Balancing the Scales: Karmic Justice in Horror

In horror, we often see innocent lives destroyed. But sometimes, we get the satisfaction of seeing real monsters get their karmic justice.

Very often, the scales of horror aren’t balanced. There will be more victims than victimizers; we will witness murders, assaults, torture, and manipulation, for there are so many emotional tactics horror can use to rip your heart out when someone just doesn’t deserve what happened to them.

More often, we see that scenario, the hero dying for a righteous cause, an innocent dying to deliver gravity. Sometimes, though, horror gifts us moments of righteousness against some less-than-savory characters, and when it does, justice is sweet.

I’ve gone through the revenge tales, and anthologies turned life lessons to tease out the instances of karmic justice throughout horror, and I’ve rounded up ten instances I believe fit the bill for your judgment.

Did these characters get what they had coming? Did some people get off too easy? Is there an ultimate moment of karmic catharsis I’ve overlooked that you’ve experienced? Share your karmic horror tale if I have neglected it; otherwise, enjoy the just desserts.

1. The Menu (Tyler’s Bullshit)

The 2022 horror comedy The Menu hit the spot for me, with pitch-perfect casting in Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Fiennes, and our subject, Nicholas Hoult (Renfield). Playing the incessantly annoying, casually disrespectful worst date ever that’s brought our working girl Margot to a dinner scheduled to end in death, Tyler is a loathsome character from the moment he starts talking.

A “foodie” and all around know it all about kitchen tools and spices, Tyler is overbearing throughout the entire painful dinner service.

Finally, when he’s said and done too much to assert a talent he only craves to possess, Chef Slowik gives him a chance it seemed he was so eagerly awaiting — the opportunity to cook in Hawthorn’s kitchen.

Tyler turns white as the chef’s jacket is slipped over him, calling for leeks, shallots, butter, lamb, a random assortment which he embarrassingly undercooks and serves in a pile which is entitled “Tyler’s Bullshit.”

The humiliation should have been enough to make him die on the spot, but in a moment that still remains a movie secret, Chef Slowik leans in and whispers something unknown to Tyler that shakes him to his core.

It’s only minutes after, as we pass through the kitchen that we see that the experience, and whatever words the chef had to offer, finally shamed Tyler into doing one last thing for himself and to the mercy of Margot — ending it all in a closet instead of tasting his humble pie.

2. Barbarian (A Mother’s Touch)

In one of the most controversial and disturbing horror releases of 2022, Barbarian covered the darkest corners of human nature and dared to show us the consequences. The movie is littered with victims of rape, abuse, and poverty, but its villains and their ends are the focus of this karmic piece.

AJ (Justin Long) has been accused of rape, and the crazy thing is, he fesses up to it. A charismatic, self-serving man, the irony of his disgust, when he encounters the true barbarian and his horror at the man’s suicide, is borderline comical as he stares into an image of what he could become.

As he flees the house with Tess (Georgina Campbell), desperately trying to escape The Mother, the pair end up at a dead end at the top of a water tower, and AJ does the unthinkable: throwing Tess off as a way to distract The Mother.

Her actions are not what he anticipated. Sacrificing her own body, The Mother leaps from the tower and saves Tess, breaking herself mortally in the process to protect her baby. Upon seeing AJ, however, motor mouth running with excuses of last-minute thinking and survival, there’s no time for reconciliation.

In stunning fashion, The Mother crushes the rapist’s head in her hands, ending the trial for another abuser.

While she must pay the ultimate price for saving Tess, she doles out justice for victims past and possibly prevents the birth of new victims, displaying the rage and true survival instinct of a woman reshaped, mind and body, by the crimes of a beast.

3. Piranha 3D (Fish Food)

The busty, bloody horror comedy Piranha 3D made a star-studded splash for good and bad reasons when it landed in 2010.

This movie about prehistoric killer fish released from a tremor was said to rack up the body count but lost all intelligence along the way, but I don’t ever think this movie was aiming to be elevated. Spring break isn’t a classy affair, so it’s no-holds-barred when Spring breakers arrive at Lake Victoria to party.

The plot is led by Jake, a kid whose crush has just resurfaced during the all-day parties, but he’s stuck watching his younger siblings. After meeting with sleazy adult video producer Derrick, Jake decides to embark with him on his boat to film a porno. This purveyor of flesh, however, is about to be stripped of his own.

When Derrick rams the boat into some rocks in the lake in an attempt to rescue Jake’s siblings, the boat begins to sink, and Derrick and his crew go overboard.

While one of them gets away, the lead actress is devoured, and Derrick, before losing a whole lot more of himself, has his manhood bitten off.

When he’s finally pulled aboard he’s nearly just a talking torso, he’s paying a painful price for this location for his skin flick.

After all of his sexist behavior, bullying, manipulation of underaged men and women, and generally selfish disposition, it only seems fitting that the only portion of himself he valued would be eaten first and that Derrick never gets to find his sea legs, as the piranha has made a meal of them.

4. Trick ‘r Treat (Urban Legends)

Garnering a strong cult following as one of the best Halloween films to watch, even after production delays and limited screenings in 2007, Trick ‘r Treat is one of the most entertaining anthologies we have to date.

Starring the likes of Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox, the film had some star power and followed a few ghostly tales of people out in the usually sleepy fictional town of Warren Valley, Ohio. The focus of our karmic justice is in the section about a girl named Rhonda and a horrible prank turned vicious justice delivered.

In a small sea of stories, the Halloween School Bus Massacre stands as perhaps the most frightening and fair story of the bunch. According to legend, a group of “troubled” kids boarded their usual bus one day, unaware their parents were tired of tending to their embarrassing offspring. In a deal with the devil, they pay the bus driver to take care of their problem — permanently. When the plan doesn’t go as expected, and the bus and all its occupants are presumed dead, it becomes a town legend, sparking a group of kids to plan a prank.

Four teens bring a girl they’ve dubbed “Rhonda the Retard” to the abandoned quarry where the bus and its riders supposedly met their fate.

The horrible prank leaves Rhonda terrified and injured, and the mostly unapologetic teens get to gather their gear and call it a night.

However, the ghosts of the past don’t enjoy being mocked, especially at the expense of another innocent. Rising like swamp monsters from their quarry grave, the pranksters are chased down by the specters of the lost children. Finding that Rhonda has locked herself in the only elevator up, they beg for mercy to be let in, but Rhonda is too traumatized and is done with tricks.

She leaves the group below to be dealt with by the not-so-urban legend of the children on the bus and the pent-up rage that simmered below the quarry’s surface for a generation.

5. Train to Busan (Last Stop)

An emotional, heart-stopping journey about a father and daughter on a speeding train filled with the undead, 2016’s Korean zombie thriller Train to Busan brought us Seok-Woo and his daughter, Su-an, as they board a train from Seoul to Busan.

As the train is departing, a sick woman boards, soon turning into a zombie and creating a rapidly spreading infection throughout the train. With the stations overrun and the military pushed back, this is the last train out, and you’ll have to survive the flesh eaters and the desperate, selfish passengers if you want to make it to your destination.

When the chaos is climbing, Seok-Woo and others, including women and children, are locked out of a sealed car filled with passengers. When he and the others break through, they are immediately locked and quarantined in a separate car from the other survivors, including one woman who lost someone dear in the initial wave.

Seeing death as a release and wanting an escape from the bickering, selfish passengers who jeopardized the safety of others, the woman opens the door, keeping the infected at bay, leaving those once safe in the most peril.

You can’t help but empathize with the woman and her choice, seeing nothing but a bleak end trapped with people determined only to save themselves.

Once those who turned Seok-Woo and his child away are the ones crying to be let out of their car, do we see that justice has been done to those who would have sacrificed innocent lives for what they believed was guaranteed self-preservation?

6. Carrie (Prom’s Over)

1976 brought us Carrie, the film adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel of the same name. Starring Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, the film follows the shy, gifted young girl as she’s tormented daily by her peers and by her mother. The abuse can’t last forever, though, as Carrie’s power and her rage have a breaking point, and the dropping of a single iconic bucket of blood triggered one of the largest mass killings in horror history. You just can’t blame a girl.

After being asked to the prom by the popular and handsome Tommy (as a favor to his remorseful girlfriend), Carrie is finally excited and is preparing for the dance. Though her mother disapproves, the poor girl is still hopeful. After ballots are swapped to put Carrie in the prom queen position, her peers douse her in pig’s blood.

Seeing in her mind a sea of laughing faces who planned to humiliate her all along, Carrie’s telekinesis kicks into overdrive; she locks off the exits and begins to dismantle the gym, eventually setting it on fire and sealing her classmates and the staff inside to burn.

On the street, as she walks home in chaos, she also ends the lives of her tormentors as they try to run her down in one last-ditch effort to be rid of Carrie.

A victim from beginning to end, Carrie exacts her justice over those who made her life a living hell.

After seeing her torment, it’s hard not to sympathize with the sweet girl turned mass murderer. A case could certainly be made that the punishment does not fit the crime, but we can also understand the tragedy of a lost young girl whose hopes and dreams have been crushed and who feels completely alone in the world.

7. Mandy (A Man’s Reckoning)

2018’s Mandy offered cosmic, revenge horror with all the trappings a fan could want, including Nicolas Cage.

The story follows Red Miller (Cage) and his artistic girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), as they live a life away from society. One day, as Mandy heads to work, she’s noticed by a van full of warped, religious cult members led by the delusional and sadistic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache).

The group breaks into the couple’s home, restraining them, and Sand attempts to seduce Mandy, which leads to her laughing at him, humiliating the prideful leader. Stabbing Red in retaliation, the group burns Mandy alive and leaves Red to unbind himself, mend himself, and mourn his incredible loss.

Time can’t heal all wounds, and you get the sense when Cage moves from grieving to game time that this false prophet and his followers are about to feel the wrath of God.

After finding a friend who can give him the tools and the knowledge about the cult and their associates, Red crafts a battle axe called “The Beast” and, with little hope for survival, prepares to assault the cult. Killing bikers and cult members in a bloody frenzy, Red cuts his way to Sand and finally crushes the life out of the man.

As a parting gift, Red lights Sand’s body and the church on fire, leaving it to burn as his precious Mandy did, leaving him to drive from the massacre, bloodlust satisfied, with visions of his departed love in his passenger seat.

8. Tales From the Crypt (Just Desserts)

Tales from the Crypt works almost exclusively with the idea of divine reckoning.

The 1972 film directed by Freddie Francis is an anthology work based on the comics and short stories of Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, and Bill Gaines. Awful things happening to awful people is the theme for this franchise, a motif carried on to this day in the form of  Creepshow that resides on Shudder, continuing to dole out karma for the masses season after season.

If you enjoy a good “justice is served” type of tale, this is the film for you. It’s a chilling reminder that how we behave in life may help shape our fate, and there are few things more satisfying than seeing someone get their comeuppance who truly deserves it rather than simply a poor, hapless victim.

The transgressions could range from cold-blooded murder, cheating on your spouse, or slandering a neighbor, but the outcome always seems to fit the crime. But the message is always the same: sinners beware.

The duplicitous spouse never makes their joyride off with their lover, the murdering wife is caught by an even more ruthless killer, and even the dead rise to return the favors they were bestowed in life in this five-part anthology film where every segment satisfies your itch for karmic justice.

Three of the segments were somewhat remade into episodes for the popular Tales From the Crypt television show, but two of the stories were significantly changed. Perhaps the most famous story is “And All Through the House” about a murderous woman who ends up tangling with an axe-wielding maniac dressed as Santa Claus.

Tales from the Crypt is an all-you-can-eat treat for all the just desserts you can stomach.

9. Final Destination 5 (Buddha’s Judgment)

The fifth installment of the Final Destination franchise brought us a catastrophic bridge collapse that nearly killed the entirety of an office department on its way to a company retreat.

As in all the films, the 2011 installment saw death’s design shift to find its targets — delivering some quite literal karma to one of its most detestable characters.

Isaac, one of the survivors, has been in decent spirits since the accident, even going through his deceased coworkers’ belongings to discover what he believes is a massage coupon. Arriving at the salon prepared for a “happy ending” with all the sleaze you can imagine, he finds out, to his dismay, that the coupon is for acupuncture, and his therapist is not a young massage bunny.

With the acupuncture needles, a red herring for how Isaac is going to bite the bullet. Isaac hits the floor, impaling himself; I’m sure the pain was unimaginable and shocked us all that it wasn’t his end.

But gravity had one more surprise in store for Isaac: as he crawls desperately to try and reach help, a large Buddha statue slides from its place and obliterates Isaac’s head.

I think everyone can agree that this is some literal and metaphorical karma in action.

10. Hard Candy (Face the Truth, or Face the Music)

A taut thriller with a touchy subject matter, the 2005 indie darling Hard Candy brought Elliot Page (as Ellen Page) and Patrick Wilson together for an altogether inappropriate liaison. Jeff Kohlver (Wilson) is a photographer with a penchant for young girls like Hayley Stark (Page) — an eager, curious, and brainy fourteen-year-old with whom the thirty-two-year-old shutterbug is dying for some time alone.

After inviting her back to his place and pouring some drinks though, the script prepares for a flip as Jeff’s crimes of the past come back to haunt him with a wolf in sheep’s clothing trapping him in a less seductive web than he hoped.

Huge spoiler for those of you that haven’t seen this gem, at the movie’s tail end we are down to the wire.

Jeff has been exposed for crimes against young girls, the evidence all laid out, and his confession laid bare. With Hayley watching over him, she gives him a final choice.

Jeff can choose to face his ex-partner and the police with the evidence that’s been gathered, or he can take a somewhat easier route: a noose that Hayley has arranged for him to hang himself from his roof.

If he takes the noose, she promises to take everything with her and let him look like a sad man who lost hope. However, when Jeff finally takes the plunge, Hayley reveals everything will be found along with his body, and his memory will be nothing but that of a stalking, voyeuristic child abuser.

No easy way out for monsters and no hope for redemption for the decidedly irredeemable.