Quiz: How Fast Can You Name the Horror Movie From the Love Interest?

Over the decades, there have been some excellent horror movies. Whether you love stories with supernatural entities or slashing serial killers, there is one thing that they (mostly) all have in common: a love interest. There’s typically a character the lead falls for, but how well do you remember them?

If you got 8/8, you’re a certified horror movie expert. This is your time of year, with the monsters, the jump scares, and the things that go bump in the night. Make sure you share this quiz with your friends to see how well they do, and claim all the bragging rights!

The Impact of Horror Movie Love Interests

It’s rare for a horror movie not to involve a love interest. Yet, in a genre defined by monsters and survival, you wouldn’t think love would be all that compelling. It does more than add a bit of a personal story for a character. The love interest is structural in horror storytelling, anchoring the terror, elevating the narrative tension, and helping to create rules for everyone to follow.

If there is no empathy in horror, the movie probably won’t work. It works when you want to see people survive. A monster is as terrifying as the audience is willing to invest, and a love interest helps with all of that.

As a protagonist fights for their own life, the idea of a partner to go back to can create heroic moments, self-sacrificing storylines, and terrifying tension. Think about how Chrissie goes back for Eric in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, only to realize that she can’t save him. A Quiet Place offers a profound love between Lee and Evelyn Abbott, only for their romantic devotion to turn devastatingly personal when a family grows.

There are times when the love interest makes the betrayal feel all the more harsh. Scream does an excellent job of turning two characters’ boyfriends into serial killers, leading to questions about trust and how you move on after such an ordeal. A huge twist in the return of I Know What You Did Last Summer has us questioning everything we once knew about one particular love interest.

Love offers a world that’s worth fighting for. There’s hope and humanity within the four bloodied walls of terror, and it leads to survival being a triumph, even if they don’t make it out alive.

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