Annie starts sweet, offering homemade soup and checking if you need anything. Then she’ll escalate to reading your diary, monitoring your phone calls, and “helping” you stay home when you try to leave. Kathy Bates’s Oscar-winning performance gave us Stephen King’s ultimate clingy roommate, who treats the lease agreement like a kidnapping contract. She’ll reorganize your medicine cabinet, critique your life choices, and if you’re late with rent? Well, hobbling is her preferred payment plan. Living with Annie means never having to wonder if someone cares about you, because she’ll never let you forget it. Cockadoodie!
4. Captain Howdy / Pazuzu (The Exorcist, 1973 – Dir. William Friedkin)
The Roommate Who’s Actually Subletting to a Demon
William Friedkin’s ancient evil doesn’t technically live with you. He just possesses your actual roommate and converts them into a bile-spewing, Latin-screaming nightmare. Pazuzu transforms movie night into theological horror, makes the house smell like sulfur, and has zero respect for your religious beliefs or your rugs. He’ll shriek about your dead relatives at the witching hour, projectile vomit on your furniture, and force you to question everything you believe about reality. Explaining the property damage to your landlord becomes an exercise in creative non-fiction.
3. The Babadook (The Babadook, 2014 – Dir. Jennifer Kent)
The Emo Roommate Who Feeds on Your Misery
Jennifer Kent’s top-hat-wearing allegory for depression is the roommate who skips paying utilities but somehow makes your electric bill skyrocket with all the wall-banging and midnight screaming. He destroys your books, manipulates your emotions, and transforms every conversation into an existential crisis about grief and loss. The Babadook thrives on human despair, so your bad days become his feast days. Asking him to keep it down during finals week is pointless when your suffering is literally his sustenance.
2. Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Beast (Split, 2016 – Dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
The Ultimate Multiple Personality Disorder
Living with one roommate is tough. Living with 23 is impossible. James McAvoy’s tour-de-force performance cycles between personalities like a roulette wheel. One minute he’s gentle fashion designer Barry, the next he’s germophobic Dennis or a nine-year-old boy named Hedwig. You can’t predict who’s making coffee, who’s doing laundry, or who’s hunting you. Meal planning becomes impossible, bathroom schedules are a nightmare, and when “The Beast” comes out? Game over. Ripped, rage-filled, wall-crawling, and absolutely terrifying. M. Night’s return to form gave us the roommate who literally changes personalities faster than you can say “rent’s due.”
1. Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984 – Dir. Wes Craven)
The Human Alarm Clock from Hell
Forget about getting a restful night’s sleep ever again. Robert Englund’s iconic dream stalker doesn’t just kill you in nightmares; he transforms your bedroom into his personal comedy club, complete with razor-fingered punchlines and boiler room aesthetics. He’ll criticize your décor while you’re unconscious, leave scorch marks on the furniture, and make the rent checks bounce into alternate realities. Wes Craven created the ultimate insomniac roommate who thinks 3 AM is prime time for stand-up comedy. Try explaining to your landlord why the walls are bleeding and reality keeps glitching.
