We kick off our Halloween themed posts today with a look at some great horror villains. Now I’m not going to count all the classic Hammer Horror monsters such as Dracula or The Wolfman, just because I see these more as pop culture icons now than horror ones (although we may see some of them pop up a bit later on). We’ve moved away from monster flicks as horror to something more real.

Ghostface – Scream is far and way my favourite film to give a character to this list, but Ghostface just doesn’t reach the heights of the rest because it’s not one person or character. Instead it’s a series of people who adopt the costume and commit murders, and this means he’s just not as iconic. It’s still a very cool costume, the mask and black robes is simple but effective and an easy one to cosplay.

Leatherface – A cannibalistic chainsaw-wielding murderer who wears a mask made of human skin and kills along with his family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. He made such an impact in his appearance that he stands out over any of his family and became the figurehead for the franchise, to the point that he is the character that has appeared in every instalment of the franchise.

Pinhead – Pinhead is probably the least known of the villains here, and Hellraiser one of the least known films, but he might just be the coolest looking. The design of the pins coming out of his head is brilliant, and incredibly striking. When you look at the list, he’s such a unique presence, as he doesn’t fit the typical slasher killer mold of the rest of these iconic villains, instead being a more talkative, and witty at times villain.

Michael Myers – John Carpenter made his name on low budget Halloween films, and in the Halloween franchise he struck figurative gold with this force of absolute evil. Michael Meyers is right up there with the most iconic. With a mask based on William Shatner’s face (well a Captain Kirk mask) and armed with his trusty kitchen knife he was the first iconic villain.

Jason Voorhees – It was always going to be a Freddy v Jason toss up for me, and the big reason I have to give the edge to Freddy is the fact that Jason didn’t appear as a villain until the second film in his franchise, with his mother being the antagonist in the original Friday the 13th. His now trademark hockey mask didn’t appear until the third installment. But he quickly made up for lost time as Jason has racked up an enormous kill count, how many tends to vary but every source I’ve found estimate well over 100.

Freddy Krueger – Wes Craven deserves huge respect for creating such an incredible horror villain, because of the brilliant concept behind Freddy. The ability to hunt and attack people with their dream is such genius, because the one thing you cannot fight is sleep. His disfigured face, sweater, fedora, and bladed glove give him an extremely distinctive look against the many masked slasher villains, presumably helped by the steady presence of actor Robert Englund. He is also the only villain to have killed his own creators in the brilliantly original Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.