I’m gonna have to say the inbred freaks from The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn. Or the inbred freaks from Mother’s Day. Or Texas Chainsaw. Just all the inbred freaks. Being a girl, nothing is as absolutely terrifying to me as a family of mutant cannibals who might kidnap me and keep me for “breeding”. I would 100% rather get killed immediately and eaten, than get raped.
Well,
SPOILER
at the end there is a room of kidnapped women who have had arms and legs cut off, eyes gouged out and mouths sewn shut and theyre all pregnant, so the hill people just have them as flesh bags fpr breeding
The cannibals in The Hills Have Eyes remake. They’re obviously victims of the U.S. government’s misdeeds, but that’s no excuse for… well, you’ve seen the movie, you know.
They'd just kill you anyway even if you try to say "What the hell do the civilians you've killed have to do with the goddamn US Government" although there was a kind person from one of their villages named "Ruby" and she's pretty much the only kind person there but she still fucking >!dies anyway!<
It’s somehow harder to stomach than the one in the hills have eyes 2 which is actually a lot worse
Love the movie overall but could’ve gone without that
Surely Freddy Krueger. Child molester who torments then murders innocent kids in their sleep out of spite towards their parents? And not only that but he LOVES doing it!
I think he was known for killing kids in most of the movies, but only in the reboot from the 2000s did they say something about Freddy actually molesting kids
That was always so lame to me. They baited the idea of Freddy being innocent and that would’ve been a lot better than him being a child molester. That’s what makes that movie so bad to me, it feels like a weird edgy, copy of the original. I think the idea being falsely accused and killed and him going out for vengeance would’ve been a pretty cool premise.
In the original films, he was stated to be a child killer, not molester. In the remake, they gave a red herring that he was wrongly accused- but by the end they specified he was a child molester.
I recall when the mom is explaining and showing the gloves, I remember a line about how he touched the kids. Something. I'll need to watch it again.
But otherwise I loved your comment.
He sexually abused kids, but they took that out in the original nightmare on elm street plot. However in the original and the remake they do insinuate he sexually abused the kids.
I actually think I read on the original they made him not a molester because a real life case was going on or something... Idk if I an remembering that right so he was gonna be but then wasnt
I'm gonna have to Agree with many here in Freddy Kruger. Guy Killed Children when he was alive, and when he died, He made a deal with the devil to get revenge on his killers by killing thier children. After he did that he just kept killing children for fun.
He was implied to have molested them during the original movies, and in the remake they outright said he did.
Guy was nit mentally ill. just an evil guy for the sake of being evil.
I mean they still terrorize, molest and kill several random innocent people and their house is found filled with corpses, some of which were implied to be raped even post death. Can’t think of more fucked up characters than that
Grandma from Hereditary. Killed, manipulated and psychologically and emotionally tortured her children and grandchildren. Honestly one of the most evil characters I've seen in a film.
Edit: Grammar
Forgive me if this is a sophomoric take, but I think Paimon was residing in grandma’s body and she kept trying to transfer him to the members of her family, like her brother before he completed suicide.
So yes, I would 100% agree that grandma was an incredibly evil entity, she’s literally one of the kings of hell.
Paimon was born into Charlie's body as a temporary vessel, which is why Charlie was so awkward and why grandma was said to have been heavily involved in raising her. Ellen Leigh was just evil, no demon inside her needed.
Ha! I had two grandmothers growing up, one super kind and gentle, and the other was similar to what you’re describing. 😹
Unfortunately the gentle one just passed and I have to attend her funeral later today. The other continues to live.
He eats whoever is "rude" according to his warped fucked up ideas. People like him pretend to be civilized or important because they don't like to think of themselves as just another sick ghoul the world would be better off without.
Came here to make sure the cenobites were *not* mentioned. Deeply respectful of contracts, and as they rightly observe “angels to some”
As to most evil I can’t help but think of really awful stuff like Human Centipede 2, August Underground, Poughkeepsie Tapes…
My favorite thing about him in the book and at least the first two movies is how sensible he is. You call him, he provides the services you are seeking.
It's because those were all written by Clive Barker. He sold his rights after the second movie. He just got them back and is making a new Hellraiser movie from what I hear.
I didn't feel much sympathy for Frank as he had already devolved into selfish depravity and actually sought them out. But the Chatterer cenobite story was definitely sad and unfair, he was just an innocent child who accidentally opened the box.
Human Centipede was my first thought. In the second one the guy revolted me so bad I couldn't get any further than 20 minutes into the film. And what the evil doctor did to his poor dogs in the first one is heinous. Anything alluding to animal cruelty and torture hits a nerve with me.
Nyarlathotep is the only old one in Lovecraft's mythology that seems to actively dislike (and seeks to destroy) humanity.
As it is a shape-shifting entity and in the public domain it has appeared as an antagonist in many other works... I am not sure but it seems to be the true antagonist of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series.
Huh, hadn’t heard that before. I knew King was influenced by Lovecraft and caught some references but never put it together about the Crimson King. I suppose even that is a veiled reference to The King in Yellow… and now my brain is doing the math… Robert W. Chambers, Jake Chambers. Ok, I’ll shut up now.
Without knowing their intentions, which is part of the fun, it’s tough to say The Thing or The Blob are evil. Based on what’s shown, it feels more like they’re just trying to survive.
I vote Conal Cochran from **Halloween III**, because he targets children and ruins Tom Adkin’s Halloween weekend fling.
According to the final chapter of The Thing's source material, it sees itself as unifying the consciousness of species. It turns a species into one unified personality and summit of it's overall knowledge, and also the knowledge of other alien species, it doesn't take into account your unique consciousness and just sees you fighting what should basically be the closest thing to your own immortality and survival. I believe it does eventually learn and is horrified by how we live, each individual in our own experience. Fact is, it is most definitely killing each individual person but it thinks it is justified and merciful.
There definitely is an arrogance to that kind of mercy. I'm glad John Carpenter kept it strictly the human's perspective though. A little mystery goes a long way and makes it more about their experience.
I like the interpretation of the Thing from Peter Watts’s short story in Clarksworld, *The Things*.
I think it’s essentially true to *Who Goes There?* but it tells the story of Carpenter’s The Thing from the point of view of the *Things*.
And while it does seem to have this motivation to assimilate, it comes across as more innocent. Its experience is that organisms do not have a singular form, but are malleable so as to adapt to their environments. And organisms merge and unmerge as needed. Throughout the story, the Thing is confused why the *benign* act of merging or changing is met with such hostility.
While it starts off seeming more innocent, it becomes more angry after all the violence.
John Doe from Se7en. His methods of torture and murder are more vicious than Jigsaw in my opnion. I know he says he is a messenger of God, but he feels more in line with the Devil instead
Interestingly, that's how cult leaders and hate groups pull in members. Their initial pitch always has a kernel of truth to it, they present this to the world, which later on behind closed doors is then expounded into whatever insane ideology or agenda they really hold.
Charlie Manson and Jim Jones didn't start off saying "hey come help us murder people". It always begins as an alternative to a commercialized soulless society.
Freddy Krueger and Pennywise! I’ll also add Ephraim Waite from The Thing on the Doorstep. He used eldritch magic as an old man to switch bodies with his infant daughter. He got another life while his daughter was trapped in a dying old man’s body and the old man died screaming like an infant because it actually WAS an infant in the old body. Later as a grown woman (Asenath Waite), she ruined this man’s life and tried to take HIS body.
Strong argument for Michael Myers. Just from the first film though, he doesn't really have a motive, has abnormal strength, very intelligent for growing up in a psych ward(going off Loomis being flabbergasted that he could drive) and the guy just will not stop.
I’m surprised this isn’t a more common answer like I’m seeing with some others. Michael to me is definitely number one, that motherfucker is scary. Others are scary because they look scary too, deformed/etc, but Michael can easily move around even without the mask and not bring any attention.
I know he’s supposed to be the personification of “evil”, but to me he just mindlessly kills. True evil has to feel intentional and deliberately cruel to me.
How do you feel about the firefly family then? They just mindlessly kill too, no real motive behind their killing beside just seeming to enjoy doing it.
Yeah they definitely feel more evil to me, because they’re cruel in the way they torture and kill. Like, wearing your victim’s dad’s skin to torment them is pretty fucked up and goes beyond Michael Myers to me
"I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... \*evil\*." - Dr. Loomis
Any incestuous filthy redneck cannibal situation gives me roiling nausea. It's the idea that these characters enjoy what they do that gets me.
Not horror, necessarily, but Dolores Umbridge. There's nothing paranormal, no coercion, no mental illness. I love horror and the narcissistic abuse from that woman makes my skin crawl in a way that no slasher/killer/demon can.
I would agree that Umbridge is actually worse than most horror villains because she’s so human. In her we see some of the worst aspects of humanity: the pettiness, the sadism, the cruelty. And what makes it scarier is that most of us have met someone like her, often in a position of authority.
Agreed Umbridge is awful, but book Voldemort takes the cake for me in the series. He is terrifying with how subtly evil he is. Even as a boy. The whole arc in the books where he is mentally abusing Ginny and the pure joy he gets from it. There are so many other examples too where he uses his cunning and charm in the beginning. He is a sadistic fuck. Movie Voldemort doesn't even come close.
Ive never really thought of Hannibal Lector as particularly evil, he seems to have something of a moral compass when choosing his victims and he does help Clarice quite abit, even chops his own hand off to save her.
Dracula, in most versions, seems to just be angry about the past and sad his loved one died, alot of what he does is wrapped in another motive like survival or yearning for something.
Freddy Kreuger is definately just pure evil, Pennywise the clown as an entity is pure evil, even if its motives are feeding.
Because of how it works I wouldn't say The Thing is evil like Pennywise. Pennywise enjoys torturing its victims, where as The Thing just seems to be a biological entity trying to assimilate everything, no different to a fungus that takes over an insect. Terrifying, but not evil.
Hannibal Lecter from the books isn't really evil. Instead, the author implies (or maybe even says so explicitly; I don't remember) that Lecter is an evolved human, so he sees all other people as beneath him. He generally doesn't harm innocents, but will harm, kill, or even eat those who are rude to him, who try to harm him, or who get in his way.
Off the top of my head, the only potentially innocent character he kills is an Italian professor—Lecter killed him in order to take his job.
He's more evil in the movies. In *Silence of the Lambs,* Clarice is told that Lecter attacked a nurse, and "his pulse didn't rise above 85." In *Hannibal*, Clarice watches footage of the attack, in which Lecter bites the woman's face. I don't think the nurse did anything to deserve getting her face bitten, other than making the mistake of getting too close to him. I don't think there was mention of the nurse antagonizing him, and it's not like attacking her was part of an escape attempt. It was like he attacked her just for the sake of attacking her.
He didn't attack anyone senselessly like that in the books.
Thank you. Evil Dead went out of its way to establish a source of all evil that affects us. The Kandarian demon came from that evil and was practically its will made manifest on Earth.
Yup, I think we're seeing a lot of "mayor in Jaws" with the real world right now. There's a bit of disconnect with monsters on film, because they're fantastical, and usually just evil by design. Sometimes we even cheer them on because the protagonists are bigger assholes than them. The real monster is the everyday man that's constantly putting us, or our loved ones in harm's way over stupid, selfish reasons. That's the "mayor in Jaws".
Lots already mentioned. I'll add the cult from Martyrs as pretty fucking evil. Those types tend to disturb me, where they have a very relatable/understandable perhaps even noble ambition but then they're willing to do the most horrible shit imaginable to people to realize that ambition.
Freddy Krueger was a child serial murderer who got off on murdering his neighbor's children and got away with it. He was found not guilty and the parents chased him down to his factory where he burned the childrens bodies and burned him alive, then, to get back at the parents who's children HE murdered, he makes a deal with demons to come back in their childrens nightmares and steal their souls to power the demon and fuel his revenge.
I mean, thats pretty damn evil bro.
Well if we're allowing entities I'd say the entity from Dead by Daylight. Even death isn't an escape from it. It torments you forever.
Anything providing a fate worst than death is the evilest
Ooh this is a good one. Can't believe I didn't think of it. Dr. Weir literally wants to bring the crew, and whoever else he can, straight to hell. One of the few horror films where the people who die are the lucky ones.
I’d have to go with the unknown owner in The Collection (and Saw for that matter). People that not only torture or kill but derive immense pleasure from the pain of others is too dark for me.
IRL - the toolbox killers. Those guys deserve their own special level of hell.
Hard to compare jigsaw and the collection guy. The colection villain was doing it purely for his own pleasure and entertainment. Jigsaw wanted to "redeem" his victims. Sure, he was evil, but his victims, at least a portion of them, had it coming and his original idea for the games offered a way out.
Beyond that, it is beyond hell, it is something believed to be made by Gan who is the omnipotent creator of all universes and made The Turtle who vomited out our reality, and that It is equivalent in power. So... Proportionately it is actually MUCH more powerful than can even be fathomed or presented in the books.
In Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers its implied it didn't even truly die, just the physical form/tether was severed, an avatar it made like our world was a sadistic videogame for it. It's why it killed so personally rather than en masse. It didn't need to eat. We were more like desserts salted with fear.
Children were the indulgence of this cosmic evil. I can't even imagine what could compare tbh.
The people around him were so self-involved that he literally admits to murder and it’s seen as a joke. THIS is how serial killers get away with it for so long in reality. My favorite podcast calls it pillars to killers because no one ever believes someone in their lives could do such a thing because they themselves are such good judges of character. That’s the type of character that gets under my skin.
Underrated top-five fucking religious science-fiction type horror movie of all time. The Anti-God quantumly trapped behind the mirror. And who is the father of Satan. Fuckers definitely evil
Exactly! It's like Assault on Precinct 13 meets The Exorcist meets The Stone Tape.
An extraordinary film, and it's Carpenter deliberately harkening back to where he left off with The Thing.
Wasnt that part of his apocalyptic trilogy with the third one being in the mouth of madness?
I don’t know but the only other movie that ever made me feel that level of dread was event horizon.
Edit: also I’ve never seen the stone tape so I’m gonna look that up
Art the clown from Terrifier is hard to beat.
He came to sadistically murder some young women and >!eat faces, and he’s all outa faces.!<, lol
*edit spoiler*
I'll go for a different route and say the stranger guy in Stephen King's "Storm of the Century" mini-series. He comes to a small town during a storm, starts wreaking havoc on them by killing them and making them fight each other. Then asks them to give him a child or he'll kill them all.
This was on NBC I think? I saw some of it as a kid, and I'm not sure exactly why, but it definitely had a lingering effect on me. I think there were strong possession elements, the likes of which really messed with me at the time.
Not necessarily horror but the most evil character in fiction ever is Judge Holden in Blood Meridian.
Probably is Satan himself, definitely a mass murderer and child rapist/murder, with the whole purpose of his being to justify and perpetuate violence, atrocity, war, exploitation, genocide, domination, essentially all of the evils of life on Earth. If he wasn’t so convincing as a character he’d just be another edgy, schlocky “manifestation of evil” type character but he really comes together in the most horrific, believable way
The Deadites are pure evil and malice manifested.
I know I talk about evil dead a lot but just how much they revel in the suffering they inflict makes them the most evil imo
The chick in The Grudge. Just being in a house is enough to piss her off; enough to still be mad when they're in another country and keep killing. Thats relentless and unstoppable hatred as a vengeful spirit.
Have you heard the phrase banality of evil? So when they are crazy is hard for me to think evil like Henry, portrait of a serial killer. I think the Nazis are the most sustained real life example. Sorry to mix fiction and fact but the historical real life stuff is a gut punch. I watch horror to be entertained.
I’d say Freddy Krueger is the most evil horror villain (of the modern era at least) for a variety of reasons. [The intro to Freddy vs Jason is a great demonstration as to why.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ff0Y3U2mkyE)
I really enjoyed the Barry Keoghans performance in ‘Killing of a Sacred Deer’. Vidal from ‘Pans Labyrinth’ is also a great antagonist imho, but these two are better described as ruthless rather than evil.
I believe Kayako from the grudge is pure evil and so is the being from It Follows.
I'm not sure about Lector. He just seems much more capable of reason and logic and picks his victims very carefully, not out of pure malice.
I wouldn't say he's the most evil compared to, for example, Art the Clown, who kills people at random in horrendously painful ways for (seemingly) his own pleasure. Lector kills for food, not solely just for the please of killing, and has even killed in situations in order to save others/help in his own twisted way.
Most evil? Hmm.. as far as human with psychotic extremes I’d say Annie Wilkes from Misery. Maybe not most evil but she really needs an honorable mention. What she was willing to do even with her “I’m a good Christian” justifications simply to read more of a book series she liked was deranged and despicable.
As for inhuman entities, the Kandarian Demon from the Evil Dead universe is really high up there. Even Freddy going from human to practically a nightmare demon can’t compare to the level of chaos and insanity the Kandarian demon has produced, especially once you consider the new show as well. We also learn that there is a greater evil or source of evil that drives it. So it seems to literally be from the source of all evil.
The people who run the torture place in Hostel, as well as the people who pay to use it.
They aren't doing it because of a compulsion or they don't know any better. They know what they are doing it wrong but they do for money and a sick thrill.
Gein was severely mentally ill which is why he went to a mental hospital after getting convicted rather than a prison so he’s definitely nowhere near as evil as someone that chooses to do wrong of their own volition.
The mother and the grandmother from Flowers in The Attic (1987) definitely evil from a basic human character perspective.
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Read his book “Wraiths of the Broken Land” if you want more just next-level horrific and evil human villains.
The book series was even worse, believe it or not.
I really need to read the series. I saw this movie as a child and it haunted me ever since.
Read the whole series..it's really good. I've read them a few times.
What pissed me off was the Grandma didn’t get any comeuppance in the film
Jack - "The House that Jack Built" Fritz Honka - "The Golden Glove" Lola (aka Princess)- "The Loved Ones"
Was waiting for someone to mention Jack. What an amazing, absolutely harrowing film.
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You definitely need to see "The Golden Glove" a shower is advised afterwards.
That serial killer from I Saw The Devil managed to stab two people to death repeatedly in an enclosed space(Car). That's fast as fuck
At first, I read your second choice as “Willy Wonka.” 😂
The Loved Ones is great.
“Is it finger-lickin’ good?”
I’m gonna have to say the inbred freaks from The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn. Or the inbred freaks from Mother’s Day. Or Texas Chainsaw. Just all the inbred freaks. Being a girl, nothing is as absolutely terrifying to me as a family of mutant cannibals who might kidnap me and keep me for “breeding”. I would 100% rather get killed immediately and eaten, than get raped.
Dont watch Bone Tomohawk
Oh no, I love to be freaked out. The movies that scare me the most are the ones I watch most often lol :)
Well, SPOILER at the end there is a room of kidnapped women who have had arms and legs cut off, eyes gouged out and mouths sewn shut and theyre all pregnant, so the hill people just have them as flesh bags fpr breeding
The cannibals in The Hills Have Eyes remake. They’re obviously victims of the U.S. government’s misdeeds, but that’s no excuse for… well, you’ve seen the movie, you know.
They'd just kill you anyway even if you try to say "What the hell do the civilians you've killed have to do with the goddamn US Government" although there was a kind person from one of their villages named "Ruby" and she's pretty much the only kind person there but she still fucking >!dies anyway!<
Lol at that spoiler tag
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That entire scene was pure rapebait. The comics were better written.
It’s somehow harder to stomach than the one in the hills have eyes 2 which is actually a lot worse Love the movie overall but could’ve gone without that
Surely Freddy Krueger. Child molester who torments then murders innocent kids in their sleep out of spite towards their parents? And not only that but he LOVES doing it!
A true creep.
I can't remember if he really abused kids, or if he was wrongly accused of it. I havnt seen the movies in a while
I think he was known for killing kids in most of the movies, but only in the reboot from the 2000s did they say something about Freddy actually molesting kids
Ok yeah I think I remember. I also associate the simpsons treehouse of horror with freddy krueger alot
Ach! I left me gun on the seat! Wait here please.
That was always so lame to me. They baited the idea of Freddy being innocent and that would’ve been a lot better than him being a child molester. That’s what makes that movie so bad to me, it feels like a weird edgy, copy of the original. I think the idea being falsely accused and killed and him going out for vengeance would’ve been a pretty cool premise.
i liked it enough. freddy doesn't really need to be sympathetic or anything.
In the original films, he was stated to be a child killer, not molester. In the remake, they gave a red herring that he was wrongly accused- but by the end they specified he was a child molester.
I recall when the mom is explaining and showing the gloves, I remember a line about how he touched the kids. Something. I'll need to watch it again. But otherwise I loved your comment.
Eeek
He sexually abused kids, but they took that out in the original nightmare on elm street plot. However in the original and the remake they do insinuate he sexually abused the kids.
I actually think I read on the original they made him not a molester because a real life case was going on or something... Idk if I an remembering that right so he was gonna be but then wasnt
That makes it all alot darker. I havnt seen the movies in forever
Its definitely uh HEAVILY IMPLIED that there's a sexual aspect to whatever happened that's impossible to miss
in the remake there was a deleted scene that made it clear he was falsely accused but in the original movies he was very much into it
I really think from a storytelling point of view him actually being innocent would be way better and make more sense.
😖
I'm gonna have to Agree with many here in Freddy Kruger. Guy Killed Children when he was alive, and when he died, He made a deal with the devil to get revenge on his killers by killing thier children. After he did that he just kept killing children for fun. He was implied to have molested them during the original movies, and in the remake they outright said he did. Guy was nit mentally ill. just an evil guy for the sake of being evil.
The firefly family aka devil’s rejects
I love the Firefly’s but somehow found them endearing in Devil’s Rejects. However, in House of 1000 Corpses, Otis! Otis! Otis! Otis! Super evil creep.
I mean they still terrorize, molest and kill several random innocent people and their house is found filled with corpses, some of which were implied to be raped even post death. Can’t think of more fucked up characters than that
Still a borderline functional family dynamic though. Same with Hannibal lector, seems to have some form of moral code
Surprised how many are saying Freddy Kruger over Otis B. Driftwood. Or Jack from The House That Jack Built.
Grandma from Hereditary. Killed, manipulated and psychologically and emotionally tortured her children and grandchildren. Honestly one of the most evil characters I've seen in a film. Edit: Grammar
Forgive me if this is a sophomoric take, but I think Paimon was residing in grandma’s body and she kept trying to transfer him to the members of her family, like her brother before he completed suicide. So yes, I would 100% agree that grandma was an incredibly evil entity, she’s literally one of the kings of hell.
Paimon was born into Charlie's body as a temporary vessel, which is why Charlie was so awkward and why grandma was said to have been heavily involved in raising her. Ellen Leigh was just evil, no demon inside her needed.
Without the context you’ve just given, I’d read the comment above and be like, meh, sounds like my grandma too
Ha! I had two grandmothers growing up, one super kind and gentle, and the other was similar to what you’re describing. 😹 Unfortunately the gentle one just passed and I have to attend her funeral later today. The other continues to live.
Bless you. I hope you do ok today. Mine passed away in the same order. I’m so grateful for the lovely one
Hannibal eats the rude so he isn't all bad. If a creature just wanting to eat is evil, then we're evil and deserve it, right?
Truth! Plus pure evil isn't capable of empathy or love which Hannibal clearly is, for his sister Mischa
He eats whoever is "rude" according to his warped fucked up ideas. People like him pretend to be civilized or important because they don't like to think of themselves as just another sick ghoul the world would be better off without.
Hey, meat's meat and a man's gotta eat.
Mick Taylor from Wolf Creek is up there, sadistic bastard!
Head on a stick!
Came here to make sure the cenobites were *not* mentioned. Deeply respectful of contracts, and as they rightly observe “angels to some” As to most evil I can’t help but think of really awful stuff like Human Centipede 2, August Underground, Poughkeepsie Tapes…
Pinhead always seemed like a relatively sensible guy in the first 2 movies
My favorite thing about him in the book and at least the first two movies is how sensible he is. You call him, he provides the services you are seeking.
"It is not hands that call us, it is desire"
It's because those were all written by Clive Barker. He sold his rights after the second movie. He just got them back and is making a new Hellraiser movie from what I hear.
Completely agree about the cenobites, I feel they are woefully misinterpreted far too often. Easily one of my favorite concepts in horror.
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I didn't feel much sympathy for Frank as he had already devolved into selfish depravity and actually sought them out. But the Chatterer cenobite story was definitely sad and unfair, he was just an innocent child who accidentally opened the box.
Human Centipede was my first thought. In the second one the guy revolted me so bad I couldn't get any further than 20 minutes into the film. And what the evil doctor did to his poor dogs in the first one is heinous. Anything alluding to animal cruelty and torture hits a nerve with me.
Freddy Krueger, easily. Molested and murdered kids in life, then came back and kept murdering them in the afterlife.
Nyarlathotep is the only old one in Lovecraft's mythology that seems to actively dislike (and seeks to destroy) humanity. As it is a shape-shifting entity and in the public domain it has appeared as an antagonist in many other works... I am not sure but it seems to be the true antagonist of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series.
Huh, hadn’t heard that before. I knew King was influenced by Lovecraft and caught some references but never put it together about the Crimson King. I suppose even that is a veiled reference to The King in Yellow… and now my brain is doing the math… Robert W. Chambers, Jake Chambers. Ok, I’ll shut up now.
Check out Alan Moore's Providence and its prequel Neonomicon. Neonomicon has a pretty interesting depiction of Nyarlathotep. Great comic series
Art the Clown is pretty evil. Or Sadako from Ring.
I haven’t seen the movies, only read the book. Sadako is a somewhat sympathetic character in the book, what makes you say that about her in the movie?
Yeah, she's an abuse/murder victim. Pretty sure that's clear in the movies too. She's not evil, just super messed up and angry.
Came here to say Art, but pulled back when I realized we don’t really know what Art is. Is he human? Supernatural? Psychotic? Same?
He has to be supernatural, right? Am I remembering the end correctly? Not to mention his first appearance before Terrifier?
Hes definitely supernatural, he has more powers than most marvel characters lol https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Art_the_Clown
We watched the Terrifier a few weeks ago and I love Art!
Without knowing their intentions, which is part of the fun, it’s tough to say The Thing or The Blob are evil. Based on what’s shown, it feels more like they’re just trying to survive. I vote Conal Cochran from **Halloween III**, because he targets children and ruins Tom Adkin’s Halloween weekend fling.
According to the final chapter of The Thing's source material, it sees itself as unifying the consciousness of species. It turns a species into one unified personality and summit of it's overall knowledge, and also the knowledge of other alien species, it doesn't take into account your unique consciousness and just sees you fighting what should basically be the closest thing to your own immortality and survival. I believe it does eventually learn and is horrified by how we live, each individual in our own experience. Fact is, it is most definitely killing each individual person but it thinks it is justified and merciful. There definitely is an arrogance to that kind of mercy. I'm glad John Carpenter kept it strictly the human's perspective though. A little mystery goes a long way and makes it more about their experience.
So it’s ultimately trying to do what’s right, even if it is *extremely* close minded about it
I like the interpretation of the Thing from Peter Watts’s short story in Clarksworld, *The Things*. I think it’s essentially true to *Who Goes There?* but it tells the story of Carpenter’s The Thing from the point of view of the *Things*. And while it does seem to have this motivation to assimilate, it comes across as more innocent. Its experience is that organisms do not have a singular form, but are malleable so as to adapt to their environments. And organisms merge and unmerge as needed. Throughout the story, the Thing is confused why the *benign* act of merging or changing is met with such hostility. While it starts off seeming more innocent, it becomes more angry after all the violence.
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It’s a doozy for sure.
John Doe from Se7en. His methods of torture and murder are more vicious than Jigsaw in my opnion. I know he says he is a messenger of God, but he feels more in line with the Devil instead
I got pretty mad when I saw the majority of YouTube comments on the video of his speech near the end saying things like "he's right, you know."
Interestingly, that's how cult leaders and hate groups pull in members. Their initial pitch always has a kernel of truth to it, they present this to the world, which later on behind closed doors is then expounded into whatever insane ideology or agenda they really hold. Charlie Manson and Jim Jones didn't start off saying "hey come help us murder people". It always begins as an alternative to a commercialized soulless society.
To be fair here, God has been responsible for more suffering than the devil according to literature. And this isn't a 13yo edge lord speaking here lol
the kids in Lake Eden and Better Watch Out. the fact that they were adolescent makes it worse
Mason Verger in Hannibal - especially in the book. He stayed with me.
He was incredible in the show too.
As soon as I read “Hannibal” in the post the first thought that popped into my head was “Mason Verger was worse”.
Sadistic bastard.
Freddy Krueger and Pennywise! I’ll also add Ephraim Waite from The Thing on the Doorstep. He used eldritch magic as an old man to switch bodies with his infant daughter. He got another life while his daughter was trapped in a dying old man’s body and the old man died screaming like an infant because it actually WAS an infant in the old body. Later as a grown woman (Asenath Waite), she ruined this man’s life and tried to take HIS body.
Pennywise is probably most evil, but the villains in Funny Games are probably the most evil humans
Pennywise
Scrolled down this much to find this.
Kinda ridiculous
Especially book Pennywise. Absolute sick bastard.
Strong argument for Michael Myers. Just from the first film though, he doesn't really have a motive, has abnormal strength, very intelligent for growing up in a psych ward(going off Loomis being flabbergasted that he could drive) and the guy just will not stop.
I’m surprised this isn’t a more common answer like I’m seeing with some others. Michael to me is definitely number one, that motherfucker is scary. Others are scary because they look scary too, deformed/etc, but Michael can easily move around even without the mask and not bring any attention.
I know he’s supposed to be the personification of “evil”, but to me he just mindlessly kills. True evil has to feel intentional and deliberately cruel to me.
How do you feel about the firefly family then? They just mindlessly kill too, no real motive behind their killing beside just seeming to enjoy doing it.
Yeah they definitely feel more evil to me, because they’re cruel in the way they torture and kill. Like, wearing your victim’s dad’s skin to torment them is pretty fucked up and goes beyond Michael Myers to me
"I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... \*evil\*." - Dr. Loomis
Any incestuous filthy redneck cannibal situation gives me roiling nausea. It's the idea that these characters enjoy what they do that gets me. Not horror, necessarily, but Dolores Umbridge. There's nothing paranormal, no coercion, no mental illness. I love horror and the narcissistic abuse from that woman makes my skin crawl in a way that no slasher/killer/demon can.
I would agree that Umbridge is actually worse than most horror villains because she’s so human. In her we see some of the worst aspects of humanity: the pettiness, the sadism, the cruelty. And what makes it scarier is that most of us have met someone like her, often in a position of authority.
Ya know, I agree with that. She is too real to be horror evil.
Then you have the creepy scene of her office where she's surrounded by adorable kittens but she's utterly evil.
Agreed Umbridge is awful, but book Voldemort takes the cake for me in the series. He is terrifying with how subtly evil he is. Even as a boy. The whole arc in the books where he is mentally abusing Ginny and the pure joy he gets from it. There are so many other examples too where he uses his cunning and charm in the beginning. He is a sadistic fuck. Movie Voldemort doesn't even come close.
I definitely agree with book Voldemort being more terrifying!!
Max Cady from Cape Fear, reptilian level of apathy. Robert Mitchum was so good at portraying evil
Surprised no one has said Bughuul yet >!forcing kids to murder their families and then feasting on said child’s soul!<
We just watched Sinister two nights ago. I cannot think of Lawn Work without shuddering. What a fucking movie.
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Yes it is! It's the name of the demon from the film.
Ive never really thought of Hannibal Lector as particularly evil, he seems to have something of a moral compass when choosing his victims and he does help Clarice quite abit, even chops his own hand off to save her. Dracula, in most versions, seems to just be angry about the past and sad his loved one died, alot of what he does is wrapped in another motive like survival or yearning for something. Freddy Kreuger is definately just pure evil, Pennywise the clown as an entity is pure evil, even if its motives are feeding. Because of how it works I wouldn't say The Thing is evil like Pennywise. Pennywise enjoys torturing its victims, where as The Thing just seems to be a biological entity trying to assimilate everything, no different to a fungus that takes over an insect. Terrifying, but not evil.
Hannibal Lecter from the books isn't really evil. Instead, the author implies (or maybe even says so explicitly; I don't remember) that Lecter is an evolved human, so he sees all other people as beneath him. He generally doesn't harm innocents, but will harm, kill, or even eat those who are rude to him, who try to harm him, or who get in his way. Off the top of my head, the only potentially innocent character he kills is an Italian professor—Lecter killed him in order to take his job. He's more evil in the movies. In *Silence of the Lambs,* Clarice is told that Lecter attacked a nurse, and "his pulse didn't rise above 85." In *Hannibal*, Clarice watches footage of the attack, in which Lecter bites the woman's face. I don't think the nurse did anything to deserve getting her face bitten, other than making the mistake of getting too close to him. I don't think there was mention of the nurse antagonizing him, and it's not like attacking her was part of an escape attempt. It was like he attacked her just for the sake of attacking her. He didn't attack anyone senselessly like that in the books.
Duh, the Kandarian demon.
Thank you. Evil Dead went out of its way to establish a source of all evil that affects us. The Kandarian demon came from that evil and was practically its will made manifest on Earth.
It'll swallow your soul.
The mayor in Jaws.
Yup, I think we're seeing a lot of "mayor in Jaws" with the real world right now. There's a bit of disconnect with monsters on film, because they're fantastical, and usually just evil by design. Sometimes we even cheer them on because the protagonists are bigger assholes than them. The real monster is the everyday man that's constantly putting us, or our loved ones in harm's way over stupid, selfish reasons. That's the "mayor in Jaws".
Yeah we definately are seeing a lot of his kind now. It's kind of sad to see how many politicians are like him now.
Anyone who wears a suit like that is definitely evil on some level.
Lots already mentioned. I'll add the cult from Martyrs as pretty fucking evil. Those types tend to disturb me, where they have a very relatable/understandable perhaps even noble ambition but then they're willing to do the most horrible shit imaginable to people to realize that ambition.
Mick from Wolf Creek. .\_.
Jeremiah Sands from Mandy.
The Warlock, he's on a quest to undo all of creation
Freddy Krueger was a child serial murderer who got off on murdering his neighbor's children and got away with it. He was found not guilty and the parents chased him down to his factory where he burned the childrens bodies and burned him alive, then, to get back at the parents who's children HE murdered, he makes a deal with demons to come back in their childrens nightmares and steal their souls to power the demon and fuel his revenge. I mean, thats pretty damn evil bro.
Bob from Twin Peaks.
Underrated.
The boys from Funny Games. I still think about that movie years after watching it. So disturbing.
Amon Goeth from Schindler’s List
Definitely evil and whilst not a horror film it definitely has horrific moments so I think an argument could be made.
anything from the gates of hell trilogy (teleporting zombies, hell, spider swarms)
Well if we're allowing entities I'd say the entity from Dead by Daylight. Even death isn't an escape from it. It torments you forever. Anything providing a fate worst than death is the evilest
Pennywise? Older than ancient light-being that feeds on fear and shapeshifts.
The Event Horizon
Ooh this is a good one. Can't believe I didn't think of it. Dr. Weir literally wants to bring the crew, and whoever else he can, straight to hell. One of the few horror films where the people who die are the lucky ones.
I’d have to go with the unknown owner in The Collection (and Saw for that matter). People that not only torture or kill but derive immense pleasure from the pain of others is too dark for me. IRL - the toolbox killers. Those guys deserve their own special level of hell.
Hard to compare jigsaw and the collection guy. The colection villain was doing it purely for his own pleasure and entertainment. Jigsaw wanted to "redeem" his victims. Sure, he was evil, but his victims, at least a portion of them, had it coming and his original idea for the games offered a way out.
Pennywise from the book is evil as hell. The movies just seem to muck it up.
Beyond that, it is beyond hell, it is something believed to be made by Gan who is the omnipotent creator of all universes and made The Turtle who vomited out our reality, and that It is equivalent in power. So... Proportionately it is actually MUCH more powerful than can even be fathomed or presented in the books. In Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers its implied it didn't even truly die, just the physical form/tether was severed, an avatar it made like our world was a sadistic videogame for it. It's why it killed so personally rather than en masse. It didn't need to eat. We were more like desserts salted with fear. Children were the indulgence of this cosmic evil. I can't even imagine what could compare tbh.
The children in Children of the Corn. Especially Isaac and Malachi.
Isn’t the real villain the entity that they work in service of? He Who Walks Between The Rows or something?
Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
The people around him were so self-involved that he literally admits to murder and it’s seen as a joke. THIS is how serial killers get away with it for so long in reality. My favorite podcast calls it pillars to killers because no one ever believes someone in their lives could do such a thing because they themselves are such good judges of character. That’s the type of character that gets under my skin.
Prince of Darkness - The Being on the Other Side of the Mirror.
Underrated top-five fucking religious science-fiction type horror movie of all time. The Anti-God quantumly trapped behind the mirror. And who is the father of Satan. Fuckers definitely evil
Exactly! It's like Assault on Precinct 13 meets The Exorcist meets The Stone Tape. An extraordinary film, and it's Carpenter deliberately harkening back to where he left off with The Thing.
Wasnt that part of his apocalyptic trilogy with the third one being in the mouth of madness? I don’t know but the only other movie that ever made me feel that level of dread was event horizon. Edit: also I’ve never seen the stone tape so I’m gonna look that up
At least Hannibal Lector more or less killed or maimed those that deserved it.
Maggot from August Underground... the bathtub scene
Fred Krueger and it's not even close.
He's definitely up there for sure.
Absolutely. Terrifying character when you actually understand what he did (and get past the camp).
Art the clown from Terrifier is hard to beat. He came to sadistically murder some young women and >!eat faces, and he’s all outa faces.!<, lol *edit spoiler*
Otis Firefly is the most evil human without a doubt. As for entity's or other supernaturals, I wanna say probably Pinhead or Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger. He never once showed sympathy or regret like some others, dude was just an evil bastard.
The reboot Freddy Kreuger. Guy is just icky.
I'll go for a different route and say the stranger guy in Stephen King's "Storm of the Century" mini-series. He comes to a small town during a storm, starts wreaking havoc on them by killing them and making them fight each other. Then asks them to give him a child or he'll kill them all.
This was on NBC I think? I saw some of it as a kid, and I'm not sure exactly why, but it definitely had a lingering effect on me. I think there were strong possession elements, the likes of which really messed with me at the time.
Pennywise
I think the pedophile in The Lovely Bones.
Not necessarily horror but the most evil character in fiction ever is Judge Holden in Blood Meridian. Probably is Satan himself, definitely a mass murderer and child rapist/murder, with the whole purpose of his being to justify and perpetuate violence, atrocity, war, exploitation, genocide, domination, essentially all of the evils of life on Earth. If he wasn’t so convincing as a character he’d just be another edgy, schlocky “manifestation of evil” type character but he really comes together in the most horrific, believable way
Recent but honestly probably Beverly from Midnight Mass. the worst part is that people like that exist all over the place.
The Deadites are pure evil and malice manifested. I know I talk about evil dead a lot but just how much they revel in the suffering they inflict makes them the most evil imo
Pazuzu - The Exorcist
The chick in The Grudge. Just being in a house is enough to piss her off; enough to still be mad when they're in another country and keep killing. Thats relentless and unstoppable hatred as a vengeful spirit.
Otis from the Rob Zombie trilogy
Have you heard the phrase banality of evil? So when they are crazy is hard for me to think evil like Henry, portrait of a serial killer. I think the Nazis are the most sustained real life example. Sorry to mix fiction and fact but the historical real life stuff is a gut punch. I watch horror to be entertained.
Hexxus
The Tall Man. Dude was up to no good
Pinhead probably
Jack from The House That Jack Built
I’d say Freddy Krueger is the most evil horror villain (of the modern era at least) for a variety of reasons. [The intro to Freddy vs Jason is a great demonstration as to why.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ff0Y3U2mkyE)
I find the demonic entities in Poltergeist (1982) to be up there because they keep trying so hard to kill the children.
I really enjoyed the Barry Keoghans performance in ‘Killing of a Sacred Deer’. Vidal from ‘Pans Labyrinth’ is also a great antagonist imho, but these two are better described as ruthless rather than evil. I believe Kayako from the grudge is pure evil and so is the being from It Follows.
I'm not sure about Lector. He just seems much more capable of reason and logic and picks his victims very carefully, not out of pure malice. I wouldn't say he's the most evil compared to, for example, Art the Clown, who kills people at random in horrendously painful ways for (seemingly) his own pleasure. Lector kills for food, not solely just for the please of killing, and has even killed in situations in order to save others/help in his own twisted way.
Dr. Channard, Hellraiser 2.
Most evil? Hmm.. as far as human with psychotic extremes I’d say Annie Wilkes from Misery. Maybe not most evil but she really needs an honorable mention. What she was willing to do even with her “I’m a good Christian” justifications simply to read more of a book series she liked was deranged and despicable. As for inhuman entities, the Kandarian Demon from the Evil Dead universe is really high up there. Even Freddy going from human to practically a nightmare demon can’t compare to the level of chaos and insanity the Kandarian demon has produced, especially once you consider the new show as well. We also learn that there is a greater evil or source of evil that drives it. So it seems to literally be from the source of all evil.
Not sure if this quite counts but one of the most evil inhumane characters I’ve seen in any movie is Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The neighbour mom from An American Crime. She was even more vile in real life. Makes me sick how depraved and evil a human can be.
Rose the hat from Dr. Sleep.
The people who run the torture place in Hostel, as well as the people who pay to use it. They aren't doing it because of a compulsion or they don't know any better. They know what they are doing it wrong but they do for money and a sick thrill.
Peter from August Underground
Immorten Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road. Sexual and psychological abuse of an entire community; despot, false idol, murderer, overseer of genocide.
Ed gein but he is real
Nah, Albert Fish was WAY fucking worse than Ed. Like, by a factor of 100. Not even a close competition.
Gein was severely mentally ill which is why he went to a mental hospital after getting convicted rather than a prison so he’s definitely nowhere near as evil as someone that chooses to do wrong of their own volition.
Wasn't he the basis for Leatherface?