It’s Father’s Day and with that comes a mixed bag of emotions for all. For some of us it’s a great way to celebrate that winning sperm that created you, after all without you, nobody would be celebrating Father’s Day today. For others it might be a day of remembrance to parents we lost, or it’s a reminder that even Luke Skywalker had a better dad than you. So whether you’re a parent of tiny humans, furbabies or plants, here’s a list of 20 Movie Dads in honour of Father’s Day.
20. Knock Knock [2015]
Part of me feels bad for Evan Webber [Keanu Reeves]. It’s Father’s Day and his family has gone away for the weekend, leaving him home alone to work but instead he takes pity on two drowned rats at his front door that have some major Daddy Issues and he ends up being terrorized for the entire weekend.
19. An American Haunting [2005]
The worst kinds of fathers are the ones that act like good citizens but really they’re vile pieces of human trash. When strange things start to happen to Betsy it also affects her father John [Donald Sutherland]. He believes they’ve been cursed when the reality is so much worse. I want to say that John gets everything he deserves but honestly he deserved so much worse.
18. Bloodline [2018]
Evan Cole [Seann William Scott] is a school psychologist with a newborn son keeping him up on a nightly basis. Sleep deprivation is hard on anyone without a baby to take care of so he channels his frustrations into killing deadbeat Dad’s, a skillset he learned from his domineering mother. The family that slays together stays together.
17. The Shining [1980]
The older I get, the more I understand Jack's need for solitude in a big hotel surrounded by snow, but he should have left the fam at home. His mood shifts from fine to pissed off in 0.5 seconds which isn't great when you have a wife constantly pestering you.
16. The Amityville Horror [2005]
When a house looks like it’s too good to be true, that’s because it is and you definitely should not buy it and move your family into it. We could argue about which version of this movie is better, but who doesn’t want to call Ryan Reynolds, Daddy? Sure he wants to kill his entire family but he’s REALLY buff.
15. Hideaway [1995]
Not all Dad’s are created evil in horror. Hatch [Jeff Goldblum] is one of the good guys but he’s having a hard time getting people to believe him that his daughter Regina’s life is in danger. After being clinically dead for 20 minutes from a car accident, he now has a psychic connection to the only other person who was brought back after a long period – Satan worshipper, Vassago – and now he’s getting twisted visions of girls being murdered.
14. The Possession [2012]
Newly divorced Clyde [Jeffrey Dean Morgan] isn’t winning any awards for parenting. It’s not that he’s bad, he could just be better. Pizza is the only food group he knows about, he misses his kids’ events because he’s working all the time and he just bought his daughter a creepy antique box that contains a demon. She’s not only possessed, she’s obsessed, and he’s going to need to find a Rabbi to help him break the curse.
13. We Have A Ghost [2023]
Imagine being a ghost haunting a house and scaring away every inhabitant that comes along only you have no idea why you’re like this and it’s not even your house. Worst part is finding out this guy’s backstory and people continuing to show him zero respect by still calling him Ernest. It’s not his name. On the upside, he got to reunite with his daughter for about 30 seconds so that was nice.
12. Blackout [1985]
We all know kids parties are stressful, but have you ever been so triggered by your child turning five that you buy a gimp mask, attack women and eventually kill your whole family? Well that’s what happens with Joe Steiner. After getting into a nasty car accident that rearranges his face and gives him a case of amnesia, he has no recollections of his past until an ex-cop comes along convinced he’s this guy who killed his entire family.
11. Frailty [2001]
Nothing says ‘what a great bonding experience’ like trying to convince your two young sons that God speaks to you and you’re now a family of demon hunters. Childhood trauma, forever keeping psychologists in work.
10. Sinister [2012]
I’m on the fence with this guy. On the one hand, my murder-doco loving self loves the idea of moving into a murder house and playing investigator, on the other hand I can’t believe Ellison [Ethan Hawke] moved his whole family into a murder house and didn’t even tell them.
9. Home Movie [2008]
In this Found Footage flick, David Poe [Adrian Pasdar] is the goofball Dad we all wanted as kids. He’s a Lutheran minister that loves family time and playing ball, he’ll buy you ice cream even if you just killed the family cat and he’s more than happy to wear a bright pink bunny suit for Easter. In fact he’ll dress up for all holiday occasions. Sadly his twins don’t appreciate it because they’re psychopaths. What’s worse is his wife is a psychiatrist and most of this film could have been avoided had she just handed her children over to the nearest padded cell.
8. I See You [2019]
Greg Harper’s family is falling apart. His wife cheated on him, his son is all bitter that Mum ruined the family, photos are disappearing from the walls and the silverware is missing. Meanwhile he’s the lead detective on a case of some missing boys and he has no idea there are two people hiding out in his guest room.
7. The 'Burbs [1989]
Ray [Tom Hanks] is the epitome of ‘Idle hands are the Devil’s playground’. He’s just your average suburban dad with a week off work and no hobbies to keep him occupied, so he spies on his new neighbours and becomes so convinced they’re murderers, he breaks into their house to prove it.
6. Train To Busan [2016]
Single Dad Seok-woo goes above and beyond trying to protect his child from a train filled with zombies, a train they wouldn’t have been on if he hadn’t chosen today – his daughter’s birthday - to not be a workaholic.
5. The People Under The Stairs [1991]
There’s a lot of fucked up things happening in The People Under The Stairs like gentrification and victimizing the poor, or the fact we have a brother and sister calling each other Mommy and Daddy and the ghoulish looking boys they keep locked up in the basement, but the most WTF thing for me is definitely Dad running around in a gimp suit shooting up his house with a shotgun.
4. Pet Sematary [1989]
Louis Creed is by far the dumbest of all the horror dads. Every time I watch this movie I’m pissed off that he never built a fence around his house, or at least some kind of enclosed courtyard, to prevent his kid being mowed down by a big fucking truck. The IQ test doesn’t stop there! After resurrecting his daughters’ cat with stellar results, he decides to resurrect his son. What could go wrong? Everything, but that doesn’t stop this halfwit from resurrecting his wife too. I can’t believe this guy got into med school.
3. Searching [2018]
Throwing in this Found Footage thriller because David Kim [John Cho] is one super dedicated Dad and he won my heart. He might be a little clueless about his daughter (and seriously, aren’t most parents of teenagers?), but when she goes missing, he wastes no time trying to find out what happened to her. This movie had me on the edge of my seat. I was so invested in the story I needed this man to have a happy ending or I was going to be devastated!
2.Big Bad Wolves [2013]
A vicious pedophile is on the loose killing young girls and the police are nowhere close to finding the killer but they seem to suspect a local school teacher despite no evidence to charge him with anything. It’s hard to focus on just one father for this write-up when we have four as the main characters. There’s the homicide detective, the school teacher and Gidi, the father of the latest victim who decides to rent some decrepit house in the middle of nowhere so he can torture the school teacher into confessing where he hid his daughter's head, but not before his dad drops by for a visit and decides to join in on the fun.
1.The Stepfather [1987]
Jerry [Terry O'Quinn] just wants the American Dream. A loving wife, some kids and a big house with a birdhouse, preferably one already made that he can just move into. He doesn't have time to actually have children of his own, but when things don’t fit his ideal fantasy he gets all stabby and starts fresh in a new town. This movie has a special place in my heart because I discovered it about 6 months after gaining my own stepfather. I can’t tell you how thrilled he was by my incessant need to rent this on the regular from the video store. The sequel is just as great as Jerry (who now calls himself Gene) escapes the psychiatric hospital, moves to a new town and plays psychiatrist to the locals.
Do you have a fav movie-Dad? Let us know in the comments!
