Fans of things that go bump in the night already know that horror movie villains come in all different shapes and sizes.
Yet whether they be occultist killers in league with the devil, obsessed stalkers, or interdimensional clowns with a craving for deep-fried children nuggets, they all share one thing in common. The best villains are pants-wettingly terrifying.
So, as it’s Halloween and we’re celebrating in Terror-Tober, we’ve decided to put together a list of the 11 greatest horror movie villains of all time. Why 11? Because we like to go the extra mile.
How did we pick them? Well, to be honest, we were too scared to leave these guys off the list. You don’t want to know what they’d have done to us if we had!
11. Pinhead (Hellraiser)
Played by: Doug Bradley
All hail the priest of Hell! Yes, Pinhead and his prickly visage have made him an icon of horror cinema, but there’s more to this spiky sinner than an addiction to facial piercings. What makes Pinhead such a compelling screen presence is his ethereal otherworldliness; he’s not a slathering psychopath or a malicious murderer; he’s something that, in many ways, is far worse.
Pinhead and his Cenobite brethren (shout out to my boy Butterball) are only there because you summoned them; in that regard, then he represents the painful and certain oblivion of hedonistic delight. You might enjoy indulging in the moment, but the Cenobites are the dark fate that awaits all those who revel in excess, the dark at the end of a tunnel you chose to go down.
Words by Tom Percival
10. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
Played by: Kathy Bates
Annie Wilkes might not be Stephen King’s scariest villain, but she’s certainly one of the most memorable. Ultimately, Annie has one thing going for her that most on-screen killers don’t: realism. She’s just a gal. Paul Sheldon falls into her grasp out of pure, unfair coincidence, and under her goody-goody pleasantries and certified silly goosery, she’s an unhinged psycho that even Patrick Bateman might think twice about crossing.
Misery hinges entirely on the audience’s fear of Annie and what she might do when she snaps. Thankfully, just as Stephen King was brought into the world, Kathy Bates was too. In her, horror fans were gifted a performance for the ages, ever-quotable and in-cock-a-doodie-credible.
Words by Jessica Cullen
9. Pennywise (IT)
Played by: Tim Curry, Bill Skarsgard
For many, clowns are no laughing matter, and that’s probably Stephen King’s fault. King created one of the creepiest creatures in all of fiction when he let Pennywise slither out of the dark recesses of his twisted imagination. Both big screen versions (yes, I know Curry appeared in a TV movie) of this hateful harlequin have gone on to become pop culture icons, and it’s easy to see why.
Pennywise represents our universal fear of the unknown and the lasting damage of trauma, something that’s sadly extremely relatable. Beyond the existential, Pennywise is also just a terrifying idea. He’s a creature from another world, beyond our comprehension, who chooses to spend his days wearing a garish clown costume, terrifying children, letting them marinate in their own fear until eventually gobbling them up. It’s an incredibly cruel and petty thing for a being of his power to do, a little like finding out God exists, and their favorite thing to do is pull the wings of butterflies.
Words by Tom Percival
8. Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Played by: Gunnar Hansen
If we’re talking about movie villain iconography, then it doesn’t get much better than the final scene of Texas Chain Saw Massacre. When Leatherface missed his chance to slaughter poor Sally Hardesty and ran around in the middle of the road swinging that rusty ol’ chainsaw around, horror culture was reinvigorated.
Texas Chain Saw is one of the grimiest, dirtiest horror flicks around, and that’s all down to Leatherface and his merry family of cannibals. Gruesomely inspired by the real-life atrocities of Ed Gein, Leatherface and his preoccupation with human parts makes him a monster of the simplest kind. He’s the original stoic killer, standing tall and wide as a brute you most certainly wouldn’t want to encounter in the middle of the wilderness.
Words by Jessica Cullen
7. Longlegs (Longlegs)
Played by: Nicholas Cage
Longlegs once said that if we let him in now, it can be nice… sadly, I don’t think that’s true. Longlegs, the eponymous killer in Oz Perkin’s recent murder-filled masterpiece, might be a new creation, but this glam-rock-inspired psycho has left a scar on the collective psyche of horror fans the world over. A deeply disturbed individual, Longlegs is a satanic serial killer whose long list of crimes would make Jack the Ripper flinch.
What makes him so scary, beyond the fact he’s a killer in league with the devil, is how truly evil he is. He’s not like other villains on this list who show a glimmer of humanity under their monstrousness, nor is he a deliberate comment on the banality of evil. Instead, Longlegs is a walking, talking, and occasionally singing monster whose outlandish appearance and outrageous modus operandi (he’s using Satan as a supernatural sidekick) are meant to shock and disgust. He’s a villain with a pitch-black soul for a movie with a pitch-black tone. A match made in movie Hell.
Words by Tom Percival
6. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
Played by: Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins, Mads Mikkelsen
Hannibal Lecter is widely considered one of the best movie villains of all time, though his most famous appearance in The Silence of the Lambs doesn’t strictly treat him as such. In fact, Buffalo Bill serves as the main antagonist in that particular thriller. Despite that, Hannibal became a notorious fictional figure through various novels and on-screen adaptations.
Now, Hannibal (the “late, great Hannibal Lecter,” as described by some) has been played by many a man – Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins, and Mads Mikkelsen – exploring the sinister cannibal through a variety of lenses. Still, none had quite as much of a bang as Hopkins’. In his portrayal, he managed to hook onto the most frightening aspect of Hannibal outside of his people eating: he knows you better than you do.
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Words by Jessica Cullen
5. Ghostface (Scream)
Played by: Wouldn’t you like to know…
There’s something admirably Scooby-Doo-ish about Ghostface. At the end of the day, he’s just a guy (or two) in a mask, running around and tripping over things. But there is something genuinely creepy about his pale, melty-faced visage, and the Scream franchise cleverly gave him a modus operandi that would be terrifying to every modern-day civilian… having to talk to someone on the phone.
More so than most other horror villains, Ghostface also has the unique trait of changing forms. With every Scream movie, a different person takes up the mantle of the slasher, allowing him to continue through the years with fresh motives and kills.
Words by Jessica Cullen
4. Pazuzu (The Exorcist)
Played by: Eileen Dietz
There’s a southwestern wind blowing, and it brings dark tidings. Unlike other bad guys on this list, Pazuzu isn’t so much a physical threat. It’s something far worse.
Pazuzu is a demon, a servant of Satan, who intends to swallow the soul of Regan MacNeil whole and spread as much misery as possible while doing so. As scary as that is (I hear Hell’s pretty unpleasant at this time of year), there’s more fright to be found under the surface. You see, Pazuzu, like the spirits and monsters in other possession stories, is really a metaphor for losing control of one’s body.
Pazuzu is essentially a virus that warps and ruins Regan’s flesh and mind; you can see it as a demonic type of dementia or Satanic chickenpox; whatever it is, the threat lies not in what it will do to those around the monster but in the damage it will do to the infected.
What makes this heinous beast so much worse, though, is the way director William Friedkin tells the story through a mother’s eyes. The Exorcist isn’t a story about possession (although writer Peter Blatty would disagree with me there). It’s a story about a mother losing her child, and what’s scarier than that?
Words by Tom Percival
3. Jack Torrance (The Shining)
Played by: Jack Nicholson
There have to be multiple Stephen King characters on this list because the man knew how to craft a baddie! Once again, with Jack Torrence, we’re simply dealing with a man. (Terrifying.) Quick-tempered and with unpredictable behavior, Jack was a source of terror before the Torrances even stepped foot in the Overlook.
Although the novel and Stanley Kubrick’s iterations of Jack are rather different by way of how sympathetic he is, it should be argued that Nicholson’s wide-smiled and manic version takes the crown. He’s wild-eyed and violent, and the threat of Jack always looms larger than the ghosts that live inside the walls of the hotel. A great character, boosted by an even greater performance.
Words by Jessica Cullen
2. Michael Myers (Halloween)
Played by: Nick Castle
A monster in the shape of a man, Michael Myers, is evil personified. That may sound like a silly way to describe a character who’s basically just a guy in a mask with a knife, but beneath that blank alabaster veil, you’ll find something so much more horrible than anything else on this list (no, not Nick Castle) – a man like any other.
Perhaps it’s easier to explain by comparing him to another villain lower down this ranking. Look at it like this: if a character like Longlegs represents the outlandishness of evil, then Michael is his opposite. He represents the mundanity of violence and death, the everyday horrors we turn a blind eye to, the tragedy on the news we turn away from, and the cries next door we ignore; he is terrifying because he is just a guy in a mask with a knife yet he’s also so much more.
Words by Tom Percival
1. Art the Clown (Terrifier)
Played by: David Howard Thornton
The Terrifier films have perfected what so many horror movies don’t: they’ve fine-tuned the balance of humor and horror, arguably because of Art the Clown. Art has an uncanny ability to make us cackle and cry in equal measure, and he does it all without uttering a single word.
While Mike Giannelli gave an impeccable performance as pre-Terrifier Art, the killer clown became an unforgettable foe when David Howard Thornton stepped into the role, with his background in mime proving more valuable than anyone who’s ever trained in mime could wish for.
But what sets Art apart is his unpredictability. He doesn’t speak; he just kills creatively and viciously. Though his targeting of children might have outraged the pearl-clutchers, his latest outing in Terrifier 3 only proved to the fans that Art is a rule-breaker, and his reign of terror is far from over.
Words by Daisy Phillipson
Looking for more terrifying tales? Well, you should check out our lists breaking down the best Netflix horror movies and best 80s horror movies. Also, if you’ve ever wondered why you find nasty and disturbing horror so comforting, well, we have answers for you.