The Most Famous Horror Movie Villains

Are you a fan of horror movies? Do you ever wonder who is the most evil villain ever portrayed on the big screen? This article takes a look at eight of Hollywood's most dastardly villains. You decide who you think is the worst and post it in a comment following the article.

Michael Myers - The fictional character from the Halloween movies is typically considered the scariest of all the horror movie icons. Myers, who always commits his murders on Halloween, is considered on the first slasher villains. Myers is typically depicted as a tall man, who is abnormally intelligent and likes to murder his victims with knives and scalpels rather than guns and other weapons. Michael is a mute killer with a seemingly calm, methodological demeanor, always walking after his victims. He also possesses the ability to recuperate very quickly and has done so from being shot, burned, electrocuted and other acts of physical punishment.

Jigsaw - Jigsaw might be the newest infamous horror icon on the block. Jigsaw, introduced in the film Saw (2004), was a dying cancer patient whose goal was to teach people the value of their own lives. Jigsaw is supposed to be seen as more of a scientist than a serial killer in that he kills people unconventionally by placing them in symbolic death traps which they can escape from via self-mutilation and other forms of psychological and physical torture. Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of Saw II, III and IV, has stated on the character's role "He's not Jason or Freddy. He's not even Hannibal Lecter. He's a person with extreme beliefs and he really thinks he's making a difference. He's a vigilante if anything. He thinks he's making a difference," (IGN)

Freddy Kreuger - Kreguer is the main fictional character in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. He was created by Wes Craven and portrayed by Robert Englund. Kreuger is an undead serial killer who attacks victims in their dreams, thus killing them in their sleep. He's is characterized by his face scarred by burns, his striped shirts, fedora hat and metal glove featuring knives extending from the fingers. Perhaps the worst part about Freddy was that he killed children, though in a surprising turn of events he was eventually killed by his own daughter when she lured him into reality and killed him with his own glove.

Jason Voorhees - Voorhees is the fictional character (they're all fictional so I could stop writing that I guess) in the Friday the 13^th series. Jason has been portrayed by many different actors and stunt man and was not even intended to be the series main villain. The trademark mask did not become a part of the character until Part III. Though Jason started out as a mentally disabled young boy, he quickly became a non-verbal, indestructible, machete holding maniac. He's been described as a man with no personality that you cannot defeat, you can just hope to survive. Eventually Jason is supposedly depicted as a man who murders those who do wrong in acts of vengeance and thus is slightly more human than Myers and Kreuger - though in many polls Jason has been deemed the scariest because it seems he "enjoys his killing so much."

Chucky - Is the primary antagonist in the Child's Play films. Charles Lee Ray was a notorious strangler who was gunned down, but before he died managed to get into a toy store and fall on a pile of dolls. He then used voodoo to transfer his soul into one of the "Good Guy" dolls. He spends a lot of time trying to transfer back into a human and killing a lot of people with anything weapon he can get his hands on. One interesting fact is that the longer he inhabits the doll's body the more 'human' he becomes in that he bleeds like a human and has the ability to procreate, evidenced by the fifth installment, 'Seed of Chucky.'

Hannibal Lector - Probably the most fascinating of all of these characters to me, maybe because he's a genius or maybe because Anthony Hopkins depicts him so well in The Silence of the Lambs, among others. In 2001 the American Film Institute voted him the most memorable villain in film history, (AFI). His M.O. is cannibalism and torture. He is known to be a brilliant psychiatrist who spends his time writing for medical journals whilst in prison.

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Pinhead - Pinhead is the primary antagonist from the Hellraiser movies. Pinhead is a cenobite, which are technically members of a communal religious order that reach reality through a rupture in time and space. Pinhead was originally a Captain during World War I, but believed he didn't deserve to live after watching so many men die he turned to Black Magic and Satanism. Unlike many of these notable horror icons Pinhead does speak, and kills only because he feels summoned to do so. He believes in torture and his weapon of choice is usually some type of hooks and chains. He also has considerable magic skills.

Leatherface - The final villain on this list, and antagonist from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre's, he wears masks made from his victims skin and is a notable cannibal. The character is partially inspired by serial killer Ed Gein, and he is portrayed as mentally retarded, and under the care of his family, also cannibals that were particularly abusive to him. His weapon of choice is obviously, a chain saw, and sometimes a sledgehammer. He's not consider to be as sadistic as many on the list, as he is merely doing what his family tells him to do.

Remember to leave a comment and let me know who you think is the most horrific of all these horror film icons.http://movies.ign.com/articles/741/741449p2.html