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(Deep Cuts) Oscar Worthy Acting But Keep Aunt Gladys in the Dark: Why Horror’s Best Villains Don’t Need a Backstory   

By. Davalyn Baker

    On March 15, 2026, the night of the 98th Oscars, Amy Madigan laughed her way into a celebratory speech for her role as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s successful horror film, Weapons. I laughed along with her because I’ve seen plenty Amy Madigan films in my lifetime, but I never thought she’d be winning the most prestigious acting award for playing an eccentric, homicidal, enigmatic, and mysterious elderly witch. However, the win was well-deserved, and is always as a win for fans of horror.

    It’s well documented in pop culture that many amazingly acted roles either get ignored or downplayed for the seriousness in which they’re approached, simply because the film is horror. From Jeff Goldblum’s mad scientist Seth Brundle, to Lupita Nyong’o’s dual roles in Us, the gut-wrenching portrayal of an overwhelmed grieving mother performed by Toni Collette in Hereditary.

    Having said all that, if you haven’t seen the film this is the moment where I tell you to pause your read and go watch Weapons immediately! Do it specifically for Madigan’s scene-stealing portrayal of Aunt Gladys alone.

    In a Vanity Fair article, Cregger sang Madigan’s praises, noting that the movie would not work without her and that she “saved him,” which, I must agree. I love this notion of her “history” with Alex Lilly’s family being unclear. First, we’re informed that she is the sister of Alex’s grandmother on his mother’s side. The parents state they haven’t seen her in fifteen years. However, later, she tells Alex that she hasn’t seen him since he was a baby and tells Principal Miller that she’s the sister of Alex’s mother.

    In the same article, Cregger discusses that he gave Madigan two options for her backstory for Gladys’ portrayal. She could either be “a regular person but her spells and corrosive actions are a last-ditch effort to heal herself of a life-threatening illness,” or “some other kind of creature, trying to simulate what she thinks a normal human being looks like. But she’s doing it very badly.” He follows up stating that he did not want to know which option she chose, but those were her options and she went with it. If you’ve watched the film and you’ve seen this portrayal, you know that it could be either of these options or perhaps it could even be both–but you don’t know which one.

    And that’s what makes this character work so well.

    After the film’s success, mainly due to Madigan, the talks of a prequel began to circulate. Cregger’s original conversations of not knowing entirely what Gladys’ origins were to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he discusses that he originally had backstory for Gladys but cut it for length purposes. That was the smartest thing he could have done, considering that a lot of promotion surrounding the story was built on the mystery regarding Gladys.

    What works best for this villain is the fact that while her presence owns most of the story, we as the viewers, do not see her as much. The fear of the unknown propels a viewer’s anxiety and adds to the excitement of stomach-tightening fear.

    The oversaturation of backstories and prequels take away from the original art of the storytelling. Sometimes, a character does evil things simply because they are evil. I joked often with my friend about the pettiness of Maleficent casting a curse over an entire kingdom because she was not invited to a baby’s christening in Sleeping Beauty. It really adds to how deliciously evil someone can be. In life, there have been many public instances of people doing terrible things simply because they felt slighted. Do we need to know that the real reason Maleficent chooses to crash Aurora’s christening because Aurora’s father violated her in the past? As great as Angelina Jolie is in the role, I don’t think it’s a substantial need to know that deep down she’s just beenmistreated and that’s why she chooses evil.

    It also hints at the idea that perhaps those involved with the creation of the character do not trust the audience. With ideas of the unknown, there’s a space given to create your own horrors about a villain that appears in bits and pieces in a horror film. As a viewer, you’re suspending your imagination wondering just where this woman is from, if she really is a woman and just what she actually is. There’s no need to fill in the blanks, and I believe Cregger realized that when he decided to cut Gladys’ backstory from the final script. Would the introduction scene to Jaws be as terrifying had the prop shark not been broken? The horror of watching Chrissie Watkins being yanked and thrusted around, not knowing exactly what is dragging her sets the tone. With the sequels, seeing the shark constantly onscreen appearing and threatening the cast members removes the appeal of just how scary being in open water can be.

    Sharing crumbs of Gladys before leading up to her full introduction works so well, and I fear that a two-hour film detailing the how and why will defeat the purpose of Gladys’ macabre nature.

    Madigan seems to be onboard with the project, but is practical being a seasoned actor, noting that the project may very well never come to fruition and the talks could simply be just that: talks. Aunt Gladys is a lightening in a bottle role that will not strike twice, no matter how talented the actress is.

    Currently, Cregger’s creative focus post-Weapons is a Resident Evil adaptation that has an original story unrelated to any of the previous movies. Cregger has not steered me wrong with his horror films, but it may be an overly ambitious choice to fall into the trap of the prequel.

    I don’t care that Gladys was possibly some sweet, elderly woman that was pulled into a trap or that she made a series of bad choices and became this witch, or even if she is some supernatural being that takes shape when it needs a source of energy for survival. What I do enjoy is the conversations surrounding her, the uneasiness she causes on a screen. An in-depth backstory would surely extinguish that excitement.