10 Best Scary Movie Characters

Any list of the 10 best scary movie characters depends to a large degree on taste. But most won’t disagree with the following characters from scary movies of the past at least being considered. It would be best to assess your own personal nightmare before compiling your own list of scary movie characters.

1. Frankenstein. Played by Boris Karloff in 1931, this classic character has since become the template for scary movie characters, and rightfully so.
2. Dracula. Also released in 1931, “Dracula” left all viewers not only frightened but also un-admittedly aroused. And since then, Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Bram Stoker’s vampire has proved to be the basis for all such dramatic performances.
3. The Mummy. Appearing a mere year after the release of “Frankenstein,” Boris Karloff played the title role in a film that featured one of the scariest movie characters of all time. And even though the Mummy proved to be slow, it was somehow equally frightening on film.
4. The Wolf Man. In this role, Lon Chaney, Jr. artfully emulated his legendary father’s ability to skillfully act under literal pounds of screen make-up. Generations have lost sleep since 1941 due to nightmares inspired by this scary movie character.
5. Norman Bates. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock chose to make scary movie characters even scarier by stepping out of the supernatural and instead depicting true monsters within a more believable context. And thanks to a brilliant portrayal by Anthony Perkins, this was achieved in the film classic “Psycho.”
6. Michael Myers. After a long hiatus as far as horror films were concerned, Hollywood decided to again give horror movies a shot in 1978 by releasing John Carpenter’s “Halloween.” And even though this film never actually named its scary character, he later became known as Michael Myers.
7. Jason Voorhees. In 1980, “Friday the 13th” introduced a scary character named Jason Voorhees who had been long-since dead and only lived within his demented mother’s mind. But due to the film’s success, multiple sequels made this scary movie character real.
8. Freddie Krueger. In 1984, writer/director Wes Craven set loose on the world a horror film called “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” From there sprung a character called Freddie Krueger who is considered by many to be one of the scariest movie characters ever.
9. The Terminator. This unnamed villain, introduced in a film of the same name in 1984, tends to haunt viewers’ dreams since he represents an entity that is basically unstoppable, and therefore, inescapable, since no matter what you do, he'll be back!
10. Predator. Not unlike the Terminator, this entity is next to impossible to kill. And in addition, the Predator often exists in an invisible form. The helpless feeling its existence entails makes it easily qualify as one of the 10 best scary movie characters.