10 Best Horror Movie Villains Who Only Appeared Once
No conscience. No mercy. No sequel.
When you think of any great horror icon – Freddy, Leatherface, Michael Myers etc –you also think of the amount of shoddy sequels they appeared in. It’s become part of their legacy, and while a couple of these sequels might be half decent, most of them are rubbish and with each passing entry, they became less and less frightening.
This is unavoidable in a way, because if a character strikes a chord a follow-up is all but guaranteed, and they’ll get milked until there’s nothing left but dust. A few villains were lucky enough to avoid this grim fate, either because the film wasn’t a hit at the time or the actor in question refused to come back for more.
This makes them somewhat pure since they didn’t have their power diluted with shameless cash grab sequels. They came to haunt our nightmares one time only, and they still have the power to creep people out, since they didn’t get sent to space or feature in a rap video.
Here are ten of the best one and done villains in the genre.
10. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man - Ghostbusters
If someone tasked you with choosing the form of a monster that will destroy the world, Mr Stay Puft probably isn’t the first image that would spring to mind. Sure, it’s a funny visual when he emerges through the buildings, but that’s part of what makes him so sinister.
He wears a sweet smile the whole time he's stomping buildings and watching people flee in terror, and while he’s trying to murder our heroes. While Ghostbusters is best remembered for the comedy elements, it was quite good at milking scares too - think of the opening library scene - and it combined horror and comedy perfectly with this final showdown.
Mr Stay Puft wasn’t invited back for the sequel, and become the butt of a silly sight gag in the reboot. The fact he wasn't overexposed allowed him his perfect moment in the original, which is why he's become so iconic.