15 Most Unlikely Horror Movie Villains

Over the years the horror genre has given us some truly formidable and frightening villains. From murderous mama’s boy Norman Bates and chainsaw-wielding psycho Leatherface to butcherer of teen babysitters Michael Myers, we’ve seen some bad guys scary enough to haunt our dreams for life. Hell, even Freddy Krueger and Chucky were scary in a few of their films.

Some horror villains fall way short of the mark, however, which is quite a quandary considering a convincingly creepy villain is a vital ingredient in crafting a halfway decent horror movie. Give your audience a great villain and you’ll scare their collective pants off but feature a foe more funny than frightening and they’re more likely to be laughing than recoiling in fear.

Case in point? The rather ridiculous horror movie villains coming up who would be hard-pressed to inspire fear even if they were wearing a Michael Myers mask.

So, from homicidal household items to bloodthirsty baked goods we bring to you the most unlikely (and unintentionally funny) villains the horror genre has ever spat forth.

The killer lift in Dutch director Dick Maas’ 1983 sci-fi horror is no ordinary lift. Super high tech and equipped with a microprocessor constructed from mysterious organic matter, it’s a sentient lift with a lust for blood gone rogue. It’s basically the HAL 9000 of elevators.

Trouble is, there’s not much a lift – sentient or not – can really do apart from move up and down which thoroughly limits its murderous modus operandi. And like the movie’s tagline (‘Take the stairs, take the stairs, for god’s sake, take the stairs!!’) suggests, a killer lift is a situation that can be easily avoided.

Despite his motion-challenged villain not proving too threatening on his first attempt, Dick Maas once again tried to win over moviegoers with killer lifts in 2001 with his American remake Down, alternatively known as The Shaft (lol) but they weren’t convinced the second time around either.