In the book and various TV and film adaptations of Stephen King’s It, school bully Henry Bowers is nearly as terrifying as Pennywise. Even before he’s taken over by the evil clown, he kills a dog and tries to carve his initials into another kid. He kills his own father, too (although he certainly had it coming).
Henry Bowers personifies the school bully trope pushed to the max, but his extreme character is hardly an outlier. In fact, wildly evil and violent bullies are so prolific they frequently appear in movies and television shows intended for children as well. From baby-torturing toddlers to letterman-jacket-wearing jocks attempting literal murder, here are five bullies from children’s media who are straight-up sociopaths…
Sid from ‘Toy Story’
There’s definitely some sadism going on with Sid in Toy Story. This kid melts and blows up toys and steals his sister’s dolls to perform “surgery” on them. When Sid gets his grubby little paws on Janie the doll, he tears off her head and replaces it with a pterodactyl’s, then gives Janie back to his sister just to hear her scream.
By Toy Story 3, Sid is working as a garbage man, which means he now has a good paying, possibly unionized job with benefits — so it’s entirely possible he turned his life around, but we don’t see enough of Sid in Toy Story 3 to know what he does in his spare time. Perhaps he’s moved on from toys and is now performing “surgery” on animals and/or people. Maybe a garbage man knows exactly how to get rid of bodies (doll or human).
Angelica Pickles from ‘Rugrats’
On the Nickelodeon classic Rugrats, Angelica Pickles tortures Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil with considerable relish (pun unavoidable). She breaks their toys and regularly steals all kinds of things from them, including Chuckie’s glasses, which basically makes him blind. But Angelica also lies to the innocent babies by making them believe horrible things, like how swallowing a watermelon seed can make a watermelon grow inside of you or how you can get sucked down the drain in the bathtub. Similarly, she tells her cousin Tommy on the way to a family reunion that these gatherings are where babies are given away to other members of the family. And in one episode, Angelica chases Chuckie with a pair of pliers to steal his teeth to get more money from the Tooth Fairy. Pure. Fucking. Evil.
Vicky from ‘Fairly OddParents’
The Fairly OddParents is a Nicktoon focused on Timmy, an outcast kid with two fairy godparents who obey his every wish. Despite his near limitless power, Timmy is regularly tortured by his babysitter Vicky. For instance: When Timmy is getting his tonsils removed, Vicky decides to volunteer at the hospital just so she can sneak into Timmy’s room and give him a “Twerp-ectomy,” which she defines as a procedure “where we remove your tonsils and your will to live.” She then reveals that his surgeon, Dr. Snipowitz, uses a chain saw, among other lethal instruments, in his procedures. If there’s any doubt as to Vicky’s true intentions in the scene, her Freudian slip — “I’ll get him to the morgue… I mean, operating room” — should make them clear.
Troy Perkins from ‘Goonies’
Troy from Goonies basically reads as a generic movie bully apart from one telling scene. While Josh Brolin’s character Brand is riding a little kid’s bike, Troy pulls up alongside him in his convertible, grabs his hands and proceeds to try to drive him off a cliff, nearly killing him. The main antagonists of the Goonies are the Fratellis, but had we spent more time with Troy we’d probably find him to be another Henry Bowers.
Biff Tannen from ‘Back to the Future’
Given its lighthearted tone, the PG-rated Back to the Future films can’t be taken too seriously, even Biff’s bullying of George McFly comes off as cartoonish. There is, however, one scene that’s difficult to brush off. When Lorraine and Biff are in the car during the big dance, there’s no way to interpret what Biff does as anything other than an attempted rape. While the second movie tries to worsen Biff’s character by making him George McFly’s killer in the alternate 1985, he’s plenty evil as-is in the 1950s.
