A horror movie can still be fairly enjoyable without great minor characters, as the story, scares, and huge reveal can make up for that. But if a film doesn't have an excellent and well-crafted main character to follow for the entire run time, it's hard to love it. Fans want to learn as much as they can about the pasts, present, and motivations of horror movie protagonists, as it makes it easier to hope that they can beat whatever evil is in front of them. And it makes for a stronger ending, too.
Thankfully, there are some incredible main characters in horror movies from the past few decades. These are characters to love, cheer for, and hope will win, no matter what they're dealing with.
Sidney Prescott (Scream)
Sidney Prescott is a final girl and Neve Campbell has done an incredible job portraying her main character in all of the Scream movies. After watching Sidney come back to Woodsboro in Scream 2020, there are even more reasons to love Sidney.
Whether a teenage girl figuring out that her boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Urlich) is a killer and a horrible person, or coming back home as a wife and mother to beat yet another Ghostface, Sidney is an incredibly impressive person. She never suffer fools, stands up for what's right, and cares deeply about the people from her past, especially Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Sidney is one of the most famous main characters in a slasher movie, and for good reason, as her strong reputation is completely earned.
Adelaide Wilson (Us)
Horror fans highly anticipated Jordan Peele's movie Us, with its great setting and interesting plot. Lupita Nyong'o's character Adelaide is the key to the movie's meaning and also one of the best horror movie main characters.
Audiences learn that when Adelaide/Addy was young, she saw another version of herself in a funhouse mirror while at the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. This was a strange experience that changed her forever and as it turns out, this was her doppelgänger. When the movie's big reveal comes out -- that there are versions of each person called the Tethered who the government wanted to be in charge of the people living "above" -- audiences find out that Red, the "clone," is the true Addy. After watching Get Out which had a dark ending that didn't end up being shown, fans of Jordan Peele knew that the filmmaker would bring his knack for compelling characters to his second horror film. Addy is a great main character as she has a past that becomes tied to the present and she's also part of the movie's twist.
Anita "Needy" Lesnicki (Jennifer's Body)
Fans would love a Jennifer's Body TV reboot as the 2009 horror movie has such a strong main character in Anita "Needy" Lesnicki. Played by Amanda Seyfried, Needy becomes completely undone by her best friend Jennifer Check's (Megan Fox) transition into a demon who kills the boys who she is seducing.
Right away, audiences see Needy in a mental hospital, learning that she was put in solitary confinement and that people didn't think that she could handle living on her own after killing her BFF. By the movie's ending, Needy has left the hospital and has gotten revenge, killing the members of the band Low Shoulder who were responsible for Jennifer being possessed. At first, Needy seems like the typical stereotype of a high school nerd who is smarter than her cool friend, but Needy has strength and compassion and is a lot of fun to watch.
Tara Carpenter (Scream 2022)
While people wonder if Scream 2022 is too similar to Scream 4, Jenna Ortega's character Tara Carpenter has made this movie worth checking out, and she's a perfect addition to the popular horror franchise.
When Tara is attacked in the opening scene, a nice nod to Drew Barrymoore's Casey Becker being murdered in the original film, her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) comes back home to make sure that she's okay, and their sister connection is one of the best parts about the new movie. Tara is an awesome character, running from Ghostface in a wheelchair while in the hospital and trying to figure out if any of her so-called friends are Ghostface. Tara loves "elevated horror" like The Babadook and her appreciation for scary movies with an intellectual message is charming.
Maddie Young (Hush)
Mike Flanagan's Netflix show Midnight Mass is incredible, delivering a solid and perfect story in seven episodes. Flanagan's wife Kate Siegal also does a great job in his horror movie Hush, which was released in 2016.
Siegal's character, Maddie Young, is one of the most interesting main characters in a horror movie as she's deaf and has to fight back when a killer comes into her house. Maddie wrote a novel called Midnight Mass, which is fun for Flanagan fans, and she's living with her cat in the country. Now that Maddie knows that she has to do whatever it takes to make it through the night, she fights back with all of her might against the killer, and audiences love watching her.