On this special day, I'd like to remember all the fathers out in horror movie land & give special acknowledgments to those who really caught it nasty.
To that end I present my top 3 dads who had an awful time in their respective horror films.
To that end I present my top 3 dads who had an awful time in their respective horror films.
#3 Jack Torrance from The Shining (1980) played by Jack Nicholson:
Beginning with abusing your son, going through sobriety withdrawals, floundering in your career & having to take a crazy job to make a sober go of it is bad enough.
Now add being trapped in a hotel filled with entities driving you to homicidal insanity only to be outsmarted by a child, freezing to death & eternally stuck in said hotel.
Now add being trapped in a hotel filled with entities driving you to homicidal insanity only to be outsmarted by a child, freezing to death & eternally stuck in said hotel.
Jack got a bad deal for sure.
#2 Robert Thorn from The Omen (1976) played by Gregory Peck:
It's bad enough losing your son, lying to your wife & accepting unwanted advice about adoption, but to learn your child was murdered, the kid you adopted is the son of Satan & that you have to kill him while fighting off devil-worshippers & hounds of hell as people near you are getting killed makes it so much worse.
All this only to fail in stopping Armageddon, losing your life & getting branded insane with headlines reading you attempted to murder your own innocent child.
Robert Thorn really lost it all while helping the Devil on his way out. Dang.
...and lastly...
#1 Ed Harley from Pumpkinhead played by Lance Henriksen
All these fathers lost their lives, but Ed Harley gets my vote because his misfortune came from the most sincerest love that he had for his little boy.
An accident taking you child is bad, but to have it taken by selfish & indifferent youths is horrible insult to injury. The pain that would lead one to punish those who weren't even guilty simply through association is terrible indeed.
However, taking that punishment by tying yourself to a summoned demon is truly desperate. To say nothing of the realization your life & the demon's presence are linked in such a way that you have to die for the slaughtering to stop.
However, taking that punishment by tying yourself to a summoned demon is truly desperate. To say nothing of the realization your life & the demon's presence are linked in such a way that you have to die for the slaughtering to stop.
All this remorse, pain, loss & regret gets Ed Harley the prize for a father getting the rawest deal in a horror movie.
