The most iconic horror movie duos prove that terrifying movies don’t need an ensemble cast of survivors to make an impact. At the start of the first era of Hollywood horror movies, the focus was mostly on the monsters — whether Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, or the Wolf-Man, the victims were never as important. However, in later years — especially when the slasher genre grew in popularity in the 1970s and ’80s — the final girl and hapless teenagers made the story almost as much about the victims as the killers, even if it was just to see how they died.
Many of the most popular and iconic horror movies focus on duos rather than large groups, but these duos don’t only include pairs of survivors going up against terrifyingly insurmountable odds. There are many duos that pair a victim with the terror that’s stalking them and many more that are tag-team killers putting an ensemble cast of survivors through hell on earth. Many duos are either responsible for (or victims in) the best horror movie kills of all time too, further adding to their notoriety in the genre.
25 Laurie & Michael
Jamie Lee Curtis And Nick Castle, Halloween
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The dynamic between the Final Girl and the masked killer is a staple of the horror genre, but the relationship between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers developed into something much stronger than any other example of this relationship in the genre. In the first Halloween movie, Laurie was simply an unlucky babysitter who gets in the way of Michael’s bloody rampage on Halloween night. However, as the Halloween franchise continued, their relationship grew.
Halloween II revealed that Michael and Laurie were actually siblings, explaining his obsession with killing her after all these years. However, it was David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy that really cemented their bond as iconic. 2018’s Halloween retconned the idea of them being related and instead made them enemies who seemed destined to be on a collision course with each other. Halloween 2018 had the very satisfying reunion of these two horror icons, with Laurie finally ready to confront the nightmare that haunted her for decades.
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9/10 Halloween (1978) RHorrorThriller
Halloween is a horror film released in 1978 that centers on the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, as a masked serial killer terrorizes it. Over a decade after the brutal murder of Judith Myers by her brother, Michael, Michael escapes from the local Sanitarium to continue his silent killing spree- with teenage Laurie Strode being his new potential victim.
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*Availability in US Director John Carpenter Release Date October 27, 1978 Cast Donald Pleasence , Jamie Lee Curtis , Tony Moran , Nancy Kyes , P.J. Soles , Kyle Richards , Charles Cyphers Runtime 91 Minutes
24 OJ & Emerald
Daniel Kaluuya And Keke Palmer, Nope
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A relationship between brother and sister in horror movies is not common, but Jordan Peele’s Nope delivered one of the best sibling relationships in the genre’s history. OJ and Emerald are two underdogs who see an opportunity to change their lives when they discover an alien in the skies around their home and seek to capture it on camera.
Nope‘s odd alien is a mesmerizing horror movie monster, but Peele’s blockbuster movie excels because of the relationship between OJ and Emerald. The siblings have hilariously different personalities, with OJ as a quiet and reserved man and Emerald as the burst of energy and ideas. They make for a fantastic team with Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer delivering strong performances in the roles. It is genuinely touching to see the duo working together towards their ambitious plan and building a stronger bond in the process.
Nope rHorror Sci-Fi
Written and directed by Jordan Peele, Nope follows the owners of a family-run Hollywood horse ranch whose lives are changed by extraterrestrial phenomena. Siblings Otis (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) scramble to understand events that seem to defy all explanation, even as their neighbor (Steven Yeun) tries to turn the strange occurrences into a alien tourist attraction.
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*Availability in US Director Jordan Peele Release Date July 22, 2022 Cast Steven Yeun , Michael Wincott , Daniel Kaluuya , Brandon Perea , Keke Palmer , Barbie Ferreira Runtime 131 minutes
23 Thomas Howard & Thomas Wake
Robert Pattinson And Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse
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It is rare for a horror film to consist of only two characters for the entire movie, but that is what makes the duo at the center of The Lighthouse so memorable. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star in the twisted and surreal tale of two lighthouse keepers, both named Thomas, on a small isolated island who seemingly become trapped due to a storm. However, as their time together continues, reality begins to blur and deadly tension begins to rise between them.
The two actors put on incredible performances in the two-hander story with them playing off each other with incredible intensity that switches between horror, love, and humor at any given moment. There are some absurd moments that somehow work incredibly well to deepen the growing chaos of the relationship, such as Pattison’s Thomas insulting the lobster dinner made by Dafoe’s Thomas, sending the latter into an epic rant to curse him.
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10/10 The Lighthouse RHorrorFantasyDrama
The Lighthouse is a psychological thriller directed by Robert Eggers. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, two lighthouse keepers who begin to experience strange and supernatural phenomena after they get stranded on a remote island in the 1890s.
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*Availability in US Director Robert Eggers Release Date October 18, 2019 Cast Robert Pattinson , Willem Dafoe , Valeriia Karaman Runtime 110 minutes
22 Father Merrin & Father Karras
Max von Sydow And Jason Miller, The Exorcist
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The Exorcist is likely best remembered for the creepy possessed child, Regan, but many of the themes of the story are better found in the characters of Father Merrin and Father Karras. The two men are priests with very different outlooks on their faith but who are drawn into this strange and unbelievable circumstance in which they partner up to save a young girl’s life from an evil demon.
What is interesting about this horror movie duo is that Merrin and Karras don’t actually meet until the final act of the movie. However, they quickly form a unique relationship that also works as a buddy-cop dynamic, albeit with a darker and more serious tone. Karras is the younger priest who is questioning his faith and unprepared for what he is facing while Merrin is the older priest who knows all too well that the demon Pazuzu is real.
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10/10 The Exorcist RHorrorSupernatural
The Exorcist is a supernatural horror film based on the novel released in 1971 and was directed by William Friedkin. When a young girl is passed by a powerful demon, two Catholic priests are brought to her home to attempt an exorcism to expunge the demon.
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*Availability in US Director William Friedkin Release Date December 26, 1973 Cast Max Von Sydow , Linda Blair , Lee J. Cobb , Ellen Burstyn , Jason Miller , Kitty Winn , Jack MacGowran Runtime 122 minutes
21 Lawrence & Adam
Cary Elwes And Leigh Whannell, Saw
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The Saw movie franchise kicked off with a small-scale story that is still considered by many to be the best of the series. The 2003 original follows Lawrence (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell), two strangers who wake up in a dirty basement cellar with chains on their legs. They soon realize they are the latest victims of a serial killer known as Jigsaw who puts his targets through brutal games to test their willingness to survive and change their ways.
With Lawrence and Adam stuck in this harrowing situation together, their relationship comes in some interesting directions over the course of the movie. They are filled with distrust of one another, reveal that they share secret connections, and ultimately try to work together to save their lives. With so much of the movie focused on these two men in prison together, the tension and bond they share are essential to the movie.
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8/10 Saw RHorrorMysteryCrime
Saw is a horror film directed by James Wan. The story follows two men who awaken in a dilapidated bathroom, chained at opposite ends, and discover they are pawns in a deadly game orchestrated by a serial killer known as Jigsaw. As they struggle to survive, they learn the harsh consequences of their past actions. The film features complex puzzles and a dark atmosphere, contributing to its critical and commercial success.
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*Availability in US Director James Wan Release Date October 1, 2004 Cast Cary Elwes , Leigh Whannell , Danny Glover , Monica Potter , Ken Leung Runtime 103 Minutes
20 Ed & Lorraine Warren
Vera Farmiga And Patrick Wilson, The Conjuring Franchise
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The Conjuring
Release Date July 19, 2013 Director James Wan Cast Joey King , Vera Farmiga , Lili Taylor , Patrick Wilson , Ron Livingston Runtime 112 minutes
One of the most successful horror franchises of recent years is The Conjuring Universe, which started with the 2013 original from which the franchise gets its name. The main Conjuring movies are based around real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). The movies are loosely based on their real investigations, and the couple as presented in The Conjuring have become an iconic horror duo of paranormal investigators.
The true story aspect of the movies has long been and scrutinized, but it does offer an interesting context to the main characters. Ed and Lorraine are elevated to horror movie heroes, which is rare in the genre, and it is a lot of fun seeing them come into other people’s stories and attempt to help them with their supernatural threats. While spinoffs like The Nun and Annabelle were received well, it is when Ed and Lorraine Warren are together as a duo in the central Conjuring movies that the franchise is at its best.
19 Oskar & Eli
Kare Hedebrant And Lina Leandersson, Let The Right One In
Let the Right One In
Release Date December 12, 2008 Director Tomas Alfredson Cast Lina Leandersson , Karin Bergquist , Kåre Hedebrant , Henrik Dahl , Per Ragnar Runtime 114 minutes
There are two movies based on Let the Right One In novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The original, which used the book’s title, is from Sweden and played very closely to the source material. In this movie, a young boy named Oskar lives with his mom when he notices a man and his daughter move in next door to their flat. What he soon learns is that the girl is Eli, a vampire, and the man is not her father but her familiar.
Eli saves Oskar from bullies, and they grow close until young Eli decides that he will become her new familiar. Their friendship is as important as the horror of the movie with these two outcasts building a bond that promises to take them down a dark path. The 2010 American remake Let Me In was also received well, but the original remains the most acclaimed.
18 Hannibal Lecter & Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins And Jodie Foster, The Silence Of The Lambs
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The Silence of the Lambs
Run Time 118 Minutes Language English Studio Universal
Not every horror duo is a pair of morally good characters. In the case of The Silence of the Lambs, the duo of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter are moral polar opposites, yet they remain one of the most iconic in movie history, much less horror movies. Clarice Starling was a young FBI agent trying to figure out the identity of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill. To get into the mind of a serial killer, she interviewed cannibal murderer Hannibal Lecter in his prison cell.
While the movie is a gripping hunt for a serial killer, the most intense scenes in the movie are the conversations between Clarice and Hannibal in the prison. There is a strange intimacy between the two, with Hannibal probing to understand this young woman he becomes fascinated with. The two had a confrontational relationship that developed into something deeper as the movie ran on. Both Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster won Oscars for their performances.
17 Pearl & Howard
Mia Goth And Stephen Ure/Alistair Sewell, X And Pearl
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Pearl
Release Date September 16, 2022 Director Ti West Cast Mia Goth , David Corenswet , Tandi Wright , Matthew Sunderland , Emma Jenkins-Purro Runtime 102 minutes
Two of the biggest surprise movies of 2022 were X and Pearl, which came out months apart. Set decades apart, both starred Mia Goth as Pearl, with the story focusing on her husband Howard and their attempts (and failure) to contain Pearl’s murderous impulses. In the first movie, X, they were an elderly couple who turned out to be slasher killers, targeting young adults shooting an adult movie on their property.
While Pearl and Howard were memorable in X,when their backstory was told in Pearl, the pair truly came to life. With the younger Howard now played by Alistair Sewell, Pearl elevated the modern horror duo to potential genre icons, as it showed how and why Pearl became a serial killer and why Howard would do anything to protect and serve his bride. The trilogy continued with MaXXXine, but it is missing the intrigue of Pearl and Howard’s relationship.
16 Jack & David
Griffin Dunne And David Naughton, An American Werewolf In London
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An American Werewolf In London
Release Date August 21, 1981 Director John Landis Cast David Naughton , Jenny Agutter , Griffin Dunne , John Woodvine , Lila Kaye , Joe Belcher Runtime 97 minutes
One of the best werewolf movies ever made arrived in 1981 with An American Werewolf in London. What is most interesting about this horror duo is that one of them dies early in the movie but sticks around anyway to torment his friend. While David and Jack are backpacking through Yorkshire, a werewolf attacks them, kills Jack, and bites David, gradually transforming him into a werewolf. As a result, Jack is left walking the Earth until David dies, so he spends the rest of the movie trying to get David to take his own life.
The movie is a beloved horror-comedy, and the relationship of the cursed duo David and Jack is a big part of its legacy. Their easy buddy chemistry early in the movie makes the audience quickly relate to these endearing characters and care about what happens to them. However, it is even more impressive that the authenticity of their friendship is maintained even as David deals with being a werewolf and Jack with being a mutilated ghost.
15 Tucker & Dale
Tyler Labine And Alan Tudyk, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Release Date September 30, 2011 Director Eli Craig Cast Tyler Labine , Katrina Bowden , Alan Tudyk , Chelan Simmons , Jesse Moss Runtime 89 minutes
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a horror comedy that subverts the entire genre. The film at first presents like a typical horror movie set in the woods, with a group of kids headed out to the wilderness where it looks like they might end up stalked by Deliverance-like slasher villains. When they find the completely innocent protagonists of the movie, forest-dwelling hillbillies Tucker and Dale, it becomes clear that the seemingly obvious plot is Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil’s central conceit.
Like viewers, the kids assume that Tuck and Dale are deranged slasher killers, though the audience quickly realizes that the horror duo are just two harmless forest-dwellers who are at their cabin for a relaxing time. When the kids decide to be proactive and fight the two, accidents start happening, and the kids start dying. The horrified reactions from Tucker and Dale make each and every death even better.
14 Adam & Eve
Tom Hiddleston And Tilda Swinton, Only Lovers Left Alive
Only Lovers Left Alive
Release Date December 25, 2013 Director Jim Jarmusch Cast Tom Hiddleston , Tilda Swinton Runtime 123minutes
Jim Jarmusch is one of the most credible indie filmmakers of the last 30 years and in 2013, he directed a horror dark comedy called Only Lovers Left Alive. The movie is a vampire story about two ancient vampires named Adam and Eve, played by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. This horror duo has been married for centuries, but when the movie starts, they live across the world from each other. However, when Eve realizes that Adam is becoming suicidal, she tries to show him there is still something to live for.
With Jarmusch at the helm, fans shouldn’t expect the typical vampire movie, but rather he uses the genre conventions to make a captivating and oddly beautiful story of love and loneliness. Only Lovers Left Alive is a bizarre vampire movie, but it is well worth the watch thanks to the leads’ chemistry.
13 Millie & The Blissfield Butcher
Kathryn Newton And Vince Vaughn, Freaky
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Freaky
Release Date November 13, 2020 Director Christopher Landon Cast Misha Osherovich , Vince Vaughn , Celeste O’Connor , Kathryn Newton , Uriah Shelton , Dana Drori , Alan Ruck , Katie Finneran Runtime 102 Minutes
The horror duo of Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn made Freaky one of the best modern body-swap movies. In a horror-based reimagining of the central premise of Freaky Friday, a teenage girl named Millie Kessler ends up hunted by the aging serial killer, The Blissfield Butcher. However, something happens and the two end up switching bodies.
This is where the brilliance of Freaky comes from, as Vince Vaughn ends up playing a teenage girl who tries to convince her friends of who she really is. At the same time, Kathryn Newton does her best Vince Vaughn impersonation as The Blissfield Butcher uses his new teenage girl body to keep on killing. The body-swap antics of Freaky and the pair doing impressions of one another make them a hilarious horror movie duo and the two actors seem to have a lot of fun with the dual roles.
12 R & Julie
Nicholas Hoult And Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies
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2013’s Warm Bodies is a romantic zombie horror movie that follows a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult), who has regained the ability to think and rationalize. When he sees a human girl named Julie, he remarkably decides to save her rather than eat her, though he does drag her back to his ‘home’ in an abandoned airport. The two develop a dangerous relationship, especially since Julie’s father is a major force in hunting down and killing all the zombies.
What makes Warm Bodies work is R and Julie growing together as they set out to find a possible cure for the zombie apocalypse. While Warm Bodies 2 never arrived to adapt one of the novel’s sequels, R and Julie remain one of the best horror movie duos thanks to their unconventional romance and proof that it’s not only R and MA-rated titles that stand out in the genre.
11 The Frog Brothers
Corey Feldman And Jamison Newlander, The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys
Release Date July 31, 1987 Director Joel Schumacher Cast Corey Feldman , Kiefer Sutherland , Jason Patric , Jami Gertz , Corey Haim Runtime 97 minutes
One of the most popular vampire movies of all time is the 1980s classic The Lost Boys. The movie stars Corey Haim as a young boy whose family moves to a new town with their grandfather after his mom gets divorced. While he isn’t happy about moving there, it gets worse when he realizes there are vampires in this town and his brother is a target. This led to the arrival of the Frog Brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), two young men who work at a comic book store and fashion themselves as vampire hunters.
This horror movie duo steals almost every scene in which they appear and has some of the best Lost Boys quotes in the movie. They are quintessential ’80s movie characters, from their personalities to their appearance, which ends up making them timeless icons of the genre. While they are not the main characters of the story, the introduction of the Frog Brothers takes The Lost Boys into a wild new direction.
10 Brigitte & Ginger
Emily Perkins And Katherine Isabelle, Ginger Snaps
Ginger Snaps
Release Date August 1, 2000 Director John Fawcett Cast Emily Perkins , Katharine Isabelle , Kris Lemche , Mimi Rogers , Jesse Moss , Danielle Hampton Runtime 108 minutes
The Fitzgerald sisters really did have each other’s back throughout Ginger Snaps, even in the face of a supernatural crisis that turned one of them into a werewolf. Ginger Snaps is a Canadian horror franchise that’s a female-led take on the myth of werewolves. Ginger is Brigitte’s older sister who gets bitten by the beasts of Bailey Downs and slowly transforms into a werewolf. Though Brigitte comes up with a serum cure to help her battle the effects of lycanthropy, Ginger initially refuses it, hoping for a full transformation.
An allegory for puberty, the sister’s relationship is what carries this movie and makes Ginger Snaps work so well. It is not often that sister relationships are explored in horror movies, but the connection between Ginger and Brigitte elevates the story with their love for each other being put to the test as the horror drives them down different paths.
9 Lydia & Beetlejuice
Winona Ryder And Michael Keaton, Beetlejuice
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Beetlejuice
Release Date March 30, 1988 Director Tim Burton Cast Catherine O’Hara , Michael Keaton , Geena Davis , Alec Baldwin , Winona Ryder , Jeffrey Jones Runtime 92 minutes
Neither are they a couple nor are they even friends, but the horror duo of Lydia and Beetlejuice from Beetlejuice remains an iconic couple in the realm of horror, cosplay culture, and movie history. This is largely due to the chemistry between Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, both of whom gave career-defining performances in the Tim Burton movie. When a pair of ghosts attempt to rid the home of the family by calling on Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) ends up in his sights, and he wants to marry her, so he can re-enter the human world.
The differing dynamics between the characters and the actors’ performances are what make Beetlejuice and Lydia so compelling together. Ryder plays the macabre teen with a dry sense of humor while Keaton gives a tour-de-force comedic performance as the unhinged demon. The success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice decades after the original further proves the effectiveness of these characters.
8 Shaun & Ed
Simon Pegg And Nick Frost, Shaun Of The Dead
Shaun of the Dead
Release Date September 24, 2004 Director Edgar Wright Cast Kate Ashfield , Nick Frost , Simon Pegg , Lucy Davis , Dylan Moran Runtime 99 minutes
The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy is built on the bromance between the characters played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and they all started in the horror movie Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy where Simon Pegg plays Shaun and Nick Frost his slacker friend and roommate, Ed. The two have developed a co-dependent relationship and end up relying on each other to survive the zombie apocalypse while Shaun tries to find and save his girlfriend.
This horror duo had one of the best fictional friendships of any movie — even after the zombies were defeated and Ed had become a zombie himself, Shaun kept him around to play video games, the sign of a true friend. Pegg and Frost share wonderful chemistry together with so many of the biggest laughs of the movie coming from these two immature friends dealing with the zombie apocalypse.
7 Gale & Dewey
Courteney Cox And David Arquette, Scream
Scream
Release Date December 20, 1996 Director Wes Craven Cast Drew Barrymore , Kevin Patrick Walls , David Booth , Carla Hatley , Neve Campbell , Skeet Ulrich Runtime 111 minutes
Ghostface would surely still be at large if not for the dynamic duo of journalist Gale Weathers and her cop boyfriend Dewey Riley. Though Sidney Prescott has quite a few differences with Gale in the first movie of the franchise, they grow quite close over the next few films. Gale and Dewey became a sort of surrogate family to Sidney as they were always looking out for her, and that brought them closer.
The mellow, idealistic Dewey is kind of a contrast personality-wise to the fierce, go-getter Gale, and it’s made for fascinating on-screen chemistry all the way until Dewey finally died in the fifth Scream movie. While Gale returned for Scream 6 and Sidney Prescott will make her triumphant return in Scream 7, it hasn’t been the same without Dewey. There were a lot of fans who would have liked to see Gale and Dewey get that happy ending they were always searching for.
6 Morticia & Gomez Addams
Various, The Addams Family Franchise
The Addams Family (1991)
Release Date November 22, 1991 Director Barry Sonnenfeld Cast Raul Julia , Anjelica Huston , Christopher Lloyd , Christina Ricci , Carel Struycken , Dan Hedaya , Jimmy Workman , Elizabeth Wilson , Dana Ivey , Judith Malina , Paul Benedict , Christopher Hart , John Franklin , Tony Azito , Mercedes McNab , Douglas Brian Martin , Steven M. Martin , Maureen Sue Levin , Darlene Levin , Allegra Kent , Richard Korthaze , Ryan Holihan Runtime 99 Minutes Expand
In any iteration, spooky soulmates Gomez and Morticia Addams are among the best and most iconic horror movie duos — and are perhaps the best whose movies are suitable for the whole family. Gomez and Morticia’s love story is a romantic arc that’s truly timeless and inspirational. However, their profound and incredibly public passion for each other doesn’t take away from the fact that they are dependable and caring parents.
The 1991 live-action Addams Family starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia also presents a surprisingly realistic depiction of marriage, showing that it can be hard work even for two people who are so very in love with each other. It is rare that the horror franchise has such a genuine depiction of romance, and while there are certainly eccentricities to their love life, it is impossible not to be charmed by the duo.