Mickey Farmer
Halloween is almost upon us. The fun-filled holiday transforms the entire month of October into a month of horror. Scary decorations. Monster-themed food and crafts. Spooky songs.
And movies.
People love to be creeped out and brought to the edges of their seats with jump scares and spine-chilling monsters. In that regard, there are monsters, and then there are horror icons.
While Universal made its initial claim to fame with the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, and the Mummy, they’re so engrained in our collective psyche that they’re just not as scary as they once were. So, in honor of Halloween, we’re ranking the modern icons of horror. Those characters that haunt our dreams and star in multipart horror movie franchises with sequels and reboots of lesser or varying quality!
10. Leprechaun
Warwick Davis stars as the evil Leprechaun that stops at nothing to kill anyone who touches his pot o’ gold! Bursting with awkward one-liners and strange pun-filled kills, the Leprechaun bounces around, gleefully killing of the “stars” of his movies one by one. The Leprechaun movies may not come with big budgets, but the campiness wins out over big effects. The first Leprechaun movie may not have launched Jennifer Anniston’s career, but she was in it! After the Leprechaun cackled his way into the horror scene in 1993, 7 more sequels or reboots followed. However, most were released direct-to-video.
9. Creeper
The now 3-part horror series of Jeepers Creepers stars the aptly named Creeper. This demonic flesh-eating creature awakens for 23 days every 23 years to go on an eating spree of human bodies. Apparently, he picks body parts from some of his victims to replace his own aging parts.
8. Jigsaw
Jigsaw is the sadistically evil mastermind behind the elaborate death traps of the Saw movies. The term “torture porn” was basically coined due to the traps in these movies. The serial killing genius, Jigsaw, creates traps where people are impaled, sawed in half, stabbed by drug-filled syringes, you name it! The only consistency in the traps is that they’re grotesque. When the first Saw came out in 2004, the plot was creative, unique, and new. Over the next 15 years, the subsequent films took that concept and drained all of its creativity, essentially beating a dead horse. There have been 8 films in the Saw series so far, with the most recent, Jigsaw, released in 2017. The 9th film is due out in 2020.
7. Pinhead
Pinhead is possibly the freakiest character on this list. He’s a Cenobite, an extra-dimensional demon-like being that travels to our universe via a strange puzzle box. At one point, the Cenobites were human. Apparently, the humans get transformed into Cenobites if they are found to be devoid of morals and humanity. It’s confusing. It’s Clive Barker. Pinhead started in a Clive Barker novel, Hellbound Heart, before jumping to the big screen in the first Hellraiser movie. While Pinhead is an excellent and scary character, the storyline of the Hellraiser movies is often confusing and hard to follow. Likely, that is why their success has dwindled across the 9 movies to the point they’ve been released direct to video since after part 3.
6. Chucky
Chucky is the evil doll of the 8 film Child’s Play series, with the 8th film being 2019’s reboot. What started as kind of creepy has progressively grown into dark comedy rather than horror. For the first 7 films, Chucky was the doll inhabited by the evil spirit of a serial killer. Rather than die, the killer, played by Brad Dourif, transferred his soul into a doll using a voodoo ritual. Then, of course, a kid buys the doll, and horror shenanigans ensue as the little doll runs around and kills people. In the updated 2019 version, the doll is AI gone wrong, this time voiced by Mark Hamill. The update was enjoyable, and as far as realism goes in horror movies, seemed more believable than a serial killer’s human soul being transferred to a doll via voodoo. Think “Alexa gone bad,” and you can see how the new version may ring home to people who believe their Amazon Alexa is up to no good.
5. Ghostface
When Scream hit theaters in 1996, it changed the look and feel of horror movies for quite some time. Whereas horrors didn’t typically get well-known actors, Scream got more than a few! It was sleek and hip. Better yet, it was well acted, well written, and funny. It was self-aware and made fun of the age-old horror movie clichés. The villain, or actually villains, behind the 4-part Scream series is Ghostface. For me, one of the coolest aspects of Ghostface is that “he” was surprisingly 2 different people in the first movie. That theme continues in the sequels, but another refreshing change is that Ghostface isn’t constantly resurrected like all these other characters. Instead, someone new always has some reason to put the mask on and pick up where the previous Ghostface left off.
4. Leatherface
Personally, I feel this guy is the scariest on the list. Any time you go to a haunted trail for Halloween, it’s the sound of the chainsaw cranking up that sends everyone running. “Based on actual events,” Leatherface is quite terrifying. He’s huge, cuts people up with a chainsaw, and wears the faces of his victims as masks! If that isn’t the stuff of nightmares, I don’t know what is. 8 movies in, so far, Leatherface continues to scare viewers. The franchise also continues to get released in the theater. The only one that didn’t get wide theatrical release was the 4th installment even though it starred eventual big names Renee Zellweger and Mathew McConaughey. The “based on actual events” aspect truly just makes the concept more chilling for viewers and isn’t entirely true. Rather, the character of Leatherface is very loosely based on the serial killer Ed Gein, but the rest of the movie is pure fiction.
Something to note, in the realm of slasher films, Black Christmas is often cited as the first slasher movie. However, it was released in December 1974 while Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in October of that year.
- Freddy
Freddy Krueger is the epitome of the hilarious hate-to-love horror movie villain. He’s essentially the reason why many other horror movie villains spout funny-yet-creepy one-liners. They’re trying to emulate him. Counting the combo movie with Jason Voorhees (Trivial note: Freddy vs Jason was the first big screen monster clash in literally decades. What was once a staple of the old Universal Monster flicks ie Frankenstein vs the Wolfman then carried on by the Hammer Studio films of the 50s the Monster Mashes dried up around the time of King Kong vs Godzilla, a film soon to be at your local theater in 2020) Freddy has now appeared in 9 movies, the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and one short-lived TV series, Freddy’s Nightmares where he acted as the host of a horror anthology similar to Elvira or the Crypt Keeper. The serial killer of children was murdered by the parents of the town to put an end to his evil, hopefully saving their children. Unluckily for those parents, Freddy returned as a dream monster stalking the children of Elm Street (and beyond). Equal parts scary and hilarious, Freddy kills with flare.
2. Jason
Jason Voorhees has appeared in more movies than anyone on this list. There are 10 films in the original run of Friday the 13th movies, the Freddy Vs. Jason entry, and the 2009 reboot. 12 total. The fact someone hasn’t capitalized on making the 13th Jason movie is beyond me. That being said, as pointed out in Scream, Jason wasn’t the villain of the first film. Rather, his mother was. However, he did appear at the end. A special needs child attending a summer camp was ignored by the sex-crazed camp councilors and drowned. In the first movie, his mother goes to the camp, Camp Crystal Lake, to seek revenge. Seemingly, it didn’t matter one bit to her that most in attendance weren’t the same councilors. At the end, the unstoppable zombie Jason briefly appears, before taking center stage in all the subsequent installments. Known for his hockey mask and machete, Jason is a true icon of horror and possibly the most famous of all the slashers. Be on the lookout for a quasi 13th movie, called Never Hike Alone. Basically, it’s a fan film, but it turns out to be pretty good as a hiker tries to evade Jason. It also has a cameo of Tommy from part 4-6 (played by Thom Matthews, who played Tommy in part 6).
So, on to the number one horror icon (as if you haven’t already guessed from simple process of elimination).
1. Michael Myers
Michael Myers is the slasher villain of the Halloween series. He doesn’t talk, he isn’t a zombie, he just silently kills. Discounting the odd, not Michael-inclusive Halloween 3, Michael has been in 10 Halloween movies with 2 more set to come out over the next 2 years. Horror master John Carpenter started it all and even wrote Michael’s theme music which would surely make anyone who has seen the movies a little nervous if they heard it while alone. “Pure evil” as stated by his doctor, Dr. Loomis, Michael kills just to kill, like a machine. Depending on the story line you follow, he seems to target his siblings or other extended family. That theme stayed in the “reimagining” of the original, helmed by Rob Zombie. However, in the latest sequel, all sequel plot lines were quashed. Part 10…or 9…or 2, if you can keep up with the numbering, starts after many years after the events of the first movie alone. The idea that Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is Michael’s sister was thrown out. The next 2 sequels, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, will be continuations from this last movie.
Regardless his goals, Michael is the king of slashers. He may not be the first of them, but the popularity of Halloween really got the genre going. I believe the appeal of Michael versus that of Jason is that Jason is beyond unrealistic. He’s basically a zombie at this point. What makes Michael so scary is that much of what he does could truly happen. He’s no zombie, he’s just an emotionless psychopath.
Who knew that painting a William Shatner mask white and throwing it into a slasher movie would change the face of horror forever?
The movies these characters are in may not always be the best movies, but they’re always fun. These characters were all either scary enough or creepily funny enough to spawn endless sequels that keep people going back again and again to get scared out of their minds. If one of your favorite horror franchise stars didn’t make this list, they just didn’t cut it.
Honorable Mentions
Pennywise
The demonic, evil clown Pennywise is quite scary in the It movies. I’m sure an entire generation of people who are scared of clowns owe that fear to this creature created by Stephen King. However, he doesn’t make this list because, even though he’s been in 3 movies and a book, it’s all the same story told over again.
Tall Man
The Tall Man is the villain from the 5 Phantasm movies. He’s a strange mortician with sci-fi like weapons, including a spiked ball that floats around and kills people. He robs graves. The dead come back to life. Druid-like creatures wander around. It’s all quite strange but nonetheless creepy.
Candyman
The Candyman series, 3 movies with another one possibly on the horizon, started well enough but became convoluted and strange. Like the Bloody Mary myth everyone knows and is scared to try, if you look into a mirror and say, “Candyman” 5 times, he will appear and make your life a living, confusing hell. With bees.
Annabelle
The creepy possessed doll from the Conjuring universe of movies, unlike Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is actually based on true events, if you believe in the supernatural. The movies of the Conjuring universe all follow the stories of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. These are the same people who supposedly stopped the evil in the house from the Amityville Horror. Real or not, these movies are scary and show no sign of letting up any time soon. Conjuring 3 is due out next year. Annabelle has been in 3 movies of her own and appeared in one of the Conjuring movies. As slow burn ghost stories, though, the Conjuring movies, and Annabelle, don’t quite fit in with the others on this list. While scary and a franchise-starrer, she’s not a slasher icon.
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal the Cannibal is one of the most villainous characters ever to appear on film. Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for lead actor in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs even though he appeared for less than 24 minutes of the film. As the character, he chewed more than scenery, and he did so with class. His viciousness is quick and savage. The fact that he seems otherwise cool, collected, and intelligent makes him all the more frightening. Based on the character from Thomas Harris’ novels, Hannibal has starred in 5 movies and a TV show. Like Leatherface, Hannibal is also loosely based on serial killer Ed Gein. However, Hannibal’s movies lean more into the realm of psychological thrillers rather than straight horror, so that separation is what landed him in honorable mentions.
The movies these characters are in may not always be the best movies, but they’re always fun. These characters were all either scary enough or creepily funny enough to spawn endless sequels that keep people going back again and again to get scared out of their minds. If one of your favorite horror franchise stars didn’t make this list, they just didn’t cut it.
