6 Terrifying Movie Villains To Run Away From!
Has a movie villain ever kept you up at night? Hollywood has given us hundreds of bad guys, many just as forgettable as the movie they were in. Even some of the better one can be a little sympathetic, cool or even likable but only a few select movie villains represent the epitome of cold-hearted movie evilness. These are six movie bad guys you never want to meet in real life!
6. Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
How would it feel to fear even the most natural act of falling asleep? A disfigured undead man who stalks and kills his victims in their dreams, Freddy Krueger is the greatest slasher villain of them all. He mentally tortures his victims before killing them with his trademark metal-clawed leather glove. As if he wasn’t evil enough after death, he used to be a child rapist and murderer! Not too many movie villains are more evil then Mr. Fred Kruger.
5. Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)
His threats are never spelled out, his motivations are never known. He murders without conscience or emotions and he will only occasionally pause to toss a coin to determine his victim’s fate. This is what makes Anton Chigurh such a feared movie villain. Indeed, he could use a new haircut but let’s face it, it would likely be your last sight on this Earth if you were to cross his path. This indiscriminate, inconceivable lack of conscience makes him more than a man — a being far removed from normal human motivations or behaviors.
4. John Doe (Se7en)
You could walk past John Doe at your office or in the street and never realized how sick he is. This is what makes him such a great movie villain, he is apparently just an average guy but behind his harmless appearance lies a disturbingly detached and impenetrable psycho. John Doe is a religious fanatic and we all know how dangerous those people are. He has a truly disturbing plan and executes his retribution in terrifyingly grotesque ways, even admitting that he takes pleasure turning “sin against the sinner”. In the movie, he is in control of the situation from beginning to end and the audience soon realizes that John Doe is one those rare bad guys who wins at the end, making him all the more unsettling.
3. T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
How hopeless would it be to be endlessly chased by a relentless, unstoppable, indestructible machine from the future? Even if you managed to survive several encounters, you would have to be on the run for the rest of your miserable life, fearing that it could turn up at any second to terminate you. Worst of all, it can change shape at will and even take the form of your loved ones! You can’t kill it, you can’t reason with it, you can’t run away from it, just end it right there and jump off the bridge!
2. Pennywise The Clown (It)
“They all float down here.” There is no doubt that Pennywise the Clown has terrified more childhood than just any about other single phobia. Clowns are scary enough as it is, but Pennywise takes it to a whole another level. Although “it” most often appears in the form of a clown, it is a supernatural creature that exists in realms beyond the physical. “It” can take just about any shape or form to turn a person’s worst fear against themselves and it has an affinity for devouring children. Let’s face it, if there is one movie villain you fear will suddenly appear under your bed at night, it’s Pennywise the Clown.
1. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs)
What would it be like to smell a chunk of your own brain cooking and then see a man eating it? The epitome of evil, Anthony Hopkins’s cannibal Hannibal Lecter is the last movie villain you ever want to cross path with. His calm demeanor, and gentlemanly manners could fool anyone into believing he is a nice and harmless man. However, behind this collected exterior lurks an incredibly cunning and sadistic killer who will bite your nose off and torture you psychologically until your last breath. His affinity for human flesh crosses one of human society’s deepest taboos, making Hannibal Lecter a reflection of our own worst fears, that we will never be able to escape human nature and our most basic impulses.
Who are your most feared movie villain? Let us know in the comments!
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31 Comments
Only thing you’d have to worry about with John Doe is him barfing on you on the subway…unless you’re a lowlife, then you should probably worry. Awesome list, man. Would probably have to go with Chigurh though, probably for the realism aspect. And the haircut.
Fun list Castor. Yeah, I pray I’ll never run into any of these guys on the street. And Tim Curry’s clown is probably the creepiest for me… I HATE clowns! Chigurh would also wins haircut to avoid in real life
I think Tim Curry is kind of creepy in real life, so when you turn him into a clown…well…that just will haunt your dreams night after night.
Good point there Rob, he definitely has the creepy smile thing down pat
Wait, what movie villain shouldn’t you avoid in real life?
Exactly. None of them except for those 6!
Ok I changed the title for you, smarty pants
Wow! I feel so honored…
Personally if I came in contact with either Amon Goeth (Schindler’s List) or Harry Powell (The Night of the Hunter), I’d be going into a mad sprint.
Good list. But what about Darth Vader. Not gonna lie, if I saw him down a dark alley, I’d run as fast as I could. Also, Jason and Michael Myers, but I guess they fall under the umbrella category of Freddy Krueger.
T-1000 is number one in my book and the unsentimental Vader in the mind state of Empire Strikes back is a good runner up.
I have never really understood why John Doe keep ranking high on these lists. Of course he is a bad m*therfcker if you go by mind alone but he picks his victims pretty good they aren’t always that good in defending themselves.
You got this one right Castor! Before I even clicked on the feature my first thought was Hannibal Lector! To be eaten on top of everything else AND with a nice bottle on chianti! BTW, thanks for the exceptional pic of Pennywise. I won’t be sleeping tonight!
Terminators, I say, shouldn’t count. It’s like saying a zombie is a villain. They have to have some kind of motive beyond design to be a villain. Even Anton goes by fate and sadistic pleasure.
A special mention for “everyone you know” from The Thing I believe is in order
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Out of curiosity does Zed from Pulp Fiction not count? To be honest, sure a lot of the above will kill me, but what he’d do to me I’d never recover from *squirm*
Great post but based on the title, the T-1000 should be number 1!
Great list! With Sir Anthony Hopkins chilling performance and those calm but maddening eyes, Hannibal Lecter was very mesmerizing and is the greatest villain of all time, I’m totally agree.
I would definitely run away from T-1000, although I must admit it would be cool to see him run. I would also add Alien to it.
Alien and Predator made the short list. Definitely two scary foes!
Oh gosh – no matter how silly IT can be at times, that freaky gutter scene is definitely nightmare-inducing. Honestly, the most vivid memory I have of something causing me sleepless nights as a child was the Michael Jackson Thriller video…
Sorry, but if you’re going to include a slasher film “monster”, then hands-down I pick Michael Meyers over Freddy Krueger.
Couple others to add: Norman Bates and Damien Thorn or Isaac from Children of the Corn.
Godzilla.
The moment I saw the title of this post, the T-1000 came immediately into my head. I love T2, but Robert Patrick gave me nightmares as a chid for MONTHS!
Also, I know this isn’t exactly a villain you could RUN away from, but what about the Truck in Duel? One of my favourite movie bad-guys, especially because you never see the driver
That truck is relentless! It would definitely be a nightmare to be in that situation ah!
Ooooh, what about Bruce from Jaws or Cujo
Vader. Simple.
Or possibly that wolf thing from The Neverending Story.
Oh, wait, what about Gargamel? Oh yeah, he’s ALMOST a film villain…
Personally, I’d have ranked Kathy Bates in Misery right at the top. The craziest, meanest film villain ever, man!
You know, another villain that you might run into in real life is the more subtle one, but that doesn’t mean they’re less lethal. Cillian Murphy’s character in Red Eye comes to mind.
Well, I didn’t think he was very scary ahah but I don’t think that was the point of his character
I think I’d be okay with Doe and Lecter (particularly the latter since I’m confident I could reason with him); I can’t think of a good reason either of them would want to kill me since I don’t fit the profile of their typical victim, and I’d never be so stupid as to try to turn in Lecter myself. And I might be talking myself up here but I’m pretty sure that I could survive encountering Freddy, too. Without fear, he’s harmless, and I don’t think I could ever be scared of Robert Englund.
But Pennywise? Dead. Robert Patrick? Really dead. Chigurh? So dead. Like, think of something dead, and then think of something more dead than that. That’s what I’d be.
For my money, I would never want to run into the Tall Man in a dark alley, or even a brightly lit one. Angus Scrimm has been scaring the hell out of opeople since before he was born; I mean, come on, he’s 6’4″ and 84 years of pants-soiling terror. You can’t compete with that.
I would run away from The Joker of The Dark Knight. Rather, I would run away from his town.
I had a very big fear of clowns growing up and I blame 80% of it on Tim Curry.
Pennywise always gives me the shivers.
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