Harold Thompson

In the Masters of Horror segment/short film Family, Harold Thompson is a man who seems to have a loving family and a nice home-life, especially when he gets new neighbors David and Celia Fuller. However, it is soon revealed that not all is as it seems as the focus on Harold reveals something dark and disturbing.

Family
Almost immediately in Family, it is shown that Harold engages in a self-made tradition of murdering victims and then using a strong acid to strip their bodies down to the skeleton. With their skeletons, Harold dresses and arranges them as though they were alive and interacts with them, seemingly believing himself to be a happy family man with a decent life. In reality, he is a psychopath who is implied to seek out new victims to become part of his "family" whenever he loses patience or interest in his current collection of skeletons. In the start of the story, he is shown using an acid to dissolve the flesh off an old man who is inducted into his "family" as a grandfather figure. He is also shown killing a teenage girl who "convinces him" that his "daughter" needs a "sister".

When the Fullers move into the neighborhood, Harold becomes acquainted with the new couple. He becomes obsessed with Celia to the point of stalking her and having a delusion of her requesting a sexual meeting while at dinner. He murders an old woman and repurposes her skeleton to serve as a "grandmother" figure. When his "wife" accuses him of crudely desiring Celia, Harold proceeds to "kill" her with several blows to the head with a hammer. (In reality, he just smashed the skeleton's skull to pieces.

Interested in making Celia the new "wife", Harold attempts to catch her only to be knocked out by David. As it turns out, the "daughter" in Harold's collection was David and Celia's child who was abducted and murdered several years before. The Fullers had tracked the killer and finally came across Harold, devising a trap to exact their revenge. In their basement, they torture Harold, noting that they can probably keep him alive for ten to fourteen more days to torture the psychopath some more. Family ends with the credits rolling over Harold's horrified eyes.