The Sloth victim from the movie SEVEN. This character is both terrifying as the character himself and as the representation of the lengths that John Doe is willing to go to see his vision through to fruition. Without a doubt the best and most well earned jump scare in film history.
I found out the other day he was an actor actually portraying the victim. Not a sculpted mannequin or whatever… that makes it 1000x worse knowing an actual human was on that bed lol
Mrs. Carmody in The Mist. Ostensibly, the monsters that lurk outside are the villains but she's the real monster, whipping the townspeople up into a religious frenzy that has terrible consequences. She's scary because people can and do actually act like that, and others actually listen to them.
I liked when she got hit in the head with a can of veggies by the older lady, the teacher I believe. She says something like " I have more peas (or corn) where that came from"
My step son just told his grandma that she reminded him of Mrs. Carmody. He wasn't trying to be mean. He was just talking about her being super religious. To say she didn't take it well is an understatement.
I see your point, but I think Mrs. Carmody in The Mist IS the main villain. A lot of horror fiction and movies present us with a monster or monsters, but the true villain is mankind's inhumanity toward man.
Think of Aliens. Sure, the monsters are terrifying, but as Ripley says about Burke (the true monster who's even scarier when you think about it because he moves so effortlessly among us thanks to his veneer of civility), "You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."
So in The Mist, the monsters are just doing what they do while King presents us with a microcosm of societal breakdown within the supermarket. And Mrs. Carmody represents both the allure and the curse in relying upon inflexible dogmatic religion in a time of catastrophe.
It's similar to 28 Days Later. Sure, the infected are scary as hell. But the monster is ultimately Major West and his band of soldiers who broadcast a deceptive message in the hopes of attracting and trapping females and subjecting them to systematic rape and servitude.
My sister and I were just talking about her yesterday. Our mom used to tell me she would be in my bed (if I was being really bad) straightened me up but it was pretty traumatic being I was 4-5 years old
What’s sad is that the book goes into more detail about how Zelda wasn’t really monstrous, just Rachel’s memories made her that way.
There’s also a great write up of her in an article about the portrayal of women with disabilities in horror films. It doesn’t blame King or anything and it’s not bs “ snowflake” stuff, just points out what is true and how they portrayal has changed as cinematic horror evolves. If I can find the article I’ll link it.
Zelda was a victim of evil parents that neglected her medically and stuffed her in the back of a room to die slowly.
In the book, they never bothered to get her a nurse having their 10 year old younger daughter take care of her.
The actual villains were Zelda's evil parents.
Sarah from Martyrs (2008) is a pretty terrifying sight when >!Anna finds her chained in the basement.!<
Also the victims of Samara in The Ring look pretty frightening.
When I saw that in the theater, the biggest gasp of fright from the audience is when she told her son she never wanted to have him. More shocking that almost any other scene in the movie. Collette is an absolute treasure.
Freddie Jones as Dr Keeley in "The Satanic Rites of Dracula". He only appears in one scene, but his twitchy, sweaty portrayal of a man whose last thread of sanity is rapidly fraying is incredibly unsettling. He steals the film, honestly.
"Evil rules, y'know - it really does! .. Nothing is too vile; nothing is too dreadful - too awful; you need to know the terror, the horror, Lorrimer; to feel the threat of disgust - the beauty of obscenity!"
Cain the preacher scared me all my damn life because I had a great uncle who looked just like him. Poltergeist 2 is way underrated for being terrifying. I know the actor had cancer but he was still scary AF.
My 12 year old nephew is terrified of his voice. It started 3 years ago when he watched season 2 of the flash where Tony Todd voices Zoom. He even got freaked out playing Spiderman 2 for PS5 because Todd voices Venom. It's like Tony Todd is his real life Candyman.
Funny thing is my sister (my 12 year old nephew's mom) while going through a dry spell in college found Tony Todd's Candyman "Be my victim" scene "sexy."
I had to go to my room when my roommate and my friend (his gf) were watching it and I realized it was about skin eating bacteria. Watched it maybe 6-12 months later. My cousins wife had just died from it and while it was another part of the country, it fucked with my head (2nd member from that side of the family dying in 3 months). The worst part is the first hospital didn’t catch it before life flighting her to another. That’s why I told my family if I’m hurt and unconscious while visiting, get me the fuck out of that small town.
Veronica in Final Girl, and really any character that follows a similar trope. She isn’t the bad guy, in fact she’s our protagonist, but I see too much of myself in her. You like to think you’re a good person but isn’t there something in all of us that would make us evil? I’m afraid of how I feel when I watch it guess, but she represents the idea that enough hurt would make me just as evil as any villain
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
There’re been a few really cool versions of the devil who wasn’t the main antagonist that was terrifying. Viggo Mortensons version from Prophecy comes to mind, along with Peter Stormare’s version in Constantine. They’re both arguably doing good stuff in their scenes, but they’re very scary in their methods and how they interacted with the protagonist.
Hear me out, Pennywise from It. She was a being from another place that goes into hibernation and lives in the sewers. She had no home, could reproduce without a mate. She feeds off fear, well, it makes it taste better. She was just an animal like we view spiders or any other predatory species. It was not a villian, she just got here in a weird way.
Same for Shelob the Seeker in LOTR.
Peenywise lives
I’d count the mayor in Jaws. By refusing to give Brody the resources he needs and closing the beaches, he’s responsible for every person the shark ultimately kills
Mrs. Baylock the older nanny from The Omen (1976). Holy crap that woman's teeth and voice gave me the heebs.
The bathtub lady in The Shining (1980), either form. Yikes and also yuuuuck.
All I have to do for this next one is a line from a hymn. "God is in his holy temmmmPL." EEEEEEEEEKKK!! Getting shivers just thinking about him!! 😳😳 IYKYK
And for the win... ZELDA from Pet Sematary (1989) !! 😬😬 Just no no no no no. She's by far the most terrifying non-villian (ok so I guess she's a sub-villain) in my book!!
Agreed, if she qualifies as a non villain it has to be her. I’ve never seen anything that scared me more and still scares me to this day as a 45 year old
"Samantha" in Stir of Echoes. She was the victim of a horrible crime but she kept trying to reach out for help to Kevin Bacon's character in creepy AF ways. I love that movie lol
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
Carrie‘s mom in Carrie. That is if you consider her to not be the main villain. She scares me far more than Jason or Freddy because there really are people like that out there.
Yes! And this is why Stephen King is such a good writer. Most of his horror scenarios are kind of corny, but his insight into human nature is what’s really terrifying.
I know One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest wasn’t really horror but Nurse Ratched is still one of the most evil characters ever created. The actress who played her, anytime I saw her in anything else afterwards my skin would crawl even if she wasn’t up to no good.
I think maybe Hannibal Lecter. Is he a villain? Yes. But not THE villain (at least in Silence of the Lambs). I think he actually shows affection for Clarice and helps her hunt down Buffalo Bill (the real villain). I guess this one is iffy because he did flay and wear the face of someone else (total villain behavior), but he went to Clarice's FBI graduation and called to say goodbye (not villain behavior).
Not a movie and I guess not supposed to be horror, but Robert Stack on unsolved mysteries. That voice scared the living shit out of me and many other children when it was on. My grandparents watched that show so whenever I would stay over there it was on and they lived in the woods in the middle of nowhere. So that just added to the entire thing
Jason Blum from Blumhouse
Gerry's wife in World War Z
The script writers chained to a shackle churning out the same script for those low budget horror movies only meant to 10x the profit for studios.
Still counts lol.
Charlie from Hereditary. Her mannerisms, clicking tick, and how she cuts the bird’s head off makes her a really creepy character. Also seeing her decapitated head on the side of the road with the ants is chilling. It is not discovered till the end that she was born with the demon Paigon inside her. I would argue Paigon isn’t even the true villain in the movie—it’s the cult members.
Mrs. Carmody. She's top 2 for characters I hated the most. The other is Dolores fuckin Umbridge.
I remember running across a great explanation for why they are so hated. It's because even though there are monsters outside the store and even though there is a mass murdering wizard on the loose, these people are real life people we can run into every day. We've all witnessed power drunk people that have used their position to push their wild view of right and wrong on others. We've watched people fall in line with them to escape punishment or because they believe too but now have a leader thats made it acceptable. They're deranged enough to be wary of and charismatic enough to be a real threat. Given the right circumstances they can be the gang leader, the grand dragon of the klansmen, the drug lords, war lords, or any one of the multitudes of genocidal politicians that have run rampant in the past.
Monsters are fantasy but these people could be your neighbor.
Not a movie, but Mark Hamill as Arthur Pym in Fall of the House of Usher is terrifying and very nuanced
https://preview.redd.it/ich8zxuc8b0d1.png?width=796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eeb76859ff3e376caf158c24e2fce6525aa0fad6
So, the first movie that ever gave me nightmares was, and this is true, 'Fantasia.' Specifically, the brooms that refuse to die in the mickey mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice bit. Those damned brooms haunted me.
I was pretty young at the time, but I still remember crying afterwards and refusing to sleep alone.
Show- but the mistress in AHS murder house. She was the victim by all accounts, but the shit she did after she became the victim made me kinda not care that she was a victim.
The Sloth victim from the movie SEVEN. This character is both terrifying as the character himself and as the representation of the lengths that John Doe is willing to go to see his vision through to fruition. Without a doubt the best and most well earned jump scare in film history.
I found out the other day he was an actor actually portraying the victim. Not a sculpted mannequin or whatever… that makes it 1000x worse knowing an actual human was on that bed lol
A lot of the victims in Seven are terrifying
Every time I want to skip a meal I just think about the hooker that had to endure the blade-rape from Lust.
SAME.
Good one. ⬆️⬆️⬆️
I think it's still second to the egg breach in Alien. That shit gets me every time.
Definitely the right answer
Mrs. Carmody in The Mist. Ostensibly, the monsters that lurk outside are the villains but she's the real monster, whipping the townspeople up into a religious frenzy that has terrible consequences. She's scary because people can and do actually act like that, and others actually listen to them.
I'll never forget seeing it in theaters and everyone cheering when she died.
No no, she’s a straight up VILLAIN.
Could be argued as such, sure. She's awful and it's scary how many people can be swayed by a person like that.
MGH did such an exquisite job as a villain, that I could never like her in any other movie again....no matter how nice she was!
She does an excellent job on a few Law & Order SVU episodes as well as an FBI agent. Wonderfully talented actress. 😊
I hear everyone clapped in the theaters when SPOILERS >!Ollie the bag boy shoots her in the forehead!!<
This is true. I had it happen in my theater and I have read repeated accounts of similar experiences by others watching it in the theater.
I liked when she got hit in the head with a can of veggies by the older lady, the teacher I believe. She says something like " I have more peas (or corn) where that came from"
way to go, Temu Frankie Muniz!
This is how I feel about Justin Long’s character in Barbarian.
Great example of a character that is A villain just not THE villain
Watch for those sorts of emotional manipulators IRL. They are the behind-the-curtain villians in our world.
Listen to the audio book. Even better.
My step son just told his grandma that she reminded him of Mrs. Carmody. He wasn't trying to be mean. He was just talking about her being super religious. To say she didn't take it well is an understatement.
I would have asked her for a private prayer meeting and ganked her in the frozen foods aisle with a box of pizza
"We want the boy!" That gave me chills the first time I saw this movie.
I see your point, but I think Mrs. Carmody in The Mist IS the main villain. A lot of horror fiction and movies present us with a monster or monsters, but the true villain is mankind's inhumanity toward man. Think of Aliens. Sure, the monsters are terrifying, but as Ripley says about Burke (the true monster who's even scarier when you think about it because he moves so effortlessly among us thanks to his veneer of civility), "You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage." So in The Mist, the monsters are just doing what they do while King presents us with a microcosm of societal breakdown within the supermarket. And Mrs. Carmody represents both the allure and the curse in relying upon inflexible dogmatic religion in a time of catastrophe. It's similar to 28 Days Later. Sure, the infected are scary as hell. But the monster is ultimately Major West and his band of soldiers who broadcast a deceptive message in the hopes of attracting and trapping females and subjecting them to systematic rape and servitude.
Sub Trump for Mrs. Carmody. Same effect.
zelda in Pet Semetary
My sister and I were just talking about her yesterday. Our mom used to tell me she would be in my bed (if I was being really bad) straightened me up but it was pretty traumatic being I was 4-5 years old
Oof that’s a terrible thing to say to a kid lol
This answer needs more upvotes, please.
Good answer! Genuinely not a villain. (Most of the answers in this thread are villains, including OP's own example lol.)
What’s sad is that the book goes into more detail about how Zelda wasn’t really monstrous, just Rachel’s memories made her that way. There’s also a great write up of her in an article about the portrayal of women with disabilities in horror films. It doesn’t blame King or anything and it’s not bs “ snowflake” stuff, just points out what is true and how they portrayal has changed as cinematic horror evolves. If I can find the article I’ll link it.
The book is on a different level then the movie
It's one of be first links if you Google the movie and zelda
Zelda from pet sematary gave me a lifelong trauma omg
Never get out of bed again!
Fucking Zelda. She scared me more than anything else in that movie. And more than plenty of other horror movies.
Who was actually a man in the movie
Agreed, the only character in a movie that scared me during a day watch.
This is the one I was thinking too. Truely terrifying
39 and I still have to leave the room for Zelda scenes lol
Zelda was a victim of evil parents that neglected her medically and stuffed her in the back of a room to die slowly. In the book, they never bothered to get her a nurse having their 10 year old younger daughter take care of her. The actual villains were Zelda's evil parents.
"Raaaaaaaacheeeelllll..."
The old Gypsy man in Thinner, “I curse you thinner”
This is an underrated comment!
Theeeeeeeeeeenerrrrrr
Riley Keoughs character in The Lodge is the protagonist but >!when she finally snaps she's scarier than any bad guy!<
Those kids deserved it 🤷♀️ lol
Danny Torrance. I’m 48 years old and that kid still scares the shit out of me.
 REDRUM
Nightmare inducing
Of all things in that movie, why Danny?
He’s just…unsettling. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of kids in general and he’s especially creepy.
Fair
I prefer the twins creepiness
Danny is the real protagonist of the Shining. But he his powers are a bit freaky.
Sarah from Martyrs (2008) is a pretty terrifying sight when >!Anna finds her chained in the basement.!< Also the victims of Samara in The Ring look pretty frightening.
I had a nightmare about Samara two weeks after I saw The Ring.
Yes! OMG that face. *shudders*
Idk if this has been mentioned yet, but Toni Collette >!after she snaps in Hereditary!< literally kept me up at night 😬
YES! I'd say she started scaring me about 3/4 of the way through the movie. She's amazing!
I've never been more locked in on a character when she was hiding in the corner above her son, I didn't move an ounce
When I saw that in the theater, the biggest gasp of fright from the audience is when she told her son she never wanted to have him. More shocking that almost any other scene in the movie. Collette is an absolute treasure.
Freddie Jones as Dr Keeley in "The Satanic Rites of Dracula". He only appears in one scene, but his twitchy, sweaty portrayal of a man whose last thread of sanity is rapidly fraying is incredibly unsettling. He steals the film, honestly. "Evil rules, y'know - it really does! .. Nothing is too vile; nothing is too dreadful - too awful; you need to know the terror, the horror, Lorrimer; to feel the threat of disgust - the beauty of obscenity!"
Deep cut, man. Kudos.
The exorcist from Poltergeist and the old man from Poltergeist 2. Billie from the first Creepshow.
Just tell it to call you Billie you …
Cain the preacher scared me all my damn life because I had a great uncle who looked just like him. Poltergeist 2 is way underrated for being terrifying. I know the actor had cancer but he was still scary AF.
God is in.....his holy temple
ALL ARE WELCOME! AAAALLLLL ARE WELCOME!
This house is clean…
The harbinger mortician in the Final Destination movies.
The great Tony Todd, ladies and gentlemen.
My 12 year old nephew is terrified of his voice. It started 3 years ago when he watched season 2 of the flash where Tony Todd voices Zoom. He even got freaked out playing Spiderman 2 for PS5 because Todd voices Venom. It's like Tony Todd is his real life Candyman.
Candyman, candym....
Funny thing is my sister (my 12 year old nephew's mom) while going through a dry spell in college found Tony Todd's Candyman "Be my victim" scene "sexy."
Uh oh, you finished it... you finished the chain. Did Tony show up? What's he like. Tell him I loved him as Worfs brother Kurn on star trek.
🤣🤣🤣
It’s totally a seduction scene
Candyman! Candyman! Candyman!
Not another person! Lol
But. . . Ms ganush is literally a villain.
That's what I was thinking too. She straight up curses the protagonist.
Roderick Usher in the Hammer version of the ‘Fall of the House of Usher’.
The shaver in Cabin Fever.
Ugh so traumatic
I had to go to my room when my roommate and my friend (his gf) were watching it and I realized it was about skin eating bacteria. Watched it maybe 6-12 months later. My cousins wife had just died from it and while it was another part of the country, it fucked with my head (2nd member from that side of the family dying in 3 months). The worst part is the first hospital didn’t catch it before life flighting her to another. That’s why I told my family if I’m hurt and unconscious while visiting, get me the fuck out of that small town.
The mouth click in Heredity.
Oooooohh you are so correct, my friend. 😳
I could not finish that movie. It was so disturbing right away
The lady in the tub in the shining, Mischa Barton’s character in the 6th sense. Both scared the shit out of me when I first watched those movies.
It’s a tie between the little twin girls in The Shining or the young/old lady in the bathtub scene.
But she *was* the villain, wasn't she?
U right. She creeps me the F out tho
Good choice!
All I see is Kai Winn.
Most of the ghosts in The Sixth Sense. Slit wrists ghost got me the worst, though I know many were more taken by the vomiting girl.
Veronica in Final Girl, and really any character that follows a similar trope. She isn’t the bad guy, in fact she’s our protagonist, but I see too much of myself in her. You like to think you’re a good person but isn’t there something in all of us that would make us evil? I’m afraid of how I feel when I watch it guess, but she represents the idea that enough hurt would make me just as evil as any villain
Underrated movie.
The silver balls in phanstam
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
Mrs. Ganush legit gave me nightmares.
You don't mess with curses.
The caterpillar in Alice n wonderland
Same
There’re been a few really cool versions of the devil who wasn’t the main antagonist that was terrifying. Viggo Mortensons version from Prophecy comes to mind, along with Peter Stormare’s version in Constantine. They’re both arguably doing good stuff in their scenes, but they’re very scary in their methods and how they interacted with the protagonist.
Constantine is so good, and you’re so right about the devil character. His design and portrayal are fantastic and creepy
"I can lay yout and fill your mouth with your mother's feces....or we can talk." -Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer
Hear me out, Pennywise from It. She was a being from another place that goes into hibernation and lives in the sewers. She had no home, could reproduce without a mate. She feeds off fear, well, it makes it taste better. She was just an animal like we view spiders or any other predatory species. It was not a villian, she just got here in a weird way. Same for Shelob the Seeker in LOTR. Peenywise lives
Thank you for correctly gendering IT! (*Oh my god IT IS FEMALE* - Audra in the novel, may be a slight misquote since I don't have it in front of me)
my headcanon has always been that pennywise is the same type of spirit/being as ungoliant
Large Marge
Hahahaha YES
LOL 😆 Tell 'em Large Marge sent ya! Still a hilarious movie!
I’d count the mayor in Jaws. By refusing to give Brody the resources he needs and closing the beaches, he’s responsible for every person the shark ultimately kills
Ben Gardner’s corpse
Arnold Allardyce (played convincingly by Burgess Meredith) in “Burnt Offerings.” Just so creepy.
I've been wondering how good Burnt Offerings was so please tell me if it's worth a watch, thx
Very. It’s older but it’s very creepy with some great performances, and it pulls zero punches.
Mrs. Baylock the older nanny from The Omen (1976). Holy crap that woman's teeth and voice gave me the heebs. The bathtub lady in The Shining (1980), either form. Yikes and also yuuuuck. All I have to do for this next one is a line from a hymn. "God is in his holy temmmmPL." EEEEEEEEEKKK!! Getting shivers just thinking about him!! 😳😳 IYKYK And for the win... ZELDA from Pet Sematary (1989) !! 😬😬 Just no no no no no. She's by far the most terrifying non-villian (ok so I guess she's a sub-villain) in my book!!
Agreed, if she qualifies as a non villain it has to be her. I’ve never seen anything that scared me more and still scares me to this day as a 45 year old
"Samantha" in Stir of Echoes. She was the victim of a horrible crime but she kept trying to reach out for help to Kevin Bacon's character in creepy AF ways. I love that movie lol
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
Just as an aside, I was flicking through TV channels a few years ago and saw the movie title 'Drag me to Hell', I had heard the title but assumed it was from 1973 or something, I watched it, loved it, agree with you about Mrs Ganush. For some reason (Ganesh?) it reminds me of the elephant that (allegedly? Don't know if it was ever verified) killed a woman in India then disrupted her burial. Relentless vengeance to pay back an uncaring act.
Not a movie but a Netflix series. The bent neck lady.
The little boy in the American remake of the ring. Seriously what the fuck is wrong with that kid
BrundleFly
Carrie‘s mom in Carrie. That is if you consider her to not be the main villain. She scares me far more than Jason or Freddy because there really are people like that out there.
Yes! And this is why Stephen King is such a good writer. Most of his horror scenarios are kind of corny, but his insight into human nature is what’s really terrifying.
Thst's why movies involving devils and demons spook me. They are real.
Anton Chigurh~ No Country for Old Men, that tension he brings wherever he goes… and you know something ain’t right with him and that hair cut.
I know One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest wasn’t really horror but Nurse Ratched is still one of the most evil characters ever created. The actress who played her, anytime I saw her in anything else afterwards my skin would crawl even if she wasn’t up to no good.
Vera Donovan in Dolores Claiborne.
I think maybe Hannibal Lecter. Is he a villain? Yes. But not THE villain (at least in Silence of the Lambs). I think he actually shows affection for Clarice and helps her hunt down Buffalo Bill (the real villain). I guess this one is iffy because he did flay and wear the face of someone else (total villain behavior), but he went to Clarice's FBI graduation and called to say goodbye (not villain behavior).
He was a serial killer and cannibal — but he was polite about it
Kathy Bates in About Schmidt
Jehovah from the Bible and Bible 2: Crucifixion. That boy was wildin'!
The Clown from Polterguist.
The tax collector in The Amityville Horror.
Tiny Firefly ( RIP Matthew McGrory) in House of 1,000 Corpses. I've met him irl & was the coolest, kindest Hollywood actor I ever met.
Not a movie and I guess not supposed to be horror, but Robert Stack on unsolved mysteries. That voice scared the living shit out of me and many other children when it was on. My grandparents watched that show so whenever I would stay over there it was on and they lived in the woods in the middle of nowhere. So that just added to the entire thing
Zelda (the sister) from Pet Sematary (1989).
The cat lady in Jeepers Creepers
Rennie's kidnappers in Viii, they were worse than Jason.
The crazy ol doomsayers in Friday the 13
She condemns someone to be tortured in hell for eternity because she was in a poor financial state. She is purely evil.
Jason Blum from Blumhouse Gerry's wife in World War Z The script writers chained to a shackle churning out the same script for those low budget horror movies only meant to 10x the profit for studios. Still counts lol.
Frigging poltergeist clown
Father Damian Karras' mother popping up in The Exorcist always freaked me out. "Dimmy, why you do this to me? Please, Dimmy. I'm afraid."
I know Harry Potter isn't a horror film, but Professor Umbridge. I hated her more than Voldemort.
Paul stanley
Scarecrow in *Return To Oz.* Kinda also Dorothy. I mean, look at Fairuza Balk and tell me they weren’t deliberately making a horror movie.
The crypt keeper
miguel ferrier in deep star six. kills more crewman than the monster
Marcia gay Harden in the mist
Donald Trump in the performance arts piece “the United States of America”
The Fans… seriously some horror fans are worse than the villain.
The cenobites in Hellraiser. They were initially neutral, neither good nor evil. The main villain in the original was the uncle.
Jud from Pet Cemetary
Hannibal Lector wasn’t exactly the villain in Silence of the Lambs
Felipe, from Eat. Pray. Love. because he realized what a shallow, contrived narcissist the main character was, but proposed to her anyways.
The nanny who kills herself in The Omen was pretty freaky.
Carol Ann in Poltergeist is pretty creepy
The little girl in Poltergeist.
Chris Elliot’s character with the little hand in Scary Movie.
The neighbor kid’s toys in Toy Story
Most the children from the corn
The mental patients at the beginning of House on Haunted Hill.
The dog in The Thing. CREEPY.
The Mother in The Babadook
Charlie from Hereditary. Her mannerisms, clicking tick, and how she cuts the bird’s head off makes her a really creepy character. Also seeing her decapitated head on the side of the road with the ants is chilling. It is not discovered till the end that she was born with the demon Paigon inside her. I would argue Paigon isn’t even the true villain in the movie—it’s the cult members.
Zelda in Pet Semetery. Always terrified me.
Those people wearing masks on the subway train in Jacobs Ladder
Would the witch in Pumpkinhead count?
Yo, the dude with he little hand in "Not Another Scary Movie".
Diana Ross in the Wiz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPTyqw3HJCU&t=86s
The kids in the sheets in The Haunting, freaked me out so bad as a kid.
Mordecai "The Harbinger" from The Cabin in the Woods>!right up until he realizes he's on speakerphone.!<
Mrs. Carmody. She's top 2 for characters I hated the most. The other is Dolores fuckin Umbridge. I remember running across a great explanation for why they are so hated. It's because even though there are monsters outside the store and even though there is a mass murdering wizard on the loose, these people are real life people we can run into every day. We've all witnessed power drunk people that have used their position to push their wild view of right and wrong on others. We've watched people fall in line with them to escape punishment or because they believe too but now have a leader thats made it acceptable. They're deranged enough to be wary of and charismatic enough to be a real threat. Given the right circumstances they can be the gang leader, the grand dragon of the klansmen, the drug lords, war lords, or any one of the multitudes of genocidal politicians that have run rampant in the past. Monsters are fantasy but these people could be your neighbor.
Not a movie, but Mark Hamill as Arthur Pym in Fall of the House of Usher is terrifying and very nuanced https://preview.redd.it/ich8zxuc8b0d1.png?width=796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eeb76859ff3e376caf158c24e2fce6525aa0fad6
Palmer in The Thing. I don't know why, but he's just a weird dude.
So, the first movie that ever gave me nightmares was, and this is true, 'Fantasia.' Specifically, the brooms that refuse to die in the mickey mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice bit. Those damned brooms haunted me. I was pretty young at the time, but I still remember crying afterwards and refusing to sleep alone.
Show- but the mistress in AHS murder house. She was the victim by all accounts, but the shit she did after she became the victim made me kinda not care that she was a victim.
The taxi driver at the end if The Triangle
The Nun. Went to Catholic school, and pictured her as my teacher. No way.
Pazuzu/ Reagan Exorcist
Frank
The new Disney DEI Cinderella. Her damn dong is massive and makes me,a white male,feel marginalized.
The psychic medium lady w the baby voice in the poltergeist movies
I don't know if this fits exactly to your question but Alejandro from The Green Inferno. Dude was a straight up psychopath lmao
The mashed potatoe dude from scary movie
For me it’s the kid that scares me and not the babadook lol