10 Most Vile Villains From Recent Horror Movies

4. Dale Ferdinand Kobble - Longlegs

Of course it's Satan, aka the Man Downstairs, who's the real Big Bad of the entire familicide operation in Longlegs, stretching all the way back to July 1966. We could say that about many a horror villain, but the whole 'the Devil made me do it' get-out-of-jail card isn't always going to cut it.

The ever-surprising and ever-versatile Nicolas Cage isn't onscreen all that much in Osgood Perkins' atmospheric horror from 2024. As Cage explained, this was intentional, otherwise, "It could have lapsed into something almost too ridiculous." Therefore, he balances the Goldilocks amount of overt oddball with campy creepiness as the occult-worshipping serial killer Dale Ferdinand Kobble, aka Longlegs.  

Cage exudes a grotesque gleefulness from the opening scene, where a young Lee Harker (Lauren Acala) first encounters the pasty-faced, scraggly-haired weirdo. There's a rasping breathlessness to his voice, but he doesn't half possess a pair of mighty lungs when he belts out, "Let me in now, and it can be nice!" It's emblematic of the unnerving unpredictability of this character, especially when he visits the hardware store and, at length, covers his face with his hands, exclaiming 'cuckoo' to the unimpressed teenage clerk. Slight Pale Man-vibes from Pan's Labyrinth, anyone?

There's a frightening foreshadowing of Agent William Carter's (Blair Underwood) impending doom as he sits with his back facing a TV screen that is perfectly paused on a snarling Longlegs.

Nevertheless, the decades of devotion to the Devil clearly take their toll on Longlegs. He has a mini-breakdown in the car, screeching, "Daddy! Mommy! Unmake me! And save me from the hell of living!" Then he really loses it by ferociously smashing his face to bloody smithereens on the table across from a horrified now-Agent Harker (Maika Monroe).