15 Best Original Movie Characters Of 2016

15. Norman Nordstrom - Don't Breathe

Don't Breathe is one of those horror movie premises that could either be brilliant, or laughably bad. Making a blind man your antagonist in a claustrophobic horror film needs to be handled very carefully in order to not fall into parody. And amazingly enough, Don't Breathe achieved that by casting the great Stephen Lang as Norman Nordstrom, the terrifyingly violent blind man.

Right out of the gate, Nordstrom has incredible physical presence. Even if he's blind and old, he carries himself in a way that's both intimidating and chilling, because we have to imagine what's going on behind those unseeing eyes of his. He's wound like a coiled spring the entire film, and remains enigmatic until absolutely necessary. Once the would be burglars break into his house, we find ourselves thinking of that quote from Watchmen's Rorschach: "I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me."

This film completely subverts the well worn rule about horror movie antagonists - "the less you see of them, the scarier they are." In this film, the less he sees of you, the scarier he is. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense on paper, but in practice, it works like gangbusters.