Horror has no shortage of icons. Jason’s mask, Freddy’s glove, Leatherface’s chainsaw—these are stitched into the genre’s DNA, instantly recognizable even to people who’ve never watched a single scary movie. But for every marquee monster, there’s a legion of unsung killers, creeps, and creatures lurking in the shadows of cinematic history. They’re the ones who never got the action figure, the Funko Pop, or the endless sequels, but left just as deep a scar on the genre. Some are too strange, too subtle, or too niche to ever break through the mainstream; others were swallowed whole by bigger names or buried in films that never got their due. This list is for them—the freaks, the phantoms, the forgotten gems that deserve a spot at horror’s blood-soaked table. This list is a love letter to the overlooked villains, victims, and visionaries who prove that horror’s most enduring power isn’t always found in the spotlight, but in the shadows.
These are the 100 Most Underrated Characters of Horror Cinema.
100. The Redeemer (T.G. Finkbinder) | Redeemer: Son of Satan (1978)
Like a lot of cult classics, The Redeemer: Son of Satan! occupies a weird middle ground where the bonkers narrative decisions are what make it memorable but if they were removed, it would probably be a stronger film overall. The inciting incident is so fucking strange, that if this was a book, your teacher would immediately know you’d only read the back of the cover if you didn’t spend at least five pages crashing out trying to explain it in your book report. 90% of this movie is a proto Slaughter High, where a group of people stuck inside a high school, are picked off one by one. And that part is all great, it’s that other 10% that’s bananas.
I’m assuming this was chasing the wave of both The Exorcist and Halloween because it’s a slasher film with a child Satan wedged in there for no discernible reason. It’s too much to get into but suffice it to say, there’s a reason this film has a subtle. Everything relating to the second part of the film’s title doesn’t work at all but everything involving The Redeemer is fantastic. He’s an evil priest that works for a baby devil who feels like a cross between Vincent Price from Theater of Blood and Nathan Baesel from Behind the Mask. Which is to say, over the top in the most glorious way possible.
He infiltrates a high school reunion and methodically picks off his victims, each of whom he deems morally corrupt. His murders are theatrical and symbolic, tailored to fit his perception of each person’s sins and are delivered with real gusto. T.G. Finkbinder showed up and gave this film a far better performance than it deserved. He’s the first thing I think about when I think about this movie and that’s saying something considering just how baffling the Son of Satan! element is. He’s as great as that part is weird.
99. Wilfred James (Thomas Jane) | 1922 (2017)
Unceremoniously dumped onto Netflix with little to no fanfare, 1922 is easily as good as the streaming service’s other King adaptation Gerard’s Game but somehow it got lost in the shuffle while the former was a big success. A ghastly slow burner that stacks minor incident upon minor incident until they tally up to something major. Like the best of King’s adaptations, the film is a reminder that the author’s biggest strengths lie in his ability to build tension, create atmosphere, and tell a direct and brutal story, which 1922 is and then some. It’s a mean slice of Americana that’s rotten to its core and I mean that as a compliment.
In addition to its tone, the main reason it works as well as it does, is the central performance by Thomas Jane. Criminally underrated and underutilized, Jane is one of those actors that should have a much bigger career but for some reason, is relegated to Redbox trash. He has old-school Hollywood looks and charisma, which is why it’s shocking this performance has been overlooked in the pantheon of great King characters. It’s as transformative as Bates in Misery and as rotten as Strathairn in Dolores Claiborne. In the pantheon of great King baddies, Jane is definitely one of the most underrated.
98. Bee (Samara Weaving) | The Babysitter (2017)
Bee is the babysitter every kid dreams of and every parent fears. She’s hot, funny, cool enough to quote horror movies at you, and just dangerous enough to make you feel like James Bond for staying up past your bedtime. But under the perfect hair and perfect smile is the kind of monster you only find in movies where blood is treated like confetti. Bee isn’t just a babysitter, she’s the ringleader of a satanic clique that looks like they stepped out of a Hot Topic catalog and into a John Hughes movie. Samara Weaving plays her like she’s auditioning to be both your crush and your executioner, and she nails it. One second, she’s your dream girl, the next, she’s stabbing nerds with ritual daggers and sipping blood like a fine wine.
What makes her great isn’t the kills (though she racks them up like a pro) but the way she genuinely seems to care for Cole, the kid she’s supposed to be protecting, while also trying to sacrifice. That mix of affection and psychopathy makes her one of the most memorable horror villains of the last decade. She makes a brief appearance in the utterly pointless sequel, but it’s best to remember her in the movie that actually knew how to utilize her. Weaving is on track to be the best scream queen of her generation because she’s one of the only ones who is doing so out of fear for her life and because she’s making others scream for theirs. Weaving is on track to become the defining scream queen of her generation — not just because she screams for her life, but because she makes others scream for theirs.
97. The Father (Mehmet Cerrahoglu) | Baskin (2015)
The Father in Baskin isn’t a man so much as a nightmare given flesh. Played by Mehmet Cerrahoglu, he’s less a character and more a manifestation of evil. He doesn’t need jump scares, booming music, or flashy theatrics; just walking into the room is enough to curdle your blood. Born with an ultra-rare skin condition called GAPO syndrome, Cerrahoglu has a unique physical appearance that is used to great effect. His haunting, otherworldly features turn what could’ve been just another cult leader into an icon of dread. But his casting is more than a creepy gimmick, Cerrahoglu can actually act and that adds to his mythical status.
The Father doesn’t rant or rave like your average horror villain. He whispers, he caresses, he commands. His calm is the most terrifying thing about him. Surrounded by grotesque violence, he never loses composure, because why would he? He’s home in hell. And whether he’s orchestrating rituals, plunging knives, or breaking minds, he radiates total control, like a spider sitting in the middle of its web. Cerrahoglu’s presence elevates the film from chaotic gorefest to something closer to a living nightmare. The Father feels eternal, like he was here long before the unlucky cops stumbled into his domain and will still be here long after. Hell has rarely had a demon as terrifying.
96. The Vourdalak | The Vourdalak (2024)
The Vourdalak isn’t your sparkly, romanticized vampire. He’s not here to sweep anyone off their feet or teach you about eternal love, he’s here to drain you dry and make you question why you ever thought immortality sounded fun in the first place. Adapted from Aleksey Tolstoy’s proto-vampire novella, The Vourdalak drags the bloodsucker back to its folkloric roots: a grotesque, pitiful creature that blurs the line between family and predator. The first time most have ever heard of this creature is in the Mario Bava film Black Sabbath. It’s a vampire with a unique twist—the more emotionally tied they were to you when they were living, the more relentless in their pursuit of you they’ve become now that they’re dead. It’s one of the strongest segments in that movie and outside of the 1972 film The Night of the Devils, the creature has largely gone unused.
The Vourdalak not only brings it back but does so in a very unique way. The creature is brought to life using puppetry. Every other character is portrayed by a living human actor but the vourdalak is a creepy ass puppet. It’s a bold swing that could bring the entire film crashing down if done wrong but it’s actually the one element most will likely remember about the movie. It gives the creature an unnerving, uncanny valley effect that I wish more movies would tap into.
In addition to how it’s depicted, what makes it so unnerving isn’t just the fangs or the pale, wasted frame, it’s the sense that he’s familiar. This is no exotic count from faraway castles; this is Grandpa back from a hunting trip, thinner, slower, but with a new hunger you can’t quite name. He’s not charming like Dracula, not feral like Nosferatu—he’s worse. He’s intimate. He knows your name, your secrets, your place at the dinner table, and when the hunger takes hold, he’ll use all of that against you. The monster isn’t just outside the door, it’s sitting at the head of the family.
95. Tony (Bobby Rhodes) | Demons (1985)
Tony the Pimp. That’s the name. That’s the legend. You could forget every other character in Demons (the coke-snorting punks, the metalhead fodder, the wide-eyed leads) but Tony sticks. Why? Because Bobby Rhodes doesn’t play him like background noise. He plays him like the main event. Rhodes rolls into the cursed movie theater dripping charisma, gold chains, and unshakable confidence. He doesn’t just command the screen; he hijacks it. When the shit hits the fan (demons sprouting claws, people getting possessed, chaos everywhere) Tony doesn’t whimper or panic. He organizes. He leads. He damn near becomes the film’s actual protagonist through sheer force of personality.
And the beauty of it? He’s a pimp. A sleazy side character that in any other movie would be dead before the halfway point. But in Lamberto Bava’s gonzo gore-fest, he’s the one barking orders, punching monsters in the face, and convincing you that maybe, just maybe, he’s going to make it out alive. He doesn’t, of course, but he goes down swinging harder than anyone else. Bobby Rhodes turned what should’ve been exploitation cannon fodder into cult royalty. Tony’s not just a character, he’s a vibe. A reminder that in a film where demons are everywhere, sometimes the scariest, toughest, and most magnetic presence is just a man in a leather vest who refuses to take shit from anyone, living or undead.
94. The Crimson Executioner (Mickey Hargitay) | Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)
The Crimson Executioner is what happens when a bodybuilder with too much baby oil and not enough shame decides to cosplay as the most flamboyant Batman villain imaginable. Mickey Hargitay (yes, Mr. Jayne Mansfield himself) struts through Bloody Pit of Horror like a man who knows exactly how ridiculous he looks in that red hood and tights, and leans into it so hard he circles back around to terrifying. By day, he’s a reclusive ex–muscleman who just wants to be left alone in his castle. By night, he transforms into the Crimson Executioner, a self-appointed sadist devoted to “purifying” the world through medieval bondage contraptions that look like they were rented from the world’s sketchiest Renaissance fair. The film is campy, it’s absurd, it’s pure Italian gothic cheese and yet, Hargitay sells it with the kind of sweaty conviction that demands at least one sequel to fully test whether he’s truly insane or if he’s that good at acting crazy.
The Executioner doesn’t kill because he needs to, or even because the plot really calls for it. He kills because he loves it. The man treats murder like performance art, his castle like a stage, and his victims like unlucky extras in his one-man show. And while the movie surrounding him wobbles between soap opera theatrics and dime-store horror, Hargitay’s deranged commitment elevates it into cult immortality. The Crimson Executioner is the musclebound bridge between gothic horror and exploitation sleaze. Silly? Absolutely. Memorable? Unquestionably. You’ll forget the victims, you’ll forget the story, but you’ll never forget the sight of Mickey Hargitay oiled up, flexing, and declaring himself the goddamn Executioner.
93. Mum (Elizabeth Moody) | Dead Alive (1992)
Before Peter Jackson became Hollywood’s go-to hobbit wrangler, he was elbow deep in pus, guts, and every bodily fluid known to man. And at the center of his most infamous splatter fest sits Mum (Elizabeth Moody), a mother so vile, so mean spirited, so repugnant, she’s a strong contender for the worst mother in cinema history. And that’s before she becomes a literal monster. From the jump, she’s a nightmare. Smothering her son Lionel with guilt, obligation, and the kind of passive-aggressive manipulation only a mother can wield, she’s the true villain of Dead Alive. Sure, the Sumatran Rat-Monkey gets the blame, but let’s be honest: that disease didn’t turn anyone else into a screaming, gaping womb-beast the size of a house. Mum didn’t just mutate—she evolved.
She went from controlling Lionel emotionally to literally swallowing him whole, birthing the film’s most grotesque Oedipal showdown in cinematic history. Moody plays her with relish, never winking, never softening. Even before the pus-dripping bite, she’s grotesque. Shrieking at neighbors, destroying Lionel’s sense of independence with every glance. After the infection? She’s a rotting carnival of body horror, a decomposing titan who makes dinner parties unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Mum isn’t just one of Jackson’s most disgusting creations—she’s one of horror’s great monsters. Because under all the latex, gore, and geysers of blood, she represents something scarier than zombies: the parent who never lets go.
92. Steve (Sebastian Stan) | Fresh (2022)
With every role outside of the MCU, it is clear that Sebastian Stan is far better than comic book fare he seems to be stuck doing. He received an Oscar nom for his portrayal of Trump, could’ve easily received one for his work in A Different Man, and before both of those, showed he could be the most charming psychopath alive in Fresh. In the film, he plays Steve, a charming cannibal who not only eats the women he kidnaps but harvests their meat to sell to other wealthy gastronomic cannibals. Stan plays him with a devilish grin and the kind of boy-next-door charm that makes the horror worse.
He’s not some greasy creeper lurking in alleys—he’s handsome, successful, funny, and way too good at dancing to ’80s pop songs while vacuum sealing body parts. That duality is the hook: he’s the embodiment of every modern dating nightmare, where the person who seemed perfect turns out to be not just toxic, but predatory in the most literal sense. What makes Steve terrifying isn’t just his appetite—it’s his patience. He doesn’t kill in a frenzy. He preserves. He slices off bits and parcels them out like Wagyu, all while keeping his victims alive to extend the product line. He’s capitalism and cannibalism wrapped in a preppy sweater, whistling while he works.
It’s a unique character used as a commentary on every woman’s nightmare when deciding to trust the other person on the other side of their dating profile. By the end, Steve cements himself as one of the great “nice guy” horror villains because he shows us that underneath every charming smile on a dating app, there might be someone who doesn’t just want your heart… they want your ribs, your thighs, and your ass. Just not in the way you want them to.
91. Alpha (Choi Gwi-hwa) | Project Wolf Hunting (2022)
It feels as if there’s a trend amongst some directors within the horror community as of late to make the ultimate splatter epic. While films like Terrifier 2 and The Sadness are desperately trying to one-up the video nasties they’re clearly inspired by, Project Wolf Hunting has its sights set on Riki-Oh. A mash-up of Con Air and Predator, the film is about a cargo ship filled with the worst, most violent South Korean criminals who are forced to team up with the cops tasked with transferring them against a much more dangerous threat. That threat is Alpha (Choi Gwi-hwa), a blind, hulking, seemingly unkillable super weapon that is designed to murder everything around it and it’s very good at what it’s designed to do. The movie feels like a video game, with Alpha being one of those stalker enemies like Nemesis or Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil or the Xenomorph from Alien Isolation. The only thing you can do is hide and pray he’s too busy killing others to find you. While it’s not the perfect action movie (the plot does start to get unnecessarily convoluted due to its franchise baiting and the runtime is a bit too long) nor is it really a horror film, it does excel at satiating the bloodlust of gore hounds looking for their next fix.
90. Jenny (Kelly Reilly) | Eden Lake (2008)
Jenny is the kind of horror protagonist that feels ripped out of a true-crime story rather than a slasher flick. She’s not final girl material in the traditional sense—no quippy one-liners, no sudden burst of superhero stamina, no miraculous luck. She’s just a normal woman who wanted a romantic weekend getaway with her boyfriend and instead finds herself hunted like an animal by a pack of feral teens. And that’s what makes her so brutal to watch. Eden Lake is a hard movie to watch. It’s cruel, mean spirited and nihilistic. It delights in punishing Jenny. At times, the film feels like it’s ripping all but one of the wings off of a butterfly and tossing into a pile of ants to devour. It kept one wing to give the butterfly a semblance of hope, which is the cruelest thing you can do. Jenny is that butterfly. Every time she thinks she’s safe, the film rips it away. Every time she gets a chance at escape, the trap tightens. By the end, Jenny isn’t just running from sadistic kids, she’s running from the realization that the world doesn’t care if she survives. Reilly sells that arc with devastating conviction, and it cements Jenny as one of the most harrowing horror heroines of the 2000s.
89. Pulgasari | Pulgasari (1985)
Shin Sang-ok and his wife, Choi Eun-hee, were kidnapped in 1978 by agents of Kim Jong Il and held captive in North Korea. The reason?To make movies. One of the movies Kim Jong Il wanted, was a monster movie to capitalize off of the success of The Return of Godzilla, thus Pulgasari was born. No movie in history has a crazier origin than this and while the movie itself doesn’t live up to it (nothing on Earth could), it’s still pretty damn crazy. Pulgasari isn’t your average kaiju. He’s not a radioactive dinosaur, a giant moth goddess, or even a three-headed space dragon. He’s a metaphor wrapped in rubber, stitched together under duress, and unleashed by one of the strangest film productions in history. Pulgasari is a creature of legend brought to life when a dying blacksmith bleeds onto a clay figurine. From there, the beast grows (literally eating iron to bulk up) until it’s towering over castles and armies.
Unlike most kaiju, Pulgasari isn’t here to destroy Tokyo or fight aliens; he’s basically a revolutionary mascot. At first, he’s a champion of the people, crushing corrupt rulers and liberating peasants. But the joke’s on everyone, because once the monster wins the war, he doesn’t stop consuming. He eats weapons, then tools, then anything made of iron, leaving the same people he saved to starve. Pulgasari is the revolution devouring itself. He’s less a character and more a blunt-force metaphor, but one so steeped in bizarre political history that he transcends the foam and latex. Pulgasari isn’t just a monster, he’s propaganda that grew a soul. A kaiju born of captivity that now lives as a cinematic oddity too weird to be forgotten.
88. Van Meer (Samuel Fuller) | A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)
Salem’s Lot is not as good as you remember it. It has one great scene (the floating boy tapping on his friend’s window, trying to get in) and has one great vampire design. That would be enough for a cheap-o slasher movie but this is a three-hour mini-series. There’s more time dedicated to Fred Willard trying to get his dick wet than there are scenes meant to scare you. That’s why I’ve always preferred the sequel. While it isn’t good, it’s at least shorter and has more than one character I remember. Besides the always entertaining Michael Moriarty, the best character by far is Van Meer played by Samuel Fuller. Fuller was never supposed to act. He was a director, a cigar-chomping bulldozer of a filmmaker whose movies bled grit and sweat.
But in A Return to Salem’s Lot, Larry Cohen inexplicably throws him in front of the camera as Van Meer, an old, crusty Nazi hunter who suddenly finds himself tangling with a colony of vampires. And somehow—against all odds—he steals the damn movie. Van Meer isn’t polished, he isn’t smooth, and he sure as hell isn’t subtle. Fuller plays him like he’s barking orders from behind the camera. When the vampires start explaining their weird little society, Van Meer doesn’t cower or quake, he lights up a cigar. He treats them less like supernatural monsters and more like bureaucrats he’s already sick of dealing with. The film itself is a mess (half satire, half bargain-bin sequel nobody asked for) but Van Meer is the kind of performance that makes you wish the whole thing was built around him. He’s the rare vampire hunter who doesn’t mythologize his enemies, doesn’t romanticize the hunt—he just hates fascists, whether they’re in jackboots or with fangs. And coming from Fuller, that hatred feels real.
87. Sammi Curr (Tony Fields) | Trick or Treat (1986)
Sammi Curr isn’t just a rock star—he’s the rock star. The kind of leather-clad, pyro-loving, stage-humping deity who’d make Tipper Gore faint just by flicking his tongue. Before the movie even starts, he’s already dead, fried in a hotel fire, but death can’t keep a proper metalhead down. Through the power of backmasking (a recording technique in which an audio message or sound is deliberately recorded in reverse on a musical track), he returns as a snarling, electric revenant, turning amps into weapons and guitars into lightning rods. Sammi is the living embodiment of the Satanic Panic. Every conservative that decade was fully convinced that Satan was hiding everywhere, ready to get your children. They used to think he was in their comics and after this, he found a way into their video games but in the ’80s, heavy metal was his tool of corruption and this movie plays into that.
It is almost a satire of the hysteria of the time and works much better if you understand the target they’re aiming at. But the joke only extends to the plot and references, Sammi himself is always taken seriously. Fields never winks at the camera, he doesn’t parody the persona—he is the nightmare parents thought was hiding in their kids’ cassette tapes. Curr is pure charisma weaponized into menace, a glam-ghoul who struts across the screen like every concert is an exorcism. He’s Freddy Krueger by way of Mötley Crüe—more eyeliner, same body count. And while Trick or Treat never quite nails the balance between comedy, satire and horror, Sammi himself transcends it. He’s a villain who feels like a music video you weren’t supposed to watch, a walking middle finger to the PMRC, and the best reason to revisit this slab of hair-metal horror.
86. Don Burnside (Dylan McDermott) | Clovehitch Killer (2018)
What would you do if you suspected your father of being a serial killer? It’s such a provocative question that opens up a myriad of moral dilemmas. Could you tear your family apart to bring a monster to justice? Could you handle the infamy that comes with being the son of a psychopath? And what if you were wrong. Is potentially destroying your family a chance worth taking? And let’s say you do turn him in and then he’s found innocent, what then? Then you’re a target in your own home and there’s no one in the world to help you. You’ve poisoned the well and the authorities think you’re a liar. There’s so much rich drama to be mined from that premise but other than a handful of films like Shadow of a Doubt and Serial Mom, there aren’t any.
Which makes The Clovehitch Killer all the more special. It takes the same structure of those films and like Frailty before it, adds a narrative twist that sets it apart. It’s an engaging understated thriller with great performances that has an incredible hook that’ll keep you riveted to your chair until it knocks you on your ass. But as compelling as the premise is, it wouldn’t work if the murderous father at the center of things was uninteresting. That isn’t a problem when you cast the always reliable Dylan McDermott. Primarily known for his work on television, where he usually plays lawyers or detectives, the actor doesn’t normally tap into his dark side but after his work here, I really hope for a career change in the future.
85. Jacob Goodnight | See No Evil 2 (2014)
The first See No Evil is a god awful slasher with almost no redeeming qualities. It’s ugly to look at, has annoying characters and even the kills are uninspired. It’s a movie no one wanted a sequel to, so color me surprised that The Soska Sisters somehow pulled off a mini miracle with the follow up. They don’t reinvent the wheel here, they just properly utilized the terrifying giant known as Glenn Jacobs (better known to wrestling fans as Kane) and honestly, that’s enough. He returns to the role like he never left: mute, massive, and fueled by mommy issues so severe they make Norman Bates look well-adjusted. Since it immediately follows the events of the last one, it’s set at a half-abandoned morgue, which is just about the best playground you could hand a 7-foot-tall murder machine.
Jacob may technically be a zombie now (for unclear plot reasons, he’s back despite dying in the last one) but he’s still the unstoppable, lumbering killer who prefers bludgeoning to subtlety—but this time around, he is far more refined. The kills are more elaborate, the camera loves him more, and Jacobs leans harder into that tragic monster energy. You’re not supposed to like him, but he’s so gleefully destructive it’s hard not to cheer when he turns a birthday party into a body count. He’s not Freddy with the quips, he’s not Jason with the hockey mask—he’s Jacob Goodnight, a hook-wielding, repressed giant who strangles, smashes, and skewers his way into slasher infamy. Kane may have traded the squared circle for the scalpel room (that’s a thing, right?), but in See No Evil 2, he proves that sometimes you don’t need personality when you’ve got presence. It’s too bad he never got another sequel, this one proved he could carry a franchise.
84. Alley Oates (Deborah Rose) | The Boneyard (1991)
When I watch a movie, I want the same thrill a sports fan gets when he sees a home run or a touchdown, which doesn’t necessarily mean I’m looking for a great movie every time, it just means I’m not interested in bunts or field goals. There’s nothing more uninteresting than the safe play. Babe Ruth is statistically going to strike out more than he’s going to knock it out of the park but he’s also going to swing the bat as hard as he can every time. I can overlook a lot of a film’s flaws as long as I see the director at least attempting to swing the bat. The Boneyard is not a good movie. It’s slow. It’s plodding. A lot of it doesn’t make any sense but the highs are really, really high. It is most definitely the director aiming for the bleachers and swinging as hard as he possibly can. The effects are legitimately great, there’s some genuine creepiness, it has Phyllis Diller giving a fun performance (she even turns into a giant monster!) there’s an evil mutated poodle and the premise isn’t bad.
But my favorite element is probably one no one even thinks about when they think about this movie. Buried under all the weird, is an authentically real performance by Deborah Rose. In the film, she plays a depressed psychic that gets pulled into a world of horrors against her will and does her best to survive the onslaught of terrors that are hell-bent on killing her. In any other movie, they would’ve cast someone hotter or made the character cooler and I respect the fact that they decided to ground Alley Oates in modicum of realism. It’s rare to see a real person thrown into an impossible scenario in movies and even rarer when it’s a horror movie. Diller plays the character everyone remembers but Rose should get more credit for adding way more believability than a more of this caliber deserves.
83. AJ (Justin Long) | Barbarian (2022)
Justin Long is such a good actor, he can convince you he’s anything from a nerd, to a charming gay porn star, to even the biggest douche bag on the planet. In Barbarian he plays AJ, a walking red flag factory. A guy who makes you want to roll your eyes so hard you risk a concussion every time he opens his dumb mouth. When we meet him, he’s basking in the fallout of being accused of sexual assault, whining about how unfair life is while simultaneously proving why no one should feel bad for him. Where Tess is cautious and Keith is considerate, AJ is the human embodiment of entitlement. He doesn’t see danger when he steps into the nightmare house—he sees dollar signs.
He doesn’t question the hidden basement with cages—he measures it out with a tape measure, calculating how much square footage he can squeeze onto Zillow. He’s so blinded by greed and ego that the horror around him doesn’t register until it’s chewing on his face. And that’s what makes AJ perfect for Barbarian’s cruel joke. He’s the kind of horror movie character you don’t root for, you root against. He’s comic relief without realizing it, a coward who thinks he’s the hero, a predator who becomes prey. When the hammer drops, it’s not just catharsis—it’s karmic balance. In a movie with a 12 foot mommy monster, he’s somehow the most disgusting thing in it and that’s a real accomplishment.
82. Camiel Borgman (Jan Bijvoet) | Borgman (2013)
If the titular character of Boudu Saved from Drowning was less of a drunken, mischievous lech and more an insidious bugbear that delights in tormenting everyone around him, that film would be a hell of a lot like Borgman. The film is about a vagrant (Jan Bijvoet) who enters the lives of an arrogant upper-class family, turning their lives into a psychological nightmare in the process. Since the film is ambiguous, it’s never made clear whether the vagrant is a flesh and blood human, a demon, a twisted allegory or if he’s actually real at all. He might just be the manifestation of their deteriorating marriage.
The film offers many options and no answers, but odds are you’ll be too invested in his fiendish plans to care. Camiel Borgman isn’t just a villain—he’s a walking curse dressed in a bathrobe. He slithers out of the dirt, literally, like a worm in human form, and proceeds to dismantle an upper-class family with the patience of a snake digesting its prey. Borgman isn’t loud, he isn’t violent in the way horror fans are trained to expect; he’s soft-spoken, polite, and weirdly magnetic, which makes him ten times more dangerous. By the time you figure him out, it’s too late. Borgman is the devil if the devil outsourced his job to an artsy Dutch landscaper. In the pantheon of horror villains, Borgman doesn’t shout for attention—he just pulls up a chair, pours a drink, and takes your life apart piece by piece.
81. The Humanoids | Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
The Humanoids aren’t iconic like Gill-man or scary like xenomorphs. They’re trash cinema’s middle finger to good taste. And honestly? That’s why they rule. Roger Corman never met a premise he couldn’t strip down to tits, gore, and a runtime short enough to squeeze in before the late news. Case in point: Humanoids from the Deep. He wanted a Creature of the Black Lagoon but with more fishman rape and that’s exactly what he got, much to the chagrin of the director. And that’s not an exaggeration, that’s built into their origin. Born from genetic experiments meant to boost salmon yields, they crawl out of the ocean with one instinct: kill the men, impregnate the women.
They’re slimy, rubbery, and not at all convincing, but in the B-movie ecosystem, they’re perfect predators. They exist to slash throats, pop heads, and tear bikini tops off with equal enthusiasm. What makes them memorable isn’t their design (which looks like a Halloween costume that smelled like latex before it even left the factory), but the sheer brazenness of their function. These things aren’t metaphors, they’re walking exploitation. They don’t represent corporate greed or man’s hubris—they represent Roger Corman knowing his audience wanted monsters and boobs, preferably at the same time.
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Who are some of your favorite underrated horror movie characters? Maybe they will show up later in the list!
