Horror movies: The five SCARIEST horror film villains ever – just in time for Halloween

Halloween fans love to sit back and relax in front of a spooky movie on the eve of October 31st. With many horror, slasher and psychological thrillers to choose from, it can be hard to decide which movie to watch. But which film has the most iconic, and scariest villain of them all?

Freddy Krueger – A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the biggest, baddest and most gory horror films to date, and it even brought the world Johnny Depp in his film debut.

Released in 1984, the slasher movie follows four teenagers living on Elm Street in Springwood, Ohio, who are killed in their dreams – and therefore in reality – by a disfigured ghoul.

The heroine of the movie, Nancy Thompson (played by Heather Langenkamp) watches as her friends and boyfriend murdered at the hands of Freddy Krueger.

Luckily, Nancy is able to take him from their dreams and into the real world, where he finally has his reckoning – or so they think.

The movie spawned five follow-ups as well as a sixth fourth-wall-busting movie, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and a remake of the original.

A Nightmare on Elm Street also spawned the crossover movie Freddy vs. Jason and comic book series Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, crossing over with Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead.

There was even an anthology TV series, Freddy’s Nightmares, with Robert Englund playing the dreaded demon for most of his incarnations.

Michael Myers – Halloween

Many consider Halloween to be one of the first big slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho – and it has become iconic.

The story follows the psychotic serial killer Michael Myers, who was committed to a mental health facility after murdering his teenage sister on Halloween.

He escapes and enacts a reign of terror over a babysitter and her friends, killing many of those who get in his way, while his psychiatrist attempts to apprehend him.

Only Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) can escape him, even until the moment where they have a shocking fight, but he runs away, ready to create more chaos.

Michael is known for his horrific mask, jumpsuit and his wielding a huge knife and returns in 10 films altogether.

He does not appear in Halloween III: Season of the Witch and has been played by various actors, most recently by James Jude Courtney in Halloween (2018), a direct sequel to the first film.

Pennywise – IT

IT is one of Stephen King’s most terrifying novels featuring one of literature’s most horrific antagonists – Pennywise (Tim Curry) the dancing clown.

Pennywise is a shape-shifter, who is most regularly seen as a clown figure, who kills and eats children in the small town of Derry, Maine.

In the mammoth novel, schoolchildren come up against the terrifying monster after he kills young Georgie, the brother of the gang’s leader, Bill (Richard Thomas).

Eventually, the group fight him and believe him to be gone, until he returns years later and kills a gay man in a horrible attack.

The group come back together to fight again – this time seeing him as a spider and in various other nasty incarnations.

IT has spawned a mini-series starring Tim Curry as Pennywise, and two recent movies where the vile character was portrayed by Bill Skarsgård.

Leatherface – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is known as being a particularly bloody horror movie where many people are killed.

One of the most disgusting things seen by a movie villain is Leatherface’s choice of mask – which he creates out of his victim’s skin.

He used to work as a butcher in a meat processing plant, but things soon turns nasty when he and his cannibalistic family tries to kill Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her family after they visit their grandpa’s grave.

Sally escape him eventually and along with various other women becomes the protagonist in various movies from the franchise.

There were eight films in the franchise altogether, with the most recent being the story of Leatherface himself in a prequel to the original movie.

Norman Bates – Psycho

One of the first horror films of its kind, Psycho is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best known movies.

Starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, the film follows the goings-on at the Bates Motel.

Of course, Bates is not who he seems, as it turns out he killed his mother and her lover out of jealousy, before assuming her identity which forms an alternate personality.

He then murders women who come to the hotel, though Vera Miles’ Lila Crane is family to escape, despite being confronted by Bates who is dressed as his mother, wielding a knife.

After Hitchcock’s death, Universal made various spin-off movies, TV series and even remade the movie in 1998, but none have been able to capture the horror of the original film.

Bates was one of the first horrendous serial killers on screen and is known as being one of the most frightening killers in film.

The character was most recently portrayed by British actor Freddie Highmore in the US series Bates Motel.