Our 10 Favourite Horror Dads: From Gomez Addams to Jack Torrance
Picking the best horror fathers in film and TV, from Sinners to Widow’s Bay
by Alex Kaan 21 June 2026
Warner Bros.
To celebrate Father’s Day, we’ve curated a list of our 10 favourite dads across horror film and television, from the loving (Gomez Addams) to the unstable (Louis and Lestat in Interview with the Vampire) to the really unstable (Jack Torrance).
With fathers from shows like Widow’s Bay, modern classics like Sinners, and cult films like Eraserhead, find out who made our list.
Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) - Frankenstein
Netflix
Reframing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a heartwrenching father-son story, Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining sees Oscar Isaac playing fiction’s most famous mad scientist as a melodramatic diva who rejects his creation/child (Jacob Elordi).
Louis (Jacob Anderson) & Lestat (Sam Reid) - Interview with the Vampire
AMC+
What’s better than one horror dad? AMC’s hit TV adaptation of Anne Rice’s famous novel knows the answer: a pair of emotionally volatile queer vampires who impulsively turn a 14-year-old girl into a bloodsucking killing machine, leading to a heartbreaking, nuanced portrayal of father-daughter relationships.
Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) - Sinners
Warner Bros.
The only Oscar-winning horror dad in film history, no spooky Father’s Day list would be complete without Michael B. Jordan’s Smoke. As the restrained counterpart to the more charismatic twin, Stack, Jordan delivers a rousing, sensitive performance as a bereaved parent.
Gomez Addams (Raul Julia) - The Addams Family
Paramount
The nicest dad in horror history — and maybe film history, period — Gomez Addams is everything a father should be: loving, supportive, and recently acquitted. While many worthy actors have portrayed him across film and television, the late Raul Julia remains our favourite.
Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott) - American Horror Story
FX
A compulsive liar and cheater, this psychiatrist leaves a lot to be desired as both a father and a husband. But thanks to Dylan McDermott’s standout performance and the high camp of one Tumblr-famous line (“I needed you, and you got a dog!”), we couldn’t exclude him from this list.
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) - The Shining
Warner Bros.
Perhaps the horror movie dad, the villainous Jack Torrance has cemented himself in cinema history. While Stephen King famously dislikes the Kubrick film and the fact that Jack Nicholson played the character as “crazy” from the start, there’s no denying the cultural impact of Nicholson’s gonzo performance.
Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) - Widow’s Bay
Apple TV
A recent addition to the canon of horror fathers, Matthew Rhys plays a finicky mayor whose sole goal is to turn his cosy island community into a tourist hot spot. The only issue? The town is comically cursed. Evoking the mayor from Jaws, Tom may be prone to selfishness, but he fiercely loves his son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick).
Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) - Eraserhead
Janus Films
The best way to vent when you’re anxious about fatherhood? If you’re David Lynch, it’s making a black-and-white surrealist horror masterpiece about a young dad taking care of his mutant, alien-like baby.
Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) - Train to Busan
Next Entertainment World
Aside from the guts, gore, and spellbinding action sequences, Yeong Sang-ho’s 2016 zombie epic is anchored by the tender story of a neglectful workaholic father learning to protect and show up for his daughter, in the most bizarre of circumstances.
Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) - A Quiet Place
Paramount Pictures
John Krasinski writes, directs, and stars in his 2018 directorial debut, a sci-fi horror thriller about a mother (Emily Blunt) and father (Krasinski) raising their children in a post-apocalyptic alien-infested America. Lee’s fractured relationship with his daughter (Millicent Simmonds) provides the film’s beating heart.